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Replacement nutrition requirement for first lactation
Solution name: Replacement nutrition requirement for first lactation
Aim: Our goal is to raise well-developed young lamb and to keep the number of days between the first and second lambing to a minimum.
Description:
- The feeding of the young lamb is largely determined by the breed or genotype, which is related to the expected adult body weight. The feed ratio and the day of breeding are determined based on body weight. In addition, the season is a very important factor (grazing, + ratio).
Topic: Nutrition
Production: Dairy / Meat
Animal Category: Replacements
Issue: Nutrition
Level of Solution: Knowledge, Practical
Country: Hungary
How to implement it
We do a condition scoring every three weeks. Pregnancy check by ultrasound. Single and twin bearing young ewes should be separeted in different groups. Twin bearing ewes get extra concentrate/feed ratio.
Expected benefits
- Less problem at parturition
- replacement in good condition do not go into minus/negative condition after lambing
Cost Benefit analysis
If the forage is not optimal for first lactation ewes, the condition will worsen after lambing, and for this reason proper nutrition is very important. When the condition of early breed sheep lambs is poor, it takes a lot of time and extra forage to achieve optimal mating conditions. And that’s an additional cost. When the time period between the first and second births lengthens, the expense is huge. If we cannot feed the sheep with replacement nutrition, the carcass weight will be 10-12 kg less than the optimal one. The perfect replacement diet is also a question of quality and quantity. It needs a few extra hours of work,
Sustainability analysis
Prerequisites and/or limits
- grazing yards/paddocks
- ultrasound
- sorting paddock
- extra ratio
Tips & Tricks
Twin pregnancy detection by ultrasound
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