Lambing Season - Winning at Weaning
This third instalment of the 'Lambing Season - Winning at Weaning' series looks at boosting the rate of development for a lamb’s digestive system.
Lambs are born with an immature digestive system and must undergo considerable development to cope with the move from a predominantly milk-based diet to a more complex grass-based feed.
Feeding a surplus lamb enough high-quality ewe milk replacer is the key to healthy, profitable growth.
A single lamb reared artificially to weaning (at an average of 35 days-of-age) will require a minimum of 9.5kg of Lamlac (equating to 47.5L of reconstituted ewe milk replacer).
Dr. Jessica Cooke, from Lamlac, explains that the rate of development for a lamb’s digestive system depends on the diet it is fed, and not the lamb’s age.
“A lamb’s digestive system development is not controlled by its age or weight, but rather by its diet, and the physical and chemical processes associated with its digestion.
“For artificially fed lambs, it’s therefore essential that alongside feeding a high-quality milk replacer, such as Lamlac, lambs have continual access to fresh water.
"In addition, a quality creep feed should always be available and be offered fresh at least once a day to promote consumption," she said.
This will support effective growth of the digestive system, specifically the rumen, and will ensure that when the lamb is weaned - and the milk portion of its diet is removed - it can match its energy requirement through the intake of solid feed alone.
This will prevent any setback in growth or performance.
Lambs will begin to nibble on creep feed at 7-10 days-of-age.
Consumption will be low to begin with and offering small amounts and keeping the feed refreshed at least once a day will encourage intake.
Weaning criteria
When lambs approach weaning, producers should be closely monitoring several key metrics to ensure successful weaning away from Lamlac.
Dr. Cooke says lambs should be meeting all of these for effective weaning.
She said: “Lambs should be a minimum of 2.5 times their birth weight (9-10kg), so typically around 25kg. a minimum of 35-days-old, and consuming 250g of solid feed per day for a three-day period.
"Once all these are achieved, producers can be confident in the fact that lambs are able to thrive without the need for additional milk replacer.”
Dr. Cooke went onto say that for best results, weaning of surplus lambs reared artificially is successfully achieved when Lamlac is withdrawn abruptly.
“Provided that lambs are old enough and that intake of solid feed is adequate, withdrawing Lamlac abruptly will ensure a quick and effective transition away from milk replacer and reduce the likelihood of digestive upsets," she said.
"Lambs should have been eating solid feed for at least 10 days and drinking fresh water.”
Producers can adopt some simple tips in the lead up to abruptly weaning lambs, such as reducing the temperature of the milk replacer and feeding it cold, if not already doing so.
However, it is essential producers do not dilute the milk as this will increase both intakes and urine production.
Reducing the number of teats available to the lambs will also promote them to search for other nutrition, such as creep.
To find your local Lamlac representative, visit the Ireland Team page here.