Lamb rearing can be a good money earner

The increasing price of prime lambs has developed another opportunity for profit, the rearing of orphan lambs. Historically the costs of feeding, out weighed the return out of an orphan lamb but with feeding costs of about $45-55 a head, margins have returned.

Dr Paul Muir at Poukawa research farm has checked and trialed the principles, many gleaned from his experiences with calves, with this project funded by Beef and Lamb NZ. Many who have had to deal with a sudden death in the kids pet lambs will agree that overfeeding is a risk, and adding yoghurt to prevent bloat seems a great tip.

The storm did present a source of  cheap cows colostrum when tankers were unable to pick up milk, for the opportunistic and entrepenurial sheep farmer, but the biggest hurdle maybe sourcing significant numbers in an average year. The question that arises out of this venture, is it more economic to rear orphan lambs like this, rather than mothering on in the traditional way? The time saved from no mothering on, and the culling of all sheep not rearing a lamb naturally, should also be considered in a profit analysis.

Lamb rearing is a cost effective money earner for farmers with high sheepmeat prices looking set to continue, an agricultural research scientist says. Dr Paul Muir reared more than 500 lambs over three years at the Poukawa Research Farm, south of Hastings reports The Central Farmer. Lambs can be reared economically by applying calf rearing principles, but rearers had to put the right measures in place to ensure success, he said. Critical to this was feeding the lambs cow colostrum. It was the best substitute for ewes' milk.

When fed quality meal and a restricted milk regime, healthy lambs could be fed once a day from three weeks of age and weaned off milk at four to six weeks if they weighed at least 9kg. Rearers also needed to fit their feeders with hard teats because the lambs fed them aggressively. He suggested putting the lambs onto a small paddock when they were let out of the rearing shed for the first time to allow them to adjust to their new surroundings.Lambs should be fed milk or colostrum three times a day for the first four to seven days, reduce to twice a day for two weeks and then once a day for one week.

He urged farmers to stick to the feeding regime. "The biggest risk for pet lambs is overfeeding them." Underfeeding the lambs, adding meal and keeping them inside helped ensure their survival. "If you have got them running around on grass, and you're not feeding them from a bottle, their rumen development takes months." He recommended adding yoghurt to the milk to prevent bloat, which was the biggest health risk for a reared lamb.

Feeding good quality, palatable meal was critical for the early weaning of these lambs. Feeding meal fast-tracked rumen development and allowed the farmer to get the lamb off milk earlier. He expected the cost of rearing lambs would be about $45 to $55 per animal. That made it a viable money earner for a sheep farmer when the schedule was high.

"If you've got the right milk, the right meal and the right attitude you can wean your lambs off milk after four weeks and you can have them off once-a-day feeding after two weeks." The weight gains achieved were not spectacular at 21kg after 11 weeks, but it meant the farmer had a live lamb ready to grow out and be sold to the market, he said.