Lambs thrive on pellets with Actisaf
Steve Buckley keeps 200 Suffolk and Texel breeding ewes and their lambs, as well as breeding Suffolk and cross bred tups. He grazes the flock on 345 acres at Sitting Low Farm near Buxton, Derbyshire, along with 120 suckler cows. His pedigree flock is well-known, with the Sitlow Suffolk line performing well at both sales and shows throughout the country.
As a Suffolk breed judge himself, Steve understands the business of raising high quality lambs well, and the 90 Suffolk lambs from this spring are no exception to his usual standard. Lambs are brought on in the hills of the Peak District and fed Carrs Billington’s EarlyBite Lamb Pellet.
With high maize and Hipro Soya inclusion, EarlyBite Lamb Pellets are specially designed to get lambs onto feed early and drive intakes to maximise growth and fleshing. Actisaf live yeast is included to maintain rumen function, improve fibre digestion and feed conversion, reduce the risk of digestive upset and acidosis and deliver better carcase conformation. EarlyBite, a unique sensory additive, helps to stimulate appetite and encourage intakes of the feed as well as forage.
“As hill grazers, we don’t always have top quality fodder to give our lambs so feeding a top of the range pellet like the Early Bite lamb pellet fits in really well with our farm,” he explained.
When lambs are weaned in late spring, they are put to grass and fed the pellets ad lib until grass quality reaches 15-16% protein later in the year, at which point they are moved onto a coarse mix.
“Before we started feeding the pellets, we had issues with the young lambs sorting through their feed, but this isn’t a problem at all with the pellet,” Steve explained. “They take to this feed early and do very well on it - our best lambs this year are gaining about 500g per day. One of our pedigree lambs is doing exceptionally on the EarlyBite Lamb Pellet; at 56 days old he weighed 43 kg and 70 days later came in at 86 kg (614 g/day)!”
“I have been feeding Early Bite Lamb Pellet for several years now and have been really pleased with how the lambs have performed. The results speak for themselves, and we’ll continue feeding it for the foreseeable future,” he concluded.