Precision feeding key to cost effective lamb growth
16 April 2015
Encouraging the rumen to develop as early as possible could be key to profitable lamb growth this spring.
Dr. Michael Marsden, Trident Feeds technical manager explains how. “It’s straight forward, the sooner the rumen develops, the quicker the lambs will grow.”
He adds that relying on the natural development of the lamb’s rumen from grass alone, is not sufficient to maximise lamb performance. “Without access to a suitable hard feed, rumen development will be much slower. There’s also a real risk of a check in lamb growth following weaning.
“To reduce the risk of this happening, producers should start feeding lambs a highly palatable creep feed, including sugar beet feed as early as possible. This will not only promote rumen development, it will also quickly make them less dependent on the ewe, encouraging efficient growth rates throughout their life” says Dr. Marsden.
“This management approach does present some cost implications. However, I believe that for the majority of producers, the financial benefits will easily outweigh any extra feed costs.
“Sugar beet feed is highly palatable and drives growth rates while the available energy, released slowly, helps buffer the rumen against digestive upsets. Overall, this leads to improved feed conversion efficiency, animal performance and profit margins.”
Beltex cross producer, Paul Slater feeds a sugar beet based feed to all of his lambs for the first three months of their life, and thereafter.
“The initial diet is made up of sugar beet feed and a coarse mix. I find that including sugar beet feed enables me to produce quality stock which is fleshed out hardy. This is really important as my stock need to be in the best condition for two production sales that take place in early September.”
Find where to buy
Click on the map to go through to find your local merchant.
