[Shnoowie]

Hello all!

We have 15 store lambs that we are finishing off; they have been on grass with top ups of hay and pellets and (according to a local sheep farmer) look around 40Kg each...I wouldn't know without physically weighing them!  He said they just need finishing off and mentioned giving them cake.  What is this?  I'm sure he doesn't mean a victoria sponge or fruit cake!  I've spoken to a few people and some of them have mentioned brewers grain as a finisher for sheep and pigs.  How would I use this?  We have a brewery a couple of villages over from us and I expect we would be able to get the grain fairly readily!

Thank you!

[daddymatty82]

cake= nuts
 depends if you want a certain weight for carcase weight as rule of thumb is if they look 40kg half it to get 20kgs  dead weight back  anything over 35kgs id say is good. what do you want the meat to taste like as grass fed in my books is best  taste but some people may want different taste. how old are they? how much weight you want back if you want more meat send off heavier then you get more meat back. one  of our fat lambs came back 22kg 1st time we sent to kill. but we never weighed and learnt the hard way  so now we weigh and  send off at certain weight  to get  certain amount of meat back as we have burgers made now and again we can say this lamb for 10 kgs of burgers then we know more of what we got.

[andywalt]

I think when I was in my local agi merchant last week I saw a finishing lamb concentrate (nuts)  so it would be formulated specific for finising store lambs, i think it was a saracen product.  I dont think i dreamt it !!

[shep53]

Brewers grains (draff) is a good product basicaly cereals high in protein,ive used it in the past for ewes should be okay for finishing hoggs. Because its a moist feed it is best used  fresh or can be ensiled underplastic.