Lamb Finishing Systems
Systems
• Artificial Rearing
• Conventional from grass +/- concentrate
supplementation
– On restricted grazing lambs will gain an extra 1kg
of live weight for each 5-6 kg of meal consumed
• Assuming 46% KO this is 13kg meal:1kg carcass
• Forage crops
• Indoor finishing systems
Improving prolificacy is a means to
increase profitability
Impact of litter size on the percentage
of ewes expecting triplets
Average scanned litter size
% of ewes scanned with triplets
1.5
2%
1.6
3%
1.75
9%
1.85
14%
2.1
26%
2.2
32%
Kinsella, pers comm
Artificial Rearing
Lamb management
• Removed from ewes at birth (experimental reasons)
• Lambs selected a birth (1 lamb from each set of
triplets)
• Lambs offered on of two treatments as follows
•
–
Ewe Colostrum (C)
–
Colostrum Alternative (V)
Lambs were stomach tubed at 1, 10 and 18hrs post partum
Lamb management
• From 24 hours of age lambs were offered ad
libitum access to milk replacer
• From 7 days of age lambs were offered ad
libitum access to concentrate feed
• Lambs were weaned once the reached a
concentrate feed intake of 250 g per day
Lamb management
• Post weaning lambs were housed indoors and
offered a commercial concentrate ad libitum
• Body weight assessed weekly for live weight
and growth rate determination
• Lambs slaughtered at a live weight of 44kg
Results
The effect of treatment on lamb live
weight from birth to weaning
Colostrum
Volostrum
25
Live weight (kg)
20
15
10
5
0
birth
1
2
3
Week
4
5
6
The effect of treatment on lamb live
weight from weaning to 12 weeks
Colostrum
Volostrum
*
Live weight (kg)
45
*
40
*
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Weaning
7
8
9
Week
10
11
12
*P<0.05
The effect of treatment on average daily
live weight gain from birth to slaughter
Average daily gain (g
(g)
Colostrum
500
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
Volostrum
**
*
Overall
Preweaning
Week
Postweaning
*P<0.05
**P<0.01
The effect of treatment on the
number of days to reach target
slaughter LW (44 kg)
Colostrum
Volostrum
160
140
120
100
80
109
60
133
40
20
0
*P<0.01
The effect of treatment on carcass kill
out percentage (%)
Colostrum
48.5
48
47.5
47
46.5
46
45.5
45
44.5
44
Volostrum
Experimental lamb ration Lyons
Concentrate composition (FW)
%
Rolled Barley
47.5
Soya Hulls
9
Citrus Pulp
10
Soya bean meal
27
Molasses
2.5
Mins and Vits
3.0
Salt
1
Dry Matter
88
Crude protein (book values)
18.5
Lamb performance when reared on the
ewe to 6 weeks and intensively fed to
slaughter
Trait
Average
Min
Max
Birth Weight (kg)
3.7
2.2
5
Conc. Intake from weaning (kgs/day)
1.35
0.95
1.65
Average Daily Gain from weaning (grams)
389
240
430
Feed Conversion Ratio
3.81
3.22
4.13
Slaughter Weight (kg)
39.8
38.7
42
Carcass weight (kg)
19
18.1
20.3
Kill Out %
48
46
50.9
Days to Slaughter
111
-
-
Key Points
•Colostrum intake gives enhanced performance vs
colostrum alternatives
–Reduces disease occurrence
•As its a high input system select lambs with the best
growth potential ie big male lambs
•Target weaning at 6 weeks of age when intake is 250
grams per day.
–Intake is more important than age
•Make palatable feed available from one week of age
•Salt and Ammonium chloride were included in all our
studies to control urinary calculi
Store lamb finishing
• Forage crops
• Indoor finishing
Lamb slaughtering 2014
800,000
682,832
700,000
600,000
579,058
538,322
500,000
445,949
400,000
300,000
200,000
100,000
0
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Purchased store lambs
• Assume selenium and cobalt are deficient
– Copper also may need attention
• Fluke and worm drench
• Feet problems, especially if housing on straw
• Clostridial vaccinations
– Each 1% increase in lamb mortality reduces
system profitability by almost €1/lamb
•
• Know energy requirements and select lambs
frequently
Energy requirements in relation to
gender, LW, GR and diet quality
Growth
rate
Female
Castrate
Male
Diet 10 MJ/kg DM
30kg
40kg
30kg
40kg
30kg
40kg
DMI ME
DMI ME
DMI ME
DMI ME
DMI ME
DMI ME
50
0.7
6.6
0.8
8.3
0.6
6.4
0.8
8.0
0.7
7.3
0.9
9.2
100
0.9
8.6
1.1
10.9 0.8
8.2
1.0
10.1 0.9
9.3
1.2
11.7
200
1.4
14.5 1.9
18.7 1.3
13.0 1.6
15.9 1.4
14.5 1.9
18.6
Diet 13 MJ/kg DM
DMI ME
DMI ME
DMI ME
DMI ME
DMI ME
DMI ME
100
0.6
7.4
0.7
9.4
0.5
7.1
0.7
0.6
0.8
10.2
200
0.8
10.9 1.1
14
0.8
10.1 1.0
12.5 0.9
11.4 1.1
14.6
300
1.2
15.6 1.5
20.1 1.1
14
17.2 1.2
15.6 1.5
20.1
1.3
8.8
8.1
A 40 kg lamb will require almost 3 times more energy for a kg of gain than a 10kg
lambs
Use of forage crops
Key points
• Introduce gradually over 10 days to prevent
digestive upsets
• Dag and clip bellies before introduction
• Lameness from mud build up can be an issue
• A run back, shelter and fresh clean water should
be provided
• Tooth loss can be an issue on forage crops (roots)
• Weather conditions affect intake and utilisation
Not all fodder crops are created equal
• Roots eg fodder beet are high in energy but
low in DM and CP
– A high protein supplement with ~ 18% CP at 250500 grams per day
• Kale or Rape are high in protein, and to utilise
this energy is required
– Whole cereals of SBP @ 250-500grams per day
Fodder crops and health
• Bloat: introduce slowly to allow rumen
adaption. A run back to grass is beneficial for
7-10 days
• Brassicae anaemia
/glucosinolates/nitrates/nitrites:
• Can be a risk with prolonged grazing on
mature forage crops. Iodine supplementation
recommended
Concentrate supplementation
• Short keep
– Finished on good quality grass
– Generally only require energy supplement
– Whole cereals up to 500g per day
– Allow 300-400 mm trough space
– Results can be variable
Medium keep
• May need protein as well as energy as lambs
still need to grow as opposed to finish and
forage crop may be low in protein
– 14% CP ration
•
•
•
•
Whole barley 75%
SBP (or other fibre source) 10%
SBM 7.5%
Minerals 2.5%
Long keep
• Will have most likely undergone some period
of low growth rate (< 50gr/day) so require
high protein levels for body development
• As above but with 7.5% cereal replaced with
7.5% SBM for 4-5 weeks bringing overall
protein to 17/18%.
• Protein can be dropped back to 15/16%
thereafter
Housing and feeding guidelines
• Shearing increases capacity
• Ad lib fed lambs required 9kg of feed DM for 1
kg of carcass gain
• Assume a feed cost of 35 cent per kg DM
• Cost of 1kg of carcass gain is €3.15
• Worth about €5.20 at the moment
• This is only feed cost
Should you shear at housing?
Keady and Hanrahan, 2015
High level concentrate feeding
• Start at 250 grams per day and build by 200
grams every 3 days
• Include ingredients with highly digestible fibre
– Whole grain, hulls, beet pulp, citrus pulp
• Whole grains will not pass through
– Whole grains also help to prevent development of soft
back fat
•
•
•
•
Keep feed clean and water clean
Avoid lambs being overly hungry
All conc 15% CP
With GS 18% no better than 13% (Keady, 2015)
Minerals
• No added phosphorous, magnesium or copper
– (Welsh recommendations)
• Ca: P at a minimum of 2:1
• Add 1% additional salt to ad lib diets to
promote water intake and urinantion
• 0.5% ammonium chloride