The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: fgaskell on August 22, 2021, 06:13:44 pm
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Before lambing,
You are supposed increase the feed by however many lambs the ewe is carrying?
My friend doesn’t scan so how do they know how much to feed?
Thanks
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I feed for twins without scanning. I keep Zwartbles which tend to have multiple births.
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Cheers!
Also how much do you feed them?
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I don't scan - although I still have an old scanner and used to do it for a living. It is of importance when you have a commercial flock and want max milk production from your sheep, without wasting food and money on sheep carrying singles, and also risking an overlarge single lamb.
I feed my pregnant ewes ad lib grass or hay with a high energy and protein feed block always available. That way the sheep that need more can eat more. I've found this works well for twins or singles - ewes have plenty of milk and singles are not too big that they cause problems.
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I feed for twins too, but my ewes are lleyns and very prolific. It does depend on the breed, age of ewe, condition score, grass availability, time of year that you’re lambing. A how long is a piece of string question really. There is a good guide from ahdb called Feeding The Ewe which is definitely worth reading.
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On large farms scanning means they can split the flock for feeding. It is also useful at lambing at having sheep marked up for twins and triplets. For small flocks where maybe you haven't got enough sheep or fields to split people just feed everything at the same time but keep an eye on condition score. As Twizzel said there are a lot of factors to take into account.