Heavy rainfall has made it harder to finish lambs with higher levels of supplementation required where grass utilisation and dry matter content are poor.

Ration formulation is key in achieving high levels of daily liveweight gain with the energy content of the feed underpinning performance.

High-energy ingredients include cereals such as barley, maize and wheat but be careful with wheat to limit its inclusion to 15% to 20% due to rapid digestion and an increased risk of digestive upsets with higher volumes.

Beet pulp is another good quality feed, as is soya hulls and distillers grains.

Rapeseed meal has its merits in being a high-protein and medium-energy feed but again be careful to limit its inclusion to a maximum of 20% due to palatability issues where feeding high volumes.

For finishing lambs on a high-concentrate diet, the focus should be on energy content over protein content. Well-grown lambs will suffice with a protein content of 11% to 12% while growing lambs will benefit from 13% to 14% protein content, rising to 16% for very light lambs (less than 30kg) with a lot of growing still to do.

As has been touched on in previous weeks, where male lambs are on a high-concentrate diet it is recommended to include ammonium chloride at 0.5% to prevent urinary calculi.

Read more

Lamb prices head towards €5/kg