Feeding and Parisite advice

[Baymule]

Ever one to not like waste, I've noticed the chickens fight each other for the tapeworm segments in the poop (when they are not squabbling about the maggots from fly strike!) As sheep tapeworms don't have a secondary host in the chicken, I guess it's all just good protein to them........I hope I haven't put anybody off their breakfast eggs

Anybody that has a queasy stomach ought not keep animals.

 

[Ridgetop]

So true! We have to be careful in public places because we routinely discuss disgusting animal disease symptoms.

 

[Sheepshape]

So true! We have to be careful in public places because we routinely discuss disgusting animal disease symptoms.

SO true. Particularly bad when accompanied by exaggerated hand gestures....

 

[jdhd003]

Thanks everyone for the update, just an update, the dewormer seems to have worked great for the first round, poop is back to normal, not all clumpy. For a day or 2 it was full of worms so I have to believe it helped.
I do have another question. I have been starting them on grain very slowly, just a little tiny bit at a time I am petrified of bloat, so 2 questions, how much should i be giving them and how slowly should o get them used to it?
The other question is how do you know if they have bloat? Sometimes their bellies look big, but they still love to eat and run around, except for the heat wave last week they were a little lazy. In these pics do their bellies look normal or a little bloated?

 

[Baymule]

When they have full bellies, their side will stick out. They then go lay down and ruminate.

 

[mysunwolf]

As for grain, start with maybe a 1/2 cup and build up to 1lb each over the course of a few weeks.

 

[Ridgetop]

We also like growing our own meat so we know what type of feed went into the animal and how they were raised humanely. It looks like you have raised meat animals before, so hopefully I don't offend you by going over stuff you probably already know. But you asked some questions the I wanted to address here in case any newbies read this thread. We all know that you can eat any kind of meat depending on how it is cooked, but we all also know that tasty, tender meat is best, so here goes.

First, what breed are the lambs? Certain breeds need more grain and others do not. Depending on the breed and how it is fed you may not reach 100 lbs.

Second, how old are they now? Since you got them in June and they were weaned, I am assuming they are between 4 and 5 months now. They are a white faced breed, so they might be one of the smaller breeds or crosses. Are they a hair sheep? Many breeds of hair sheep are smaller too. Did the seller tell you what weight they should finish out at? Did they give you a timeline or projected age?

Third, how much do they weigh now? That weight, combined with their age and breed will determine how much more weight you can actually put on them.

Bloat - an animal with bloat is uncomfortable, often stops eating, has a very distended belly and if you thump on it like you would on a watermelon, it will sound hollow. They don't look bloated to me. Lambs on hay as their main diet will naturally have a large belly (hay belly) in order to process the roughage (hay) they are consuming. If these were show lambs going to fair, you would have put them on a balanced show lamb ration with just a couple handfuls of hay to balance their rumen. That is how you get the beautiful streamlined show lamb body. These large bellies look just right for lambs on hay, and you don't need the streamlined show lamb look. They will finish without it.

Feeding market lambs depends on the breed, structure, and age of the lamb. Certain breeds were developed to finish early on pasture. Those breeds need very little grain and go to slaughter straight from pasture between 80-100 lbs. at 6 months. Others are large framed, require a lot more grain, and often go to a feed lot to finish at 135-160 lbs. Show market lambs are usually black faced breeds that are pushed to finish around 6 months at 135-140 lb.

You need to feed your lambs a diet that will bring them to your desired market weight in the desired amount of time. Since you are in Western Mass, I assume that hay prices will rise during the winter once it is no longer being cut in the source area. You will have a time line now for getting those lambs into the butcher before feed prices rise. Based on the breed, structure size, price of grain/hay, current weight you need to determine your time line to raise these lambs to slaughter weight. Once you have determined that, you need to determine the rate of gain on your feeding program. Take the current weight on your lambs, weigh them every weeks to see how much they are gaining on their current feeding program. With that as a baseline, you can start adding supplements to their diet and checking what their new rate of gain is. You want to push them to gain as fast as possible since the younger they are at slaughter, the better for your bottom line. The older the lamb, the slower the rate of gain becomes, so by a certain point you are wasting grain money unless you are raising them on pasture. Pushing them does not mean throwing massive amounts of grain at them since this will make them scour and lose any weight they have already gained. It means gradually adding grain to their hay diet until you reach the rate of gain plateau. At that point you level off the amount of supplemental feed and remain at that rate to slaughter.

Now, there is a difference in the type of grain you feed for what you want to do. Oats will put on nice hard flesh, but not much weight - that is why if you have a lamb or hog that might go overweight by Fair you will cut their ration with oats to hold them at the right weight. Not what you want to do here where fast consistent grain is the most economical for your purpose so do not feed straight oats as the only grain supplement.

Corn will put on weight and fat, good for flavor, but can put on too much fat. A good rolled barleycorn mixture is cheaper than a mixed lamb ration and will put on some weight while not having any additives. Or you could go with a lamb grower or finisher ration. That said, since you want to avoid too much processed feed for a more natural meat, I would use plain old barleycorn. Barleycorn is a mixture of corn and barley sold by the bag already mixed at the feed store.

Meat is muscle: It is necessary when growing any animal for meat consumption that you are aware where the meat is on the skeleton. Once you know where the meaty cuts are, you can judge if your lambs are gaining weight in the right places. No point growing out your lamb to 100 lbs. or more if it is a large boned, tall animal with minimal meat on its frame. The best meat animal has muscle in all the meaty places. then you need to know what finish is.

Finish is the fat layer on the meat or the marbling in the meat. Without any finish the meat is so lean that it is tough and there is hardly any flavor. Too much fat and you have been putting to many $$$ into the animal after it should have been hanging in the meat locker. Go on line and look for "Lambs - finish" and "Lambs - carcass evaluation". That will help you know when your lambs are ready to go to the butcher. Some breeds will put on meat and finish with hardly any grain while others need heavy grain feeding to do so.

Hope this doesn't sound to pompous or all knowing. It took us a long time to learn all of this from a lot of different people over 30 years. If I can share it and help others, it is worth it.

 

[greybeard]

Anybody that has a queasy stomach ought not keep animals.

It does make you wonder, what the 1st person ever that ate an egg was thinking......... "Oh Look! Look what came out of that bird's butt!!?? Hmmm...I think I'll just pop it in my mouth."

 

[Ridgetop]

Maybe it was a 2 year old! (Having arrived too late to scoop the snail out of DD's mouth!) Prehistoric parents probably figured "Oh he/she survived! Must be ok form of protein!"

 

[jdhd003]

Thank you for the advice, its not pompous at all I appreciate it. I have raised meat rabbits and chickens for years, but I am new to lambs and ruminants so I get a little nervous about the feeding and bloat, and the worms were also new to me.
These are White Dorper. When I got them I was told they were approx 6 to 8 weeks and 35 to 40 pounds at the time, but that was am estimate. He said they should get to around 80 to 90 pounds by Oct/Nov. I weighed them last week when I de-wormed, 1 was 54 pounds 1 was 57.
I was not sure about the bellies, they looked big to me but both lambs still run and eat so i just wanted to ask what bloat actually looks like. It makes sense that they get full then go lay down, that's what I have seen them do lol.
I picked up a bag of country feeds all stock with no added copper a few weeks ago. and have been giving them just a few pieces each at a time. I also was told to mix in just a little bit of soy bean meal, but to be careful and go easy with it. It sounds like I can start to gradually give them more grain. I am not married to the feed I have, it was something that I picked up, my usual feed store that I get my hay and poultry feed from also makes a shepherds mix that they make I can ask about, it may be better, I will also ask if they have Barley corn, I have a feeling that is similar to their shepherds mix, with a little molasses added in.

It is great to know that there are people willing to help out with these questions.