CAFRE lambing event highlights importance of ‘getting it right’ with pre-lambing nutrition on local farm

Date published: 10 February 2025

College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) Beef and Sheep Advisers have been hosting on-farm practical meetings discussing nutrition and how it can have a major impact on the outcome of this year’s lamb crop. Providing the optimal level of nutrition will help to contribute to a successful lambing.

Eric Garvin kindly hosted the first meeting, where he and his family are lambing 650 ewes and 225 ewe lambs on their farm outside Garvagh. Ewe type on the farm is now predominately Easycare, having made the move to the breed eight years ago. Rams used are also mainly Easycare with a small number of New Zealand Suffolk rams used within the flock.

Replacements are homebred and surplus breeding stock are sold privately. Both an indoor and outdoor lambing regime is in place with singles, multiples and ewe lambs lambed indoors and twin bearing ewes lambed outdoors. Key aspects of management on Eric’s farm were discussed including ewe body condition score, forage analysis and concentrate feeding requirement in late pregnancy.

A body condition score (BCS) gives an assessment of the ewe body reserves at stages through the production cycle. BCS is a manual assessment carried out using the traditional five-point scoring system using a range of 1 - 5, with 1 being extremely thin while 5 is excessively fat.

Nutrition influences ewe production at all stages of the production cycle and ewes in poor condition tend to have increased instances of low-birth-weight lambs, lambs with lower vigour at birth and reduced chance of survival.

Preliminary results for the AHDB-funded sheep Key Performance Indicator (KPI) project supports the hypothesis that BCS at key stages of the production cycle, is an appropriate KPI to predict weaned lamb weight. These data suggest a positive correlation with the weight of lamb weaned with: BCS at mating and weight gain from weaning to mating, BCS at scanning, BCS at lambing, loss of BCS from lambing (fit ewes) or gain of BCS (thin ewes) to weaning.

Ewes in poor body condition can also have lower colostrum production and reduced maternal bond with lambs as it the ewes own natural survival instinct to partition the limited energy supply towards her own survival as opposed to looking after the newborn lamb.

70 - 75% of foetal growth takes place in the last 6-7 weeks of pregnancy and the energy demand on the ewe increases dramatically. The growing lambs reduce the space available for the ewe’s rumen, subsequently reducing appetite by up to 30%. As a result, multiple bearing ewes can no longer eat enough silage to satisfy their energy demand, so this shortfall must be made up by concentrate feeding.

Forage quality will directly influence the dry matter intake of the ewes. All forage should be analysed as this will form the largest proportion of the diet. Fermentation of silages (smell and look), digestibility (proportion of sharp stems) and freedom from mould and dust should be assessed.  Precision chopped silage is broken down more effectively in the rumen, increasing intakes and performance. Chop length of silage has a major impact on silage intake of sheep.

Research carried out at by Teagasc at Athenry found that ewes offered silage, during mid and late pregnancy, which was precision chopped produced lambs that were 1.8 kg heavier at weaning.  It is also important to ensure feed is fresh, palatable and available to the ewes to optimise intakes. The provision of high-quality forages can reduce concentrate requirements.

Concentrate should be high quality in terms of ingredients with a protein content of around 19%.  When choosing a concentrate ration pay particular attention to the feed label. Soya bean meal is a good bypass protein source and should be the top protein source on the feed label.

Energy sources in a good ewe concentrate should be made up of cereals, mainly maize, barley or wheat. Avoid ingredients such as sunflower and an over-supply of highly fibrous feeds which will generally lower the quality of the ration. Provide a high-quality concentrate in the smallest volume possible to maintain rumen function and forage digestion.  Use the list of ingredients on the bag label to assess the quality of the compound, printed in descending order of inclusion. Speak to an Adviser to discuss the quality of the concentrates purchased.

Factors to consider that will affect dry matter intake (DMI)

• Forage quality
• Forage availability/feeding regime
• Feed barrier design and space
• Water availability and quality
• Stage of pregnancy
• Number of lambs carried
• Dentition (ewes with a broken mouth)
• Concurrent disease (e.g. lameness)

Table 1: Concentrate feeding rates (kg): Twin bearing 70kg ewe

The table illustrates the benefits of making better quality silage in terms of a reduction in purchased concentrate requirement. Feeding a poor-quality silage requires a total 30kg of concentrates per ewe over the six weeks pre lambing versus excellent quality silage requiring 12kg.

Getting the feeding right – practical checklist

• Ensure adequate feed space is available: 45 cm/head.
• Batch ewes according to litter size and body condition score.
• Separate ewe lambs/hoggets from the main flock to reduce competition at the feed barrier.
• Feed high quality forage.
• If feeding more than 0.5 kg concentrates at once, split feeds into two feeds to avoid digestive upsets.
• Free flowing, clean water should be available, 4.5 litres per day in late pregnancy, 10 litres per day in lactation.
• Minimise stress in late pregnancy.

For further information and advice regarding management of your flock pre-lambing, please contact a CAFRE Beef and Sheep Adviser through your local DAERA Direct office.