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The general recommendation of 400mm to 450mm head space per ewe for restricted feeding will need to be increased where ewes carrying multiple lambs are penned together or, alternatively, extra troughs should be used to ensure all animals can eat unrestricted. Ewes should also be monitored to ensure that shy eaters are not deterred from eating. Feed trough management is important and silage/hay feeders should be cleaned regularly if not fully emptied, while water troughs should also be checked frequently and cleaned out on a regular basis.
The importance of getting late-pregnancy feeding programmes correct was highlighted by Teagasc’s Frank Campion at last week’s lowland sheep conference. Frank said that every 0.5 unit drop in body condition score (BCS) in the last month of pregnancy will reduce lamb survivability by 5%. He added that lamb survival will also drop 5% for every 0.5 of a BCS unit where ewes are below BCS 3.0 at lambing. This also has negative implications on lamb vigour and colostrum production. He advised farmers to consider the protein and energy content of the diet with the recommendation to focus on high-value energy ingredients and soya bean as the best source of protein, with an overall protein content of the concentrate preferred by Frank at 20% and no lower than 18%.
Influence of stocking rate on animal performance
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