Lambing Season - Winning at Weaning
In this first instalment of the 'Lambing Season - Winning at Weaning' series, we look at the data illustrating how feeding cold milk replacer can be considered an option.
New feeding practices can take a while for producers to become familiar and confident with before adopting.
Trials at establishment educational locations are important in the early stages to provide backed-up data that can be relied on.
Several feeding trials with Lamlac ewe milk replacer at Harper Adams University College and Reaseheath College in 2021 have demonstrated surplus lamb growth rates of over 300g per day.
All lambs weighed at least 10kg at weaning at 35 days-of-age, highlighting the success of feeding a high-quality milk replacer, cold.
According to Dr. Jessica Cooke, these early trials show that while Lamlac has successfully been fed warm for decades, producers can confidently mix and feed Lamlac cold without any performance drop in surplus lambs.
She said: “Rearing surplus lambs with milk replacer fed cold offers producers’ additional versatility and a time-effective feeding method in their systems.
"After following recommended rearing practices during the first week of life, the ability to feed cold can also be useful in situations where rearing lambs of different ages requires milk to be fed at a constant temperature.”
Additional work at Reaseheath College in 2023 showed lambs reared on Lamlac mixed and fed cold from about a week of age to weaning drink as much and perform as well as lambs reared on warm milk.
This highlights the opportunity to rear extra lambs off ewes on ad lib cold milk where boiler heating capability may not be possible.
A further trial took place in 2025 at Harper Adams University that also revealed lambs fed milk replacer cold from eight days-of-age through to weaning at 35 days matched growth rates similar to lambs on warm milk during the same period.
The cold-milk-fed lambs returned an average body weight at weaning of 15kg and a daily live weight gain of 332g/day.
This reinforces that consistent weight gain and final growth weights can be achieved when a high-quality milk replacer, such as Lamlac, is fed cold.
“Feeding lambs cold ad lib milk offers shepherds a simple, practical, and highly cost-effective method of rearing any surplus offspring where or when warm water is not available.”
Dr. Cooke went on to say that while this can become the norm in favour of warming bottles or using a thermostatic feeder, good flock husbandry, and attention to detail in relation to environmental factors is essential.
For example, providing lambs with deep fluffy straw bedding and excluding draughts in the pens is advised.
Survey
Furthermore, the Lamlac Lamb Intentions survey, which gauges sentiment of UK and Irish lamb producers ahead of the season, shows there is growing confidence amongst farmers to employ cold milk feeding as an alternative approach.
Over 58% saying they would contemplate mixing and feeding Lamlac cold in 2024, with that figure more than 70% in the 2025 survey.
“Labour scarcity is a particular problem for producers and has been a concern for several years with fewer young people entering the profession.
"Producers want an efficient surplus lamb rearing system, so using a ewe milk replacer that is easy to mix at different temperatures, will not cause blockages in machines and promotes easy weaning, will help reduce labour input for surplus lamb rearing,” Dr. Cooke added.
To find your local Lamlac representative, visit the Ireland Team page here.