Great Lakes Dairy Sheep Symposium - the Department of Animal ...

LAMB REARING STRATEGIES: FARMER PANEL
EXPERIENCED FARMERS DISCUSS PROS AND CONS OF DIFFERENT WEANING
SYSTEMS
Beth Slotter
Old Chatham Sheepherding Company
Old Chatham, New York, USA
The lamb rearing strategy used at the Old Chatham Sheepherding Company
(OCSC) is designed to maximize milk production for cheese making. Therefore, all lambs are
raised separately from the ewes.
Bred ewes are checked approximately 60 days after breeding to determine if the ewe is
actually pregnant. All pregnant ewes are on pasture until one month prior to lambing, when they
are brought into the lambing barn. During the last month of pregnancy, the ewes are fed a custom
total mixed ration to raise the quality of their nutrition, preparing them for lambing and lactation.
The ewes lamb in a common pen and, after birthing, they are placed in a jug with the lambs for 1
– 4 days.
Shortly after birth, lambs are tagged if they are to be kept as replacements. Replacement
lambs are chosen based on their mother’s milk production history or an estimated breeding value
that is used to predict a ewe’s potential milk production. Any lambs not being kept for
replacements are sold to farms in the area that raise them for meat. Space limitations dictate this
practice.
After about four days, replacement lambs are moved to a greenhouse barn, where they are
initially bottle fed with milk replacer. The milk replacer is custom mixed and contains 30%
protein and 25% fat to encourage a faster rate of gain. After 2-3 days on bottles, the lambs are
trained to eat from automatic Lak-Tec machines. Lambs have access to the machines 24 hours a
day. A week later, the lambs are also provided with a free choice custom mixed creep ration that
contains 25% protein and grass hay. The automatic milk machines have eliminated lamb deaths
due to bloat and the machines save a great deal of labor.
The greenhouse barn has a blacktop floor, which is easy to clean. The barn is thoroughly
cleaned on a weekly basis. A stall-drying product is added to bedding during humid weather to
absorb ammonia fumes and to keep the bedding drier, thus minimizing disease. The greenhouse
barn is well ventilated with an open ridge vent, and sides roll up. Fans are in the corners, and
large aisle fans are used in the summer to improve ventilation.
Lambs are weaned off the milk replacer shortly after they reach one month of age. They
are kept in the greenhouse until two months of age, so they can become adjusted to their new
diet. At two months they are moved to another building, which is three sided and well ventilated.
They are fed a custom milled grower grain that contains 18% protein and high quality hay that
typically is mostly grass with some alfalfa. Depending on the weather, the lambs are moved to
pasture at 4-6 months of age. The last inside feeding step has improved growth rates significantly
and allows breeding at less than one year of age.
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