Abortions

By Darren Carty

Colostrum

Lambs are born with no immunity to disease - get colostrum in fast. It provides heat, is a laxative and delivers effective antibodies. Surplus colostrum can be collected from some ewes rearing singles, but this is tedious work.

Artificial colostrum costs at least €2 per single feed to a newborn lamb. Aim to collect and store cow colostrum in a freezer before lambing starts. Beef cows give less colostrum than Holstein Friesians, but quality is higher. The very first colostrum milked from each quarter of the freshly calved cow has the highest level of antibodies to fight disease threat.

More farmers let ewe lambs to the ram last year in a bid to increase output and reduce the cost of keeping these animals idle over the winter. These animals need a higher level of management for the operation to run smoothly. Managing these lambs as a separate flock will allow better control of feeding levels. A number of farmers achieving good results keep lambs on a high level of nutrition until close to lambing, when lamb growth increases rapidly.