I had a good lambing, the ewes have been milking well but the lambs are not doing as well as i'd like. On handling, they feel quite poor despite being treated at 4 weeks old to prevent coccidiosis, and wormed with Cydectin and Levitape. Most are now 2 months old, but look younger. I have trouble providing creep feed as the local badgers clear out the feeder as soon as I fill it! I have never had this with all the lambs before, just the odd one or two. They are clean behind so i'm really stumped why they're not 'doing'. Any suggestions?

It might not be related, but how is your weather compared to previous years? I presently keep only goats, not sheep, but they are similar in many ways. This year's kids are better than previous (same breeding as last year) but it has been much drier and warmer. No vaccines, no worming, yet the kids are thriving better on the usual changes of grazing (which means a change too of the extremely limited browsing available) and I can only attribute it to the better weather. I do remember bad winters and late springs in Northumberland when lambs just never seemed to get away no matter what they were given by way of feed.  

Have you changed your tup(s)? Not sure whether you are saying they have or not had creep? If they've had some, is there a possibility of mild copper poisoning? Had that from our creep some years back. One breed showed it clearly, by dying!, but the other just got knocked back, seemed a bit lethargic. Or, get your vet/VLA to kill one and see if they can find anything?

The breeding is the same as last year, and I have never had a problem with copper - the show team are on ad lib creep with no problems. All the lambs looked good for the first month, but now they have stopped growing and handle quite badly. The ewes have plenty of grass, and are still getting ewe nuts & sugarbeet pellets daily. I had to stop creep feeding the lambs as the badgers clear a whole bag in 2 days - 16 lambs can't manage that lot! would stopping creep really make all that difference?

I think you have answered your own question crazysheep. You say the show lambs are doing fine ( because they're creep fed ). 16 hungry lambs would make a big dent in a bag of creep in two days albeit helped along by the badgers.

Why don't you creep feed with sugar beet nuts for a few days ? Badgers love sugar beet but sugar beet doesn't love them !! Hint hint.

Just put enough creep out to last the daylight hours each morning? Then put sugar beet pellets in overnight.

Thanks, i'll give it a go!

I like the sugar beet idea and it is new to me as far as badgers are concerned. However when lambs do not thrive, I give them Thrivet or Collate from either Osborns or Brinicombes.

 

Ticks - we only started treating last year in East Lothian as ewes all tested postive for tick brorn fever last year. The ewes are not all on hill ground either . Just a thought

Cobalt is in short supply in our area so we drench it regularly after weaning. I shouldn't think cobalt deficiency would affect your young lambs yet though. I agree that the black and whites need to be "discouraged". They also like peanut butter (according to Bill Oddie - and he should know)

I was always told that badgers can't cope with the blood thinning properties of aspirin. So if you see a badger you think may have a headache, you shouldn't core out an apple, drop a few aspirin in and leave it for them to eat. It could be fatally bad for them!!

Well, the sugarbeet pellets are disappearing at a faster rate than the creep pellets! I don't know how long I can afford to feed the stripeys!

barry crump, god rest his soul, wrote in one of his books about pest control in new zealand. The pests in question were wild pigs. His solution was putting out potatoes at night in the fields near the forest. In each potato, he inserted a detonator, and retired to the pub, job done. He could  relax with a beer, and listen to the distant bangs, returning  to tidy up in the morning.

Why not try that?