An award-winning sheep enterprise calculates that returns from the higher survival rates among multiple birth and orphan lambs since a milk replacer made from ewe milk was introduced for rearing pays for the farm’s labour costs at lambing.

Johnny and Marese Bell run a 600-ewe flock at Castletown, Geoghegan in Co. Westmeath.

In the past Johnny had struggled with bloat in orphan lambs during the milk feeding stage but in 2018 there was just one mortality among the 125 lambs reared on Shine Ewe-reka.

Johnny’s confidence in the product is such that a lamb is now never left in the field with its mother if there is the slightest doubt that she will be unable to do a good job of rearing her lambs.

A combination of management changes, reseeding of pastures and using Lifeline Lamb and Ewe buckets increased scanning % from 1.9 to 2.1. Using Ewe-reka has helped increased lambs reared from 1.5 to 1.8.

If lambs with their mother are not thriving or are hungry, they are removed and reared on Ewe-reka.

Live weight gains are better than those for lambs from twin-rearing ewes and comparable to single-reared lambs, said Johnny. Johnny tries to select rams to rear on Ewe-reka as they reach his target slaughter weight quicker.

The added benefit that Johnny did not anticipate was that the lamb left with the ewe now reaches killing weight sooner, and there is a significant reduction in losses at grass as a result of lambs not performing.

Johnny Bell, farmer and Joe Murphy, Bonanza

Another benefit is the improvement in the health and condition of the ewe when one lamb is removed.

The artificially reared lambs are fed ad-lib milk and ration until weaning, which happens when lambs reach weight targets. From one week old, lambs have access to fresh straw for eating, water and lamb ration at all times.

Lambs are weaned abruptly at a minimum of 17kg if they are born before mid-March, or 16kg if they are born between mid-March and April – the later lambs are predominantly from ewe lambs.

Nearly all lambs are sold direct to slaughter. All but 25 of the 125 lambs reared on Shine Ewe-reka in 2018 were slaughtered or sold live at factory fit condition from late June to mid-August. The remaining 25 were slaughtered in mid-October.

“All pet lambs were slaughtered earlier, or at least at the same time as their siblings that remained with their mothers in the main flock,’’ said Johnny, who was the 2018 Zurich Farming Independent Sheep Farmer of the Year.

Further information

For more information on Shine Ewe-reka, contact Bonanza Calf Nutrition at: 0429-336001.

Or simply click here