[freethyme]

Evening every one 
I am looking at getting some more orphan lambs this coming year.  I am thinking of feeding the lambs on goats milk which is said to be a good replacement to sheep's milk. As I do not have any goats I would be looking for a local supply of whole untreated goats milk. I live in Knowle, Solihull, which is not that far from Birmingham airport. Are there any goat owners out there who milk their goats who are located near(ish) to me who would be prepared to supply me milk.
Thank you all for the support and advice. Thank you 

[goatwriter]

Goat's milk does not contain enough fat for lambs and is probably more expensive than buying a sack of Lamblac from your Agricultural Merchant. I usually find that each orphan lamb I rear will need 1 x10kg sack of Lamblac for the whole of the milk feeding period before they can rely on creep feed/hay/grass. Generally this works out at about £12 per lamb. Reconstituted lamb milk will give your lambs a far better start in life. Hope this helps.

[ballingall]

Goats milk is slightly lower in fat content than sheepskin milk. However, it is a very good substitute, and personally I would rather use it than buying in powdered milk.


Goatwriter, I'd also be interested in where you get your lamblac from, prices round here are a minimum of £30 for a 10 kg sack!


We have reared orphan lambs on goats milk for over 30 years, and had more issues when we have had to use powdered milk.

Freethyme, sorry but I am bit far away, and don't know that many Goatkeepers in your area.

Beth

[plumseverywhere]

Freethyme - speak to Fay Ogden from the WOrcestershire goat society. She's not all that far from you, if you have space to store it frozen you may be able to collect a fair bit from her.
We had to use lamlac this year for orphan lambs and struggled with bloat but year before used goats milk and had fewer problems. Both sets of lambs have grown up healthily.
Commercial sheep farmer across road is having my surplus goats milk next spring for his poddy lambs     

[Lesley Silvester]

I have half a bag of Lamblac left over from earlier this year if it's any use to anyone.

[Anke]

I would second that a natural milk should always be better than any owdered substitute, and if the lambs are put onto creep early on they should do fine - but they always need to have had plenty of colostrum.
I have also found that powdered stuff results in more bloat, but never had any problems with goatsmilk yet.
However financially/time-wise it only works if the goatsmilk is free (on the same holding), I feed goat kids at the same time (time needed to wash bottles soon mounts up) , and you can give several feeds per day (or put them onto a lamb-bar). I wouldn't have thought it makes sense to buy in both cade lambs and the goatsmilk?

[Blinkers]

I had bucket loads of spare goats milk this year and successfully reared 3 mollie lambs up to slaughter weight without any problem 

[kja]

I had bucket loads of spare goats milk this year and successfully reared 3 mollie lambs up to slaughter weight without any problem 

same here we have reared loads of lambs and calfs soley on goats milk they do very well on it too. much cheaper than buying in milk powder at around £30 a sack ! around here.

we also keep a stock of goats clostrum in the freezer for the the local sheep farmers, many lambs have been saved by it over the years.

[fiestyredhead331]

we 'adopted' a lamb who had been started off on lamlac but we gave him our extra goats milk instead and he loved it, turned his nose up at lamlac when we'd run out

[Ina]

If you had to buy goats milk, how much would you pay for it? Even if you pay £30 for a bag of powder (that's 10kg I assume), that'll give you 50ltr milk, so 60p/ltr. (I've just googled prices for lamlac, and you can get it cheaper - suppose depends on where you are.)

[Skirza]

Evening every one 
I am looking at getting some more orphan lambs this coming year.  I am thinking of feeding the lambs on goats milk which is said to be a good replacement to sheep's milk. As I do not have any goats I would be looking for a local supply of whole untreated goats milk.

Simple solution...Buy a goat!

[Sylvia]

Or two  to be kind to the goats 

[Anke]

Or two  to be kind to the goats 

Best solution IMO....   and have fresh, healthy goatsmilk to drink in the house too....

[Lesley Silvester]

I'd agree with that.

[freethyme]

Thank you all for your knowledge and experince.