SE Manitoba | caseihboy5288 - 3/15/2019 11:17
I am pretty new to the sheep, this is my second groups of lambs and they are weighting anywhere from 10-40 lbs right now. Last summer I fed my feeder lambs a combination of ground corn and DDG, with alfalfa and grass. Right now these lambs are on 20% lamb starter and corn, mixed to about 18%. They seemed to eat more with the corn mixed in. I was wondering what you guys feed your lambs, and what the most cost effective way is. Thank you.
Hoo boy - - - a question with a bunch of knots, at least imo.
I'm not a big fan of feedmill concoctions (imo they are mostly overly expensive) so I don't use anything like a starter - - I make my own.
Cost effective also means different things to different people too.
I find lambs will start nibbling on soymeal likely the easiest out of anything I've tried.
When they are nibbling regular at that I start adding some cracked corn (not whole corn yet) I work that until its about 50:50 cracked corn and soy meal.
Once they're eating that fairly well I will move the protein so that I'm getting 50% of the requirements from DDGS (especially if there is a big $ difference in $/# of protein).
So my protein levels are higher than 18%.
When I get closer to when I want to wean the lambs I start moving the corn from cracked to whole corn moving the mix %ages very slowly.
Me - - - after weaning I feed a very high quality alfalfa hay (min RFV 150 or better) and continue the grains mix moving them to straight whole corn very slowly.
I also move from 1x per day stuff into the trough (when they're nibbling) to 2x per day (that's even before weaning) and they're weaned onto a 2x per day feeding.
After weaning I add feedings of whole corn - - - that's only for the males. For the females life stays at lower levels of grain and higher levels of good hay.
When you market will determine some of your option requirements. |
Starter/Grower Lamb Rations
