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All Sheep and Lamb Discussion / Re: Bottle Babies

« Last post by Polymom on January 04, 2018, 12:24:23 pm »

With Polypays, we often have triplets and quads so we have a lot of bottle lambs each year.  When we had lots of free labor (children at home) we used bottles and supplemented the triplets and quads while leaving them all with the mother.  Now we pull the extras and put them on nipple pails, usually divided by size and/or age.  This has worked really well for us.  We will still use a few bottles if a lamb needs a little extra supplementing while we are waiting to decide whether to pull the lamb or leave it with mom. 

Ewes are shipped if they can't take care of twins.  When we had fewer ewes, we put up with more issues but with 45 ewes, if they cause trouble they are gone.  Someone said once that 10% of the sheep cause 90% of the problems so get rid of the 10%. 

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All Sheep and Lamb Discussion / Re: I figured out, i cant make any money on raising sheep

« Last post by EmsoffLambs on January 04, 2018, 10:59:16 am »

Sounds good. It usually takes them a couple days to figure out that they are supposed to eat it, but once they get used to eating wet feed, they really like it. It is especially good as a lactation feed. They milk really well thanks to the high protein.

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All Sheep and Lamb Discussion / Re: I figured out, i cant make any money on raising sheep

« Last post by Honey Tree on January 02, 2018, 12:41:48 am »

We've had a number of microbreweries open around here recently.  I'll have to check around to see if they need an outlet for their grain.  I expect my girls will be thrilled to indulge in it.  If I find a source for it I'd like to check back with you to find out what I need to do to be sure that they have sufficient calcium in their diet.

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All Sheep and Lamb Discussion / Re: I figured out, i cant make any money on raising sheep

« Last post by EmsoffLambs on January 01, 2018, 01:00:20 pm »

Like any feed, it has to be part of a complete balanced ration. It averages about 26% protein and most of the starch has been cooked out of it. So it is not really a replacement for grain but really more of a protein supplement. It does allow us to feed a lower quality hay (grass hay instead of alfalfa) plus lets us cut the amount of corn we feed about in half. We feed the ewes up to about 4 lbs of the wet grain a day (which is the equivalent of about 1 lb of dry grain). Basically one heaping shovel full. We feed it to lambs too (keeper ewe lambs and butcher lambs, not show lambs). They won't eat quite as much. The only problem we have had with it is that it is high in phosphorus, which caused some fairly major lambing issues before we started supplementing calcium. Ewes that wouldn't push and prolapsed uteruses. Once we started adding additional calcium, we had no more issues.

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All Sheep and Lamb Discussion / Re: I figured out, i cant make any money on raising sheep

« Last post by Honey Tree on December 30, 2017, 05:29:30 pm »

How much do you feed?  Does it need to be mixed with other grains or can it be fed alone?  Can you feed it to the lambs as well as the ewes?

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All Sheep and Lamb Discussion / Re: I figured out, i cant make any money on raising sheep

« Last post by EmsoffLambs on December 30, 2017, 04:44:26 pm »

Honeytree, I get the brewers grain from a couple microbreweries. It is a great feed, high protein, moderate energy. But since it is about 75% water, it is very labor intensive. Very heavy and spoils quickly. Or freezes solid in the winter. We collect it in 35 gallon barrels, which end up weighing over 150 lbs full. It will stay fresh a week tops in warm weather. Lasts longer in the winter, but if it gets really cold it will freeze solid. It's a lot of work but has cut our feed bill by more than half, so it is worth it to us. Wish we had almond hulls here. I hear they are great feed.

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All Sheep and Lamb Discussion / Re: Bottle Babies

« Last post by EmsoffLambs on December 30, 2017, 04:37:07 pm »

We usually only end up with one, maybe two bottle lambs a year lambing out 40-50 ewes. For just one, I usually end up bottle feeding it. However if I do end up with more, I prefer a lamb bar bucket. It is a huge time saver as you only have to fill it once a day. Lambs grow well on the free choice cold milk replacer.

I strongly prefer the Pipestone milk replacer over all others I have tried.

As far as culling factors for ewes, any ewe that rejects a lamb would be gone. I have no tolerance for ewes that won't raise their own babies fortunately, in 17 years lambing, I have only had that occur once. A ewe that is fed well but doesn't have enough milk for her lambs is also gone. Aside from that, it comes down to quality. Since we are raising show lambs, a ewe that does no raise show quality lambs is moved out. We do also sell good ewes every year simply to make room for our keeper ewe lambs. These ewes are normally our older genetics, often very good proven mothers, but since we have to keep moving forward, they are sold.

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All Sheep and Lamb Discussion / Bottle Babies

« Last post by DaisyDo on December 30, 2017, 03:38:07 pm »

I am interested to hear different opinions and/or experiences regarding bummer/bonus lambs.

In the past we have kept our flock fairly small, no more than 20 ewes. We believe that good moms breed good moms, so we have only kept replacement ewes out of those ewes that we consider good moms. It is my opinion, that because of this we have had very few bottle babies.

Over the last couple years we have let our flock grow and this year we purchased some registered hamp ewes, so naturally I am a little nervous.

How do you deal with bummers? Do you prefer milk machines, bucket, or bottles? What is your criteria for culling or keeping ewes? Do you anticipate a certain percentage of bummers?

Looking forward to your feedback.

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All Sheep and Lamb Discussion / Re: I figured out, i cant make any money on raising sheep

« Last post by shadowran on December 29, 2017, 02:04:22 pm »

well I have reduced my flock by about half, and I have a few more ewes to go and some waiting to be picked up. I can see some really good lambs that are tightly bred in fact I bred a ewe back to her sire and produced one of the best looking ewe lambs I had in years, so I am keeping her and maybe have her outbred somewhere

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All Sheep and Lamb Discussion / Re: I figured out, i cant make any money on raising sheep

« Last post by Honey Tree on December 28, 2017, 01:02:28 pm »

Crystal, where do you find brewers grain and how do you feed it? 

I feed a lot of almond hulls but they'll run out in a few short months so perhaps brewers grain could fill in the gap.  Hulls are cheap right now and the sheep love them.  They run around $67/ton.  Back in May, when the supply dried up, the price jumped up to about $120/t if you could find them at all.  Jim, check to see if they have hulls anywhere near you.  You can substitute them for about 50% of your hay.

Anyway to cut costs, including flock reduction, is a great way to help to help your bottom line.  The best thing for me has been fall lambing particularly thru LAI.  We've improved our flock and the price that we can get for our lambs.

It costs the same amount to feed a high quality ewe as it does a poor quality ewe.  The difference is in the marketability of the resulting lambs.  Fall lambs seem to be in higher demand and command a better price.  If you are using your own ram, Jim, maybe consider using cidrs and breed for fall lambs.

Now I just need to do a better job of taking my own advice.