Put another way, if the young lamb gets a set back, or goes into a store period, then you are going have it on the farm a lot lot longer before it reaches factory weight and finish.

The ewe's milk is the magic ingredient in ensuring this good start. Ewes in strong condition will milk for a short time off her back but if grass is scarce and ewes are thin, (they nearly always are), you have to supplement to keep the lambs thriving.

This year I have the singles on grass only. However, I am giving the twins, despite being on fairly good grass, creep feed. Plus the ewes are still getting about one third of a kg per head to keep them interested and maybe to deter grass tetany in this cold weather.

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I will be interested to see whether twins or singles will be factory fit first. On a previous occasion in similar circumstances the creep fed twins were drafted at least as early as the non-creep fed singles.

You can buy some very palatable muesli like lamb creep feeds at very fancy prices, but I am giving them a ration based mainly on my on rolled barley. They are wolfing it down. The only problem is lack of space with about 60 lambs around a single feeder. Currently lambs of four to five weeks are getting about 11 kg a day.

Later I plan to use a creep gate to promote creep grazing and feed the lambs in open troughs to attract them through the creep gates into the better grass. At this stage ewes milk will have declined in importance and the ewes can be tightened on grass. I acknowledge that this would be harder to do with bigger numbers.

Teagasc is slow to back creep feeding for March born lambs but I notice that most tightly stocked sheep only farms are now feeding creep, especially in the early stages when lamb conversion rates are very high.

Also the early creep feed gets that lamb growing at the desired higher trajectory that you hope can be sustained.