The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: woollyval on April 20, 2011, 09:09:54 am
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Ok so I know we have on this forum all sorts of sheep keepers from semi commercial to pets.....
I know exactly why commercial farmers feed creep pellets....to get lambs to gain weight quickly therefore getting them away to market/abattoir quickly AND allowing more sheep/lambs to the acre than grass alone would support.
My question though is.....why are the rest of you feeding creep? If you keep sheep non intensively for your own freezer or that of friends, if you have non commercial, rare or minority breeds and do not have too many for your land to support, why on earth are you feeding creep? To allow lambs to 'escape' under a set up gate to some nics lush grass their mums cannot get to is a great and easy idea. To actually keep less sheep so you are not feeding them excess concentrated feed is also a good idea!
Sheep are designed to eat grass, and from now until August/September time there should be more than enough nutrients in grass alone.....
So answers on a postcard please!
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I fed creep this year for a few weeks as we had a few earlier than planned and not nice weather and awful grass, but now the weather is good they are all out enjoying the sunshine and fresh grass. I am one for using nature as it saves my pocket.
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I dont. Mine lamb out and do what comes naturally, even if I get a caddy they get put out to eat grass and when shut in they only get hay and water between bottles
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Alot of people who keep sheep "non-commercially" overfeed their sheep. Perhaps it is a psychological thing, and this is then extended to creeping the lambs.
We keep ours commercially (at least that is the aim!) - we feed the ewes for six weeks pre lambing and then not at all after turn out and the lambs are not creep fed. We expect the ewes to milk off their backs. Our land is pretty poor, but because we breed our own replacements, they are aclimatised to our location and do OK. Any that we sell elsewhere as breeding stock always do fantastically well when they go to better land.
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Some systems of management use creep feed to medicate lambs, such as with coccidiosis drugs in lamb pellets.
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Alot of people who keep sheep "non-commercially" overfeed their sheep. Perhaps it is a psychological thing, and this is then extended to creeping the lambs.
VSS your reply as quoted above plus what you mentioned about your system I think has hit the nail!
You need to make a profit yet do not use creep and when I had commercials I also did not use creep and did the same system as you.
I have a feeling though that many small flock owners over feed and over medicate their sheep......and also worry a lot.
I eat my sheep and am also an environmentalist so therefore am concerned with over/improper use of medicines (but yes I do use wormers etc myself I'm not daft!) and overstocking of grazing/degradation of grassland and over feeding of concentrated feeds containing among other things GM soya from South America. I don't want to eat a highly medicated, overfed lamb.... :-\......which is why I raise and eat my own....I don't want a mini intensive holding but a holding with healthy stock and healthy biodiversity....and I want to minimise the use of soya GM or not!
Angus.....yep medicated pellets (antibiotic and coccodostat) have been around for aged and medicated licks......but should only be used to treat a problem surely. not prevent it......same goes for poultry and pig feed! This is a big subject!
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The issue of creeping lambs is a thorny one though if you are trying to make a living. We thought about it last year, when we had so little grass in the spring.
On the plus side, your lambs will grow faster, heavier and be sold sooner, for a better price.
On the negative side, is the cost of buying the feed and the feeder too.
For us, I don't think the extra income from the lambs would cover the cost of the feed let alone increase our margins. Having said that if we had a different tyoe of sheep, say texel or suffolk cross lambs, it might be a different story.
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Just read this on coming back from buying our 1st ever bag of creep feed. We have bought it as we have triplets on a ewe. She is milking off her back despite me topping up with milk, so I want to get the triplets getting food as soon as possible. The rest of the lambs will not get any.
Rose
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I'm definitely with you on this one woollyshepherd.
However, in defense of those who creep feed, most of what is written out there applies to commercial flocks, so it can be difficult for new keepers to know whether or not it is essential, and breeders want to do right by their lambs. It's a bit like dosing for watery mouth - you see it on Lambing live, you are taught it on lambing courses, but of course on a small scale, with good hygiene, all those 'just in case' antibiotics are simply unneccessary - and of course can lead to problems down the line.
So thank you for raising this so people can see that it's not necessary. Another point is that if you really do need to feed your lambs creep feed, then you should either have fewer animals on your acreage, lamb later or have a different breed.
I agree too with VSS - I have seen some horribly fat sheep, especially the 'just pets' variety.
Sheep really do know how to live and how much to eat - where they have enough pasture of the right kind they can regulate their intake of herbs and browsing as well as of grass.
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Well the only reason I use creep is to get them off the lamlack, it's much cheaper and 20 get through an awfull lot. It's only a weaning process and once they are out on grass will be slowly weaned off the creep. ah yes two weaning processes.
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I am so glad TWS you started this thread as I was sitting wondering about to 'creep or not' - still not sure what it is exactly. However, re 'I have seen some horribly fat sheep, especially the 'just pets' variety. Sheep really do know how to live and how much to eat'. We just leave ours (not pets) in the field and they were very fat before getting into lamb, we thought they might not get into lamb because of their size or might get twin lamb decease or have overlarge lambs ::). Being in our location in the south west means that the pasture is rich and juicy all year round, except when covered in snow. But we do have a problem this year with docks and thistles. Still waiting for parts for the ride-on to be able to top them off. So along with lambing continuing will have to resort to scythe - talk about keeping fit ;D ;D