The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: crobertson on December 31, 2019, 08:05:05 pm
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I'm just looking for a bit of advice on how best to manage triplet bearing ewes.
We haven't scanned before and usually just fed a basic 1/2lb feed for the last 4 weeks of pregnancy with crystalyx available in the last 8 weeks and hay from christmas. After large singles and slightly small twins being unavoidable we decided to scan for the first time this time yesterday.
So glad we did as they've defied the 145% breed average and scanned at 210% between 10 of them with mostly twins and 3 triplets which would of certainly been underfed (the scanner said 2 of the twins also looked like they had triplets but lost one - fertile year for this bunch!)
They're a hill breed, on average - poor ground. Have a crystalyx and hay introduced from this weekend (start jan). The singles will just get hay & crystalyx, maybe a handful of feed in the last week or so. The twins will probably get 3-400g for the last 4 weeks.
However I have no experience of how much feed triplets! Especially as one is a shearling and first timer and still growing herself. The scanner said for all ewes, all triplets look a good even size.
Will the last 4 weeks be too late? maybe start are 6 to 8 weeks pre lambing? Maybe work up to 5-600g? I'm conscious they're a hardy breed and don't need a lot of feed but but can imagine how much input it must take to carry triplets to lambing.
Thanks in advance and happy new year from the girls!
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I aim for 1/4 kilo per lamb scanned starting from 4 weeks off lambing.
Triplets I might start 6 weeks off lambing 250g 4-6 weeks, 500g 2-4 weeks then the last 2 weeks before and up to lambing 750g. With crystalyx to keep any twin lamb at bay, on hay and grass.
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As it’s a hill breed you maybe don’t need to think about it, but we were advised to feed our twin- and triplet-bearing mules in two feeds - night and morning - for the last 3-4 weeks, as the lambs will be taking up a lot of space so they don’t have much room for the rumen to digest much forage. If you fill them up with all the concentrate in one feed, they don’t then bother with forage until many hours later, and there aren’t enough hours left to take in and digest as much as they need. By feeding two smaller concentrate feeds, they keep on eating hay throughout the day, and get much more intake overall that way.
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Your basic plan reads as spot on ( the advice is any amount over 450-500g per day needs to be split in to 2 feeds for any pregnant sheep ) If you continually condition score them then you can monitor any losing condition , so you may find a twin needing a little more so can be put with the triplets or if the single ewes are getting fatter you can reduce feeding