Based on her family’s holding at Four Roads, approximately 16 kilometers from Roscommon town, the early lambing season for Olivia Hynes is already underway.

A full-time sheep farmer who also has a suckler herd, Olivia’s immediate family weigh in during the hectic lambing period to ensure that everything goes as smoothly as possible.

“It’s such a time-consuming few weeks, during which every single lamb requires and deserves time, care and attention, said Olivia. “Both my parents, Mary and John, also help through the season along with my siblings, nieces and nephews.

Olivia added: “The quality of Lamlac is important to me as is having an effective, efficient way of feeding them for which we incorporate the Volac Eco Feeder from Förster Technik – and thanks to both which I’ve been using over the past few lambing seasons - things have been working like a dream. We’re a few years into using both and I know that I couldn’t be rearing the numbers I have without the machine. It works incredibly well for me – in fact, the machine has already paid for itself.”

Lamlac is ideal for most feeding systems including machine, heated buckets and bottle feeding. Available in Instant and Freeflow in 5kg and 20kg sizes, Lamlac mixes easily in warm or cold water and is formulated to maximise lamb performance.

Lamlac’s ultra-filtrated, highly digestible milk proteins accelerate growth, featuring high immunoglobulin levels which boost both the lamb’s health and natural disease resistance. Research results, coupled with consistent feedback from farmers throughout Ireland, including Olivia Hynes, shows that, from birth to weaning, lambs fed with Lamlac achieve growth rates of 0.3kg per day.

Regarding Lamlac, Olivia stated: “It’s a super product and is so easy to prepare. I’d have the newborn lambs on Lamlac about 24 hours after birth. Some might need colostrum for a little longer than others and we’re always mindful of the needs of each lamb during those initial hours. It consistently delivers daily growth as well as higher survival rates, which is so important for any farmer involved in lambing, especially when you’re handling triplets or even quads.”

According to JP Harkin of Volac Milk Replacers Ireland Ltd: “Many farmers have found that lambs reared on Lamlac perform just as well as those reared on ewes and are among the early bunches drafted for sale.”

Taking different feeding systems into account, a lamb reared to weaning at 35 days of age will need up to 13kg of Lamlac (65 litres of mixed milk replacer). Irrespective of the rearing system, lambs require access to fresh water, roughage and a quality creep feed to boost rumen development.

Olivia Hynes commented: “Once the lambs move onto the machine, they adapt very quickly to that type of feeding; it only takes a couple of rounds before all the lambs approach the suction points and get comfortable using them. We’d have been between 30 and 40 lambs being fed on Lamlac through the machine at any one time.

“Ask anyone who is lambing during the busy February/March period: the combination of a proven, effective ewe milk replacer and an efficient means of feeding lambs is an absolute godsend.”

Two independent rearing studies, conducted by Harper Adams University and Reaseheath College in 2021, underlined the efficacy of Lamlac for both surplus lambs and smaller animal numbers.

Both study groups of lambs were fed Lamlac at a rate of 200g of powder mixed with 800ml of water to provide one litre of milk, while also having access to fresh water, creep feed and forage ad lib during the trial period. All lambs graded similarly upon processing, with no perceptible difference between those reared on Lamlac Ewe Milk Replacer or the ewe.

Olivia heartily recommended Lamlac to her fellow lambing farmers: “Our lambs look so well thanks to Lamlac. It digests quickly, helps them to thrive and has all the nutrients a growing lamb requires.”

She concluded: “This is such a busy time of year for me. You want and need to trust all the constituent parts which allow the farm to run smoothly. To that end, Lamlac plays an invaluable role in ensuring we continue to rear strong, healthy, thriving lambs. And I couldn’t be happier with it.”

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