The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: twizzel on March 12, 2013, 05:12:03 pm
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7 of my orphan bunch have been out in the back garden since Friday. They have a shelter with a big of hay in (which they choose to lie on instead of eat!) and are weaned off milk and eating creep well. It's very cold here and looking to go wet over the next few days. They are fed creep twice a day but I was just wondering if they could have soaked sugarbeet as well- whilst they are getting to grips with grazing and the weather is bad? The soaked stuff you give horses... they are 6-7 weeks old... or would this not be beneficial?
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No reason they can't have it if they like it, I guess. But not much, and not if it stops them eating the creep... ;)
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Some people say that males/wethers can get urinary calculii from eating sugar beet, However I used to feed it my mixed bunch as a winter feed before I was told...
I would put some cider vinegar into their drinking water, just balances the pH a bit. (If their water source is under cover and changed regularly.)
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We give offer our lambs soaked sugar beet, they really seem to like it and I think it helps get them eating. They also have baby lamb creep in a separate bowl on offer adlib. I generally add vits/minerals to the sugarbeet.
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Fab, thanks 8) for what a bag of sugarbeet shreds costs I think it might be beneficial just whilst they are getting used to being outside. I picked the worst week to put them out and their pen is now home to my other batch of 5 orphans, plus they were a nightmare in :-\ I've just had a good look at them tonight and they seem to be holding weight ok but am slightly worried about the wet weather that's coming- they are grazing in cold weather but the rain over the weekend meant they just sat in their shelter all day! so maybe some beet might be beneficial... I know with feeding it to pigs it can cause them to be fatty, this shouldn't be the case with lambs should it? They are being raised for the table...
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Ha well that went down like a lead balloon! Got a bag of speedibeet and mixed it in with their creep and they wouldn't touch it... so have left it there to see if curiosity gets the better of them tonight :D
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Sometimes they don't like change. You might have to introduce it slowly. Would have thought the molasses would tempt them.
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Not sure that the speedibeet has the molasses added as it is a horse product so probably not as tasty for them as the molassed beet? We add some soaked sugarbeet to our ewes feed whilst they are in the barns so the lambs get used to tasting the ewes feed and so are used to it if we take them from their dams to bottle rear ( have quite a few this year due to a lot of triplets being born).