1. Body Condition Score: For lowland crossbred ewes increasing BCS from 2.5 to 3.5 can increase scanning percent by 20-40%. For a hill ewe a BCS of around 2.5 is more realistic.
2. Housing: House and feed according to scanning results. Lambing pens should be dry, draught-free and well-ventilated providing adequate space per ewe.
3. Colostrum: Good quality colostrum (50 g/litre or more of Immunoglobulin-G (IgG)) should be provided at 50 ml/kg live weight per feed at birth and every six hours thereafter in the first 24 hours. Hygiene during collection, transfer and feeding of colostrum is critical to lamb survival.
4. Navel dip: Treated with 10% iodine solution as soon as possible after birth (within 15 minutes) with a follow up dip about four hours after birth encouraged.
5. Milk replacer: Choose one to suit your feeding system, lamb type and growth goals. Ensure it is mixed correctly (temperature, concentration & volume) and consistently to reduce stress and nutritional scours. (20% concentration means 200g powder to 800ml water to make a litre).
6. Starter feed: Provide ad libitum access to a good quality starter (16/18 % protein) offered from day 3 or after the colostrum phase to kick start rumen development. Little, fresh and often is the best approach and all feed refusals should be fed to older stock.
7. Water: Ad libitum access to fresh, clean water at an easily accessible height should be provided from birth. Together water and starter intake drive rumen development pre-weaning.
8. Roughage: Offer good quality straw in a rack (avoid long green hay as this can lead to depressed starter feed intake, delayed weaning and pot-bellied lambs).
9. Hygiene: Implement procedures for buildings, feeding equipment and personnel and evaluate hygiene management on a regular basis in addition to observing lambs for any signs of ill-health. One third of lamb losses occur due to infections so focus on colostrum and hygiene.
10. Weaning: Lambs should be 2.5 times their birth weight (9 – 10 kg) at seven weeks of age and consuming 250 g of starter feed per day for successful weaning.
