The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Fleecewife on March 12, 2019, 01:17:49 pm
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We usually keep a dose or two of lamb colostrum available at lambing time for emergencies. We used to get it in our local WCF but that has turned into a gym!! The other agric merchant in town was out of colostrum, so I was looking online. My goodness, colostrum is expensive! We haven't needed any for many years, but we do like to have it available.
So where do you buy small quantities of colostrum, just a prefilled bottle or single sachet would do? Is there a supplier which doesn't charge the earth, but still supplies good quality?
I'm thinking maybe we should collect some from the first ewe to lamb, and freeze it. But what if we have a problem with that first one? Please don't suggest getting some from 'a friendly farmer' - no-one has time to be friendly at lambing time.
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I usually buy Volostrum you get about 10 feeds for under £20, the use by is pretty long too so I reseal and store from year to year. You never know when you'll need it
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I was lucky to pick up some sachets of Volostrum going cheap at our local Agri merchant chain when they closed down last year. It seems fine.
I found some single sachets online here (http://www.farmandcountrysupplies.co.uk/50g-volostrum-lamb-colostrum-single-sachet.ir), if you can’t get a few local smallholding pals to share a box of 10.
Would your vet supply single sachets?
Otherwise this Fearing product looks fine linky (http://www.fearing.co.uk/fearing-lamb-colostrum?gclid=Cj0KCQjwsZ3kBRCnARIsAIuAV_SMyPOKE9vi7sJC6N3v_ma70TyKfWdpoa-c2ZXDJE3Hii3CngthadkaAv6NEALw_wcB), as does the Nettex product here (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NET-TEX-SHEEP-ULTRA-CONCENTRATE-COLOSTRUM-FOR-LAMBS-1x-25g-SACHET-Lambing-/190802137757)
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Looking at the price of a single sachet, you'd be better of getting a box of 10 for @ £20 with a long sell by date. And don't forget, it doesn't instantly become useless on that date! Chances are, if you only have one sachet, you'll need 2. At least if you have plenty you're not going to try and eke out what you have, but can ensure you have plenty for if it's needed.
I have in the past got colostrum from a goat farmer as they usually seem to have a surplus and don't have the same pressures on them as a sheep farmer at lambing time. I used to put it into small 250ml used drink containers, then all I had to do was defrost in warm water and put the teat on.
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Thank you all - helpful suggestions there. For the single sachets the postage costs are ridiculous, so I ditched that idea. I've decided to wait until the local agric place gets boxes of ten in again (what a ridiculous time to run out!) then go for that, for the reasons you give LRR. I'm sure someone else will need some to share. We have a couple of weeks to go still before we might start lambing.
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At a recent lambing course the vets said ideally ewe colostrum, followed by cow or goat and powdered colostrum as a last resort. I take your point about farmers being fraught at lambing time but do you have a dairy farm you could ask?
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At a recent lambing course the vets said ideally ewe colostrum, followed by cow or goat and powdered colostrum as a last resort. I take your point about farmers being fraught at lambing time but do you have a dairy farm you could ask?
Our nice neighbours had a dairy farm, one of the highest in Scotland, but had to sell off his herd because of poor milk prices. But they lamb too.
This is only an emergency standby in case of a weak lamb, but that hasn't happened with our Hebs in years, so this is really an insurance policy. We don't have 'pet' lambs - if anything goes wrong we would revive the lamb then foster it onto another ewe, so it's not the start of a bottle feeding programme.