That time of year has come round again with lambs starting to fill the fields of the UK. All the effort that has been put into keeping your ewes in good condition through the cold, wet winter before lambing. Your colostrum management systems have been put into place to ensure that all the lambs are fit, healthy and flourishing.
Lambs will start to be more active and in turn will face more challenges over the first 12 weeks of life. Ensuring you keep up good management on farm is key through this period. Depending on where in the country you are, these will be different. One key aspect of this management is ensuring the nutrition of these lambs is maximised so that they can continue to grow and thrive ensuring maximum profit for all.
Many farmers at around the five-to-six week mark will reach for a nutritional drench to top up trace elements and vitamins, this will help keep lambs healthy and growing on target. The role of vitamin E for example is well documented. It is essential for the health and well-being of the animal, and supports the immune system with its powerful antioxidant properties. It gets used up more rapidly during times of stress, meaning an extra boost of Vitamin E helps support the immune system at this critical time. Vitamin E is naturally most available in fresh grass, and is much less so in conserved forages and cereal grains etc.Therefore requirement for vitamin E supplementation is much higher during the winter time.
It’s important to choose a drench that has the trace elements the lamb requires, but also a product that can be administered quickly, accurately and easily to the lamb.
Traditional drenches are mostly on a molasses base, which can give the user potential issues, depending on the time of year. These drenches will become very thick in cold weather making it very difficult to put through the applicator. Also because the consistency is very sticky, this can line the inside of the chamber, potentially blocking the gun, but also not delivering the full dose intended for the animal.
Most components within the nutritional drenches are micro-ingredients meaning they are only needed in very small quantities by the animal. If we are losing product within the chamber then vital components potentially are not making it into the animal, reducing the effect of the product.
A key component to nutritional drenches is allowing the farmer to dose the product accurately and easily, not losing precious time when it can be avoided. Optigain® Lamb has been specially developed to provide trace elements matched to the needs of rapidly growing lambs, while at the same time being simple, quick and accurate to administer – giving piece of mind.
Optigain® nutritional free-flowing drenches do not suffer the same fate as the traditional molasses ones thanks to their distinctive formulations which use the highly effective and efficient Propylene Glycol as the energy source – which go through the applicators at the same rate – whether it be the first or last dose through. This ensures every last ingredient is used, allowing for full uptake of the key components at a critical growth time for lambs.
Optigain’s® purity being one of the best on the market allows for a more stable and usable product, allowing for effective absorption to help alleviate any stress, also allowing the farmer to not worry about the amount given which is down to the Rapid Accurate Dosing achievable with only these types of products.
For further information, contact your local territory manager.