With lambing season already in underway or quickly approaching for many, having a management strategy for surplus lambs is essential.
Ensuring lambs receive colostrum within the first two hours of birth, followed by a second feeding within the next eight hours, is crucial. Rich in antibodies, colostrum strengthens the immune system, giving lambs the best possible start to a healthy life.
If the mother’s colostrum is unavailable, a high-quality artificial alternative can be used. Good quality substitute provides essential nutrients to help maintain body temperature and provides the lambs with a good start in early life.
Call your local DN Ruminant Sales Specialist or call our customer collections warehouse 01200 420234 for our range of artificial colostrum's.
If lambs cannot receive an adequate amount of milk from their mother, they should be removed and either fostered onto another ewe, or raised artificially. Lambs should be kept in a warm environment and given a high-quality milk supplement to ensure they have the best chance of development and growth.
At Dugdale Nutrition, we offer the Shepherdess lamb milk as it is specially formulated to match the nutritional profile of ewes milk and is formed from sustainably sourced ingredients for optimum digestion within the lamb. It contains 23.5% crude protein and 24% fat, again, this will help to maintain body temperature and focus on the growth and development of the lamb. It also contains NuStart® which is a natural gut conditioner, enhancing natural performance, as well as aiding rumen development to utilise solid food.
Mixing Instructions
Mix 200g of Shepherdess milk powder in 800ml of warm water to form 1 litre of milk replacement (20% solids).
Take two thirds of the required water at a temperature of 45⁰C.
Add required amount of milk powder to the water and mix thoroughly.
Add cold or warm water to make up the full quantity.
Whisk lightly and feed at 40-42⁰C.
Bucket Feeding Lambs
Lambs can be fed via three different feeding systems, either bottle feeding, adlib bucket feeding or via a machine. Bottle feeding can be very time consuming therefore it can be useful to train lambs to bucket feed (which can also be easier if there are several lambs to feed).
Bucket feeding can come with many other benefits too, such as;
Delivering faster growth rates
Ad-lib, therefore there is no limit as to how much each lamb can drink
Several lambs can be fed at once, saving time/improving efficiency
Milk can be consumed little and often which can minimise digestion problems
Relatively low set up costs
The only drawback of bucket feeding is possible contamination and spread of diseases via the shared teats therefore hygiene and sanitation are crucial. It is also important to assess the situation of each individual lamb before committing to adlib bucket feeding as they don’t want to be under achieving- stunting growth performance (in this situation, bottle feeding may be recommended).
If you would like anymore information on managing surplus lambs or would like more details on the products we sell for managing lambs, please contact your DN Sales Specialist...
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