| 22/02/08
Feeding diets with rumen protected fat to in-lamb ewes
will help to plug the natural energy deficit during late
pregnancy and early lactation, according to established
trial work at ADAS Rosemaund.
One hundred ewes were introduced eight weeks prior to
lambing to concentrate fed initially at 0.5kg/day, rising
to 1.1 kg/day at lambing. Half the ewes were fed a control
concentrate with an ME of 12.7 MJ/kg DM, while the other
half received a concentrate with 10% of the cereal replaced
with Megalac, a rumen protected fat, which increased its
ME to 13.9 MJ/kg DM.
Post lambing, the concentrate fed to the flock was stepped
up to 1.4 kg/day with respective energy levels of 12.5
MJ/kg DM for the control and 14.0 MJ/kg DM for the Megalac-supplemented
concentrate. Ad lib straw was available throughout the
trial.
Ewes offered the higher energy concentrate reared significantly
more lambs, with lamb growth rate up to 19.4 % higher to
weaning compared to the control group. The trial showed
that ewes carrying twins reared 95% of their lambs, 5%
more than those fed the control diet. The trend was much
more apparent in the triplet group where all the ewes reared
100% of their lambs, compared with only 60% of lambs successfully
reared by those fed the control diet. In addition, the
ewes fed Megalac were in better body condition at weaning,
scoring an average 2.4 compared with 2.0 for the ewes fed
the control diet.”
Volac International’s Dr Richard Kirkland explains. “The
last six weeks of pregnancy is a period when a ewe finds
it increasingly difficult to eat sufficient to satisfy
her energy requirements, while the presence of rapidly
growing lambs is in fact reducing the volume of her rumen.
Consequently, she can lose condition rapidly which can
lead to serious health issues, including twin lamb disease.”
He adds: “Feeding Megalac in late pregnancy and early
lactation will increase diet energy density and can be
fed by either top dressing on forage or as a bought-in
compound or blended feed.”
 Senior Management Changes at Kiotechagil
New Lamb Feeder from Trouw Nutrition
New
Silage Corrector from Trouw Nutrition |
