Prices up but keep eye on lambs energy levels
Prices up but keep eye on lambs energy levels
How can you make the most
of recent rises in store lamb
prices? Jeremy Hunt finds
out and gets some tips from
one sheep consultant
WITH finished lamb prices up to £10 a head more than this time last year store lamb finishers look like making a decent margin over the coming weeks – but farmers are advised to keep a close watch on lambs being fed on roots.
North and midlands Signet sheep consultant Maurice Jones says those with lambs being finished on stubble turnips must make sure that there is sufficient dry matter in the diet.
"Its important to provide ad-lib hay and some concentrate feed, say a quarter of a pound a head per day, to balance the diet, to keep lambs healthy and achieve maximum growth rates," says Mr Jones.
He says the sheeps gut needs additional fibre to avoid stubble turnips going straight through the digestive system and possibly even being regurgitated, moving into the lungs and increasing risk of pneumonia.
"Extra feed costs will be easily covered by additional weight gain. By supplementing roots lambs will be able to reach their full genetic growth potential and increase carcass yield of lean meat by up to 1-1.5kg.
"The key is provide enough energy for finishing lambs so that they can convert feed into flesh and not have to eat just to subsist," said Mr Jones.
Drier conditions in the New Year have seen more lambs turned on to roots but Signet recommends that lambs are run on to blocks of roots in preference to being strip-grazed.
"Keeping lambs clean is still a vital part of marketing. Lambs being fed roots along a fence will inevitably become more dirty than those allowed to range over a block of roots.
"Some farmers say that there is too much trampling and damage of the crop when roots are block grazed but experience has proved that lambs will efficiently feed over the entire area and will not be selective."
FINISHING LAMBS
• Check diet DM.
• Energy in ration?
• Keep lambs clean.
Run lambs on blocks of roots rather than strip grazing, recommends Signets
Maurice Jones.