Preparing sheep for triplets now the aim

Average sheep production in NZ has improved markedly in the last 10 years and that is best illustrated by the fact that although ewe numbers have fallen dramatically to nearly half what they were 20 years ago, meat produced has not.

Improving lambing percentages and better carcase weights have allowed total volumes of meat produced to be maintained at a similar rate to the past, but with farm costs continually rising the production bar must be extended further.

Leading AgResearch scientist Tom Fraser, believes sheep farmers must improve the feeding levels to the multiple bearing ewes with high quality feed to achieve growth rates at respectable levels. Lactation management similar to that employed by dairy farmers is suggested to achieve the required milk volumes for extra lambs.

Forty years ago a major topic of discussion among sheep farmers in NZ was would they be able to manage ewes with twins. Fast forward to today and a similar debate is occurring over how farmers should be managing triplets, AgResearch scientist Tom Fraser says at a Beef+Lamb field day held near Mt Somers reports the Timaru Herald.

If farmers were to take advantage of the high prices they were being paid for their lambs, they had to identify and improve their lamb growth rates during ewe lactation."The average lamb growth rate during lactation in New Zealand is 220 grams a day." If farmers managed to improve that rate to 300 grams a day, it would provide an additional $27,000 for a farmer with 2000 lambs.

High lamb growth rate targets could best be achieved during lactation and post weaning.The period of lactation is the easiest time by far to achieve maximum lamb growth rates."Once you get into mid-December and the post-weaning phase it is much more difficult to achieve high lamb growth rates."Farmers needed to plan ahead with their management in autumn and winter to achieve the necessary pasture covers to hit lamb growth rates of 300 grams a day.

He suggested that sheep farmers adopt the practice of dairy farmers where they set aside a date within spring where their goal is to have an average pasture cover across pastures that multiple ewes will graze. Ewes now had to produce enough colostrum for two to three lambs meaning their condition was more important. In the two weeks prior to lambing a 65kg ewe pregnant with twins has to eat 9.2kg of fresh herbage a day to maintain its BCS. After lambing that increases to 19kg of herbage a day. He also suggested farmers introduce their ewe hoggets to grain as a supplement so the sheep were familiar with it as a food source in case it needed to be fed to them in order to hit the required feed levels coming into lambing.