Top Tips for Feeding Ewes Pre-Lambing

Top Tips for Feeding Ewes Pre-Lambing

 

1. Test forage

It is important to know the quality of the forage (silage, hay etc.) available. Offer the best quality forage to your ewes prior to lambing.

2. Group ewes for feeding

Ewes should be grouped/penned by litter size (based on scanning results) and expected lambing date (raddle colour). This will ensure more accurate feeding.  

3. What to feed?

A high energy concentrate should be fed to ewes in late pregnancy. The ration should contain high levels of cereals such as maize and barley and digestible fibres such as sugar beet pulp.

4. Protein

Protein is important for the final 3-4 weeks of pregnancy. Feed a 19-20% crude protein ration.  Soya bean meal should be the main source of protein in the last month of pregnancy to improve the quality and quantity of colostrum.

5. Feeding rate

Feed ewes based on forage quality (DMD), scan results, lambing date, and body condition score. Recommended feed rates are presented in Table

6. Feeding management

Introduce concentrates to ewes gradually, start off with .2kg/ewe/day and build up slowly. Avoid any sudden changes in concentrate type. Ensure ewes have adequate feed space – 600mm/ewe for concentrate feeding.

7.     Water

It is vitally important that a fresh clean supply of water is always available to pregnant ewes. Troughs should be checked daily and cleaned out straight away if required.

 

Table 1: Daily concentrate allowance (kg/ewe) for twin-bearing ewes in late pregnancy. *

*For single bearing ewes, start supplementing 2 weeks later and feed 0.2kg less, for triplet bearing ewes start supplementing 2 weeks earlier and feed 0.2kg more than above allowances.