Billings
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Help with lambing in dry conditions

Hi, we are beginning to lamb and have been caught with our pasture we were preparing for lambing having very little growth due to the ongoing dry conditions.

Does anyone have advice as to keeping feed up to ewes while lambing? But doesn't lead to mismothering or lamb fatality? Have people had success feeding at night or using self feeders?

1817 days ago

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Our experience is similar to that above, weve used lick feeders for years & when necessary fed our merino ewes all the way through lambing. In better years we fill the feeders immediately prior to the ewes lambing start date & just let them slowly run out of grain. This year is much tighter & we will feed through. So long as the sheep are accustomed to having the fill truck around & it’s done as quietly as possible I’ve never had issues. Our ewes are not in containment so they aren’t crowding around while we fill the feeders. Andrew

moolpa
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1816 days ago

Cheers Andrew, really appreciate it.
Billings | 1815 days

Hi,

We use self feeders that have to be filled every 10-14 days. It has worked pretty well for us. We get a bit of a rush, but no where near as much as we would if we were feeding everyday.

Hope this helps,

Hannah

Hannah_Messner
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1816 days ago

Thanks so much Hannah, very helpful.
Billings | 1815 days

Hi Billings,

I'm intersted to hear how you're getting on with lambing? What feeding strategy have you employed and is it working for you?

Have you seen this presentation from last year's Best Wool/Best Lamb Conference? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srjWJbf48H4&feature=youtu.behttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srjWJbf48H4&feature=youtu.be

Amy Lockwood, from Murdoch University, has done research on the impact of mob size and stocking density on lamb survival. Some of her work indicated significantly greater survival (6.2% higher survival, 12.4 lambs/100 ewes in twin mobs) in smaller mob sizes particularly at low FOO (<400kgDM>

She indicates in question time that there haven't been any research trials done on using self-feeders vs trail feeding on the impact on lamb survival, but hopes that they can put a project together to do this down the track.