Triplet routine.

arctictree

Lads - what's your routine with Triplets. I used to leave them all on but never again and many bad experiences last year. Do ye leave them all on for a day or do you remove one straight away?

Lambman

Short answer but Depends on what else is happening around the shed here.

charolais0153

Leave them for a few days until they can be fostered or they go on the feeder

kk.man

charolais0153 wrote: »

Leave them for a few days until they can be fostered or they go on the feeder

Last year I left a ewe with her 3 lambs..with the intention of taking one from her. Around the 4th day she started to reject one...it was a busy time and I had planned to take him away that morning except she killed him.
I was never as sorry for a lamb as he was a real character and my own stupidity.

Lano Lynn

I know lots of lads that brag about their ewe that reared triplets but they tend to have 20 r 30 ewes wandering around 40-50 acres .

cow has four tits and most do well to rear one calf half her liveweight.

sheep has two tits let her rear two well and adopt off the other or flog it

have all to often seen a ewe trying to rear three getting mastitis or worn out thus ending up with 4 bad sheep.


for her to rear three she needs to be really well fed through lactation and after for all that is in it I wonder can it be justified

Westernrock

Get them all a good suck and once she has them dried pull off the strongest lamb for fostering. I find most ewes that lamb down 3 and rear 2 would be abit behind at weaning never mind if they try to rear 3.

roosky

Ewe milked out and all lambs tubed to make sure they all get a fair chance,

Strongest lamb wet fostered then ASAP

Ewe goes out as a twin

If I get to end of lambing and have lambs left over they go on DD for €25

I have reared lambs on cold milk last few years and it works perfect but not worth the hassle for 3 or 4 lambs

Sami23

Has anyone used one of those calf rearing feeders with multiple tits on them to feed triplet lambs and could the calf tits be replaced with lamb tits as I think I can get my hands on a calf one ?
TIA

arctictree

Don't like using the bucket feeders myself as lambs tend to tip them if they are left with them. Then they gorge on the milk if brought out at intervals. Also, very hard to get the flow right on the teats. It's either dripping out or too slow.

Sami23

arctictree wrote: »

Don't like using the bucket feeders myself as lambs tend to tip them if they are left with them. Then they gorge on the milk if brought out at intervals. Also, very hard to get the flow right on the teats. It's either dripping out or too slow.

What would you suggest as an alternative.
Looking like I'm going to end up with at least 5-6 extra lambs when I remove one from my surviving triplets and they would be very small to sell on DD ?
TIA

arctictree

Sami23 wrote: »

What would you suggest as an alternative.
Looking like I'm going to end up with at least 5-6 extra lambs when I remove one from my surviving triplets and they would be very small to sell on DD ?
TIA

Bought one of these on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00VEETCDM/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's working a treat. Fix the teat to the wall and put the non return valve into a bottle of milk and leave them at it. I feed them warm milk with a bottle for the first two days, then leave them a bit hungry, then onto cold milk and then into the feeder pen. Working well so far and much less work than previous years with a bucket.

Sami23

arctictree wrote: »

Bought one of these on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00VEETCDM/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's working a treat. Fix the teat to the wall and put the non return valve into a bottle of milk and leave them at it. I feed them warm milk with a bottle for the first two days, then leave them a bit hungry, then onto cold milk and then into the feeder pen. Working well so far and much less work than previous years with a bucket.

How many can or do you feed with the 1 tit ?

arctictree

Sami23 wrote: »

How many can or do you feed with the 1 tit ?

I presume it's like the volac ewe2 feeder where you can have up to 20 lambs to a teat. I only have 4 on mine at the moment but will probably end up with 12 or more....

farawaygrass

Any of ye finding the milk powder settling to the bottom of the bucket after a few hours? Also, milk going sour after maybe 16 hrs? Volac ewe2lamb feeder with volac lamblac milk replacer

Westernrock

farawaygrass wrote: »

Any of ye finding the milk powder settling to the bottom of the bucket after a few hours? Also, milk going sour after maybe 16 hrs? Volac ewe2lamb feeder with volac lamblac milk replacer

We used to find that, switched to cold milk and no issues

farawaygrass

How old would the lambs be when you switch to cold milk?

Westernrock

farawaygrass wrote: »

How old would the lambs be when you switch to cold milk?

3days unless it was a very weak lamb, leave them on adlib cold milk and they drink little and often much like if they were on the ewe. Offer them creep from 1week old and keep them well bedded never had any issues with them and been doing them this way for the last 10-12years.
We had the shepherdess feeder before that and couldn’t keep milk from souring and separating, was talking to a volac calf milk rep about the problem and he suggested turning it off, no problems since that!

Sami23

arctictree wrote: »

Bought one of these on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00VEETCDM/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's working a treat. Fix the teat to the wall and put the non return valve into a bottle of milk and leave them at it. I feed them warm milk with a bottle for the first two days, then leave them a bit hungry, then onto cold milk and then into the feeder pen. Working well so far and much less work than previous years with a bucket.

Do you just drop the end with the non return valve into a bucket of cold milk then as they get bigger. Have you any pics of the setup.
On average how much per day are your lambs drinking ?
Looks like I'll have 5-6 to feed including a failed adoption crate lamb 😢

arctictree

Sami23 wrote: »

Do you just drop the end with the non return valve into a bucket of cold milk then as they get bigger. Have you any pics of the setup.
On average how much per day are your lambs drinking ?
Looks like I'll have 5-6 to feed including a failed adoption crate lamb 😢

Yep, just drop it in. I use a 5 litre water bottle as it's easy to see the level. I have 10 lambs drinking about a litre each per day. Trying to get a larger bottle at the moment. One like they use in offices for water dispensers.

I'll try to attach some pictures.

arctictree

Sami23 wrote: »

Do you just drop the end with the non return valve into a bucket of cold milk then as they get bigger. Have you any pics of the setup.
On average how much per day are your lambs drinking ?
Looks like I'll have 5-6 to feed including a failed adoption crate lamb 😢

Yep, just drop it in. I'm using a 5 litre bottle at the moment and they are drinking about a litre each per day. I find a bottle is easier than a bucket as you can easily see the level. I'm trying to get a bottle like the one they use in office water dispensers. See the non return valve attached and a few nuts to weigh it down.

arctictree

Picture of the bottle and lambs.

Sami23

arctictree wrote: »

Yep, just drop it in. I'm using a 5 litre bottle at the moment and they are drinking about a litre each per day. I find a bottle is easier than a bucket as you can easily see the level. I'm trying to get a bottle like the one they use in office water dispensers. See the non return valve attached and a few nuts to weigh it down.

Thanks for the pics. It's very simple but effective way of feeding them.
Do you just top up as it empties during the day then with cold lamlac

arctictree

Sami23 wrote: »

Thanks for the pics. It's very simple but effective way of feeding them.
Do you just top up as it empties during the day then with cold lamlac

If I'm there and it's nearly empty, ill replace the whole bottle with a newly filled one. Sometimes during the day I'll top it up a bit if I'm going away. I mix it warm as it's a bit easier that way. The lambs need to be on a bottle for the first couple of days until they are mad sucking. Then it's easy to train them onto it.

Sami23

Westernrock wrote: »

We used to find that, switched to cold milk and no issues

Do you not find it difficult to mix the lamlac cold. As in get the lumps out of it ?