[chickens]

Hi
We have just sent our second lamb to the abbattoir and are very disappointed with the carcass weight.  13 kilos and the lamb was born in january so was nearly 11 months old.  In the summer our lambs feed off our land we do not supplement with anything but we feed them in the winter months.  Perhaps this weight is right, it is a dorset poll cross.  We sent a sheep in may who was a year old and she only weighed 16 kilos.
Are we doing something wrong?
If we need to feed them more can anyone recommend reasonably cheap feed, we are a large family and money is very tight, we have grown a few ton of mangels which we feed our cows and pigs should we supplement the sheep with this as well?

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks
Nicki

[hexhammeasure]

Its difficult to say without seeing the lamb but my first suspicion would be worms especially this year as there was such a lot of grass. Then i would think maybe the grass was too long and had lots of scour. then possiblyit had a bout of coccidisis as a lamb. maybe your land is lacking in vital minerals such as selenium.... or possibly the lamb just wasn't a 'do-er'

there are a hundred and ten possibles... thats part of the 'fun' - tracking down what went wrong

we have a ewe who was poorly quite a lot as a lamb she is smaller than some of this years lambs .... now she is just a pet