For those with early lambing flocks, ewe nutrition will play a key role in the coming weeks. With 75% of foetal growth occurring in the last 6-7 weeks of pregnancy, there is a dramatic increase in the ewe’s energy requirement. Matching this rise in nutrient demand is crucial to ensure optimum sized lambs; adequate colostrum production; and target ewe body condition is achieved. Lamb birth weight is highly correlated with weaning weight. Nutrition greatly influences birthweight. A 0.5kg increase in birth weight is said to result in a 1.7kg increase in weaning weight.
Some farmers still have good quality grass available and this may be sufficient for a single bearing ewe lambing in January. However a twin bearing ewe will suffer however. To boost the diet of ewes on winter grazing, additional energy, protein and minerals/vitamins needs to be fed in some form.
Supplementing ewes with conventional concentrates while on grass can be difficult in practice.
To reduce labour, we offer two convenient solutions:
Ewe Cobs: An 18% Protein Cube ((14mm) that can be fed directly onto grass.
Feed Lick Buckets: A High Protein, Extra High Energy Feed. Available in 18kg and 35kg buckets.
Where ewes are brought indoors introduce meal feeding. The level of supplementation is governed by four key factors:
1. Number of lambs being carried
2. Stage of Pregnancy
3. Condition Score
4. Quality of the forage being fed
A drop in silage quality from 70 DMD to 62 DMD will increase the concentrate requirement by 45%.
NB: Concentrates should be fed twice daily when exceeding 0.4kg.
PROTEIN
The composition of a pre-lambing ewe ration is hughly important. A Teagasc trial where two different 18% protein ewe rations were fed, showed two very different results. One 18% ration contained protein derived from Soyabean, the other 18% ration contained by-product based protein. Both rations had the same energy value. Feeding the Soyabean-based ration resulted in lambs weighing 0.35kg more at birth and in turn 0.9kg more at weaning. This equates to an extra 1.8kg of lamb weaned per twin rearing ewe.
Drummonds Supreme Ewe 18% and 20% coarse rations are winning performance feeds which are proven year after year to do a great job