Curious, can you raise lambs on raw cow's milk? How much milk does a lamb need per day?

thanks!

-- Tracy (zebella@mindspring.com), January 05, 2002

Answers

Sheep's milk has twice the fats solids and proteins so technically no you can't. There's always an exception isn't there! If you have milk from Jersey cows, you should have extra fat over "average" milk. Beef breed cows do give better milk on components too. Some breeds of sheep will thrive where others fail, a North County Cheviot, will thrive on cows milk, and East friesan (dairy sheep) probably would too but for a different reason. NCC's are just natural survivors (tough sheep) E Freaks don't have nearly so much fats etc in the milk. Suffolks Dorsets etc. will miss the fats protein etc on cows milk, you could add extra cream to the ration I guess. No matter it's better than nothing, if you must use cows milk be sure to get the lambs started on a creep feed ration at birth. 18- 24% protein (with cows milk only)16-18% on lamb replacer. Make sure the lambs have colostrum, if they can spend a week on sheep's milk to get started on a grain ration all the better. So as long as you know what your feeding you "should" be able to compensate. Interesting idea, I wonder if anyone's tried adding condensed milk?

-- Ross (amulet@istar.ca), January 05, 2002.

I'm curious Ross, could a beaten egg be added to up the protein?

-- Dianne Wood (woodgoat@pacifier.com), January 05, 2002.

Thanks Ross, that is exactly what I was curious about.....I wonder if you could add wheat germ oil or some such? I have a friend in vet school who has a PhD in animal nutrition, I will email her and see if she has any advice as well. The lambs would most likely be suffolks, columbians or a cross.

-- Tracy (zebella@mindspring.com), January 05, 2002.

I tried it with my first lamb and she died, she had scours. I used store milk so that may have been the problem, but if I were to do it again, I'd use goat milk or lamb milk replacer at least.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), January 05, 2002.

Thanks for the info Rebekah.

I am wondering if it is worth buying the milk replacer to raise bummer lambs? Or I could buy more milk goats to feed them I can hear my hubby groaning now.......

The bummer lambs are free for the taking, but sheep prices are really low here right now....$40-50 for ewe/lamb pairs. So I'm not sure it would be worth raising more than we would butcher ourself. Or perhaps a few extras to sell- ready to butcher- might be time worthy?

-- Tracy (zebella@mindspring.com), January 05, 2002.

I did raise a lamb on Jersey milk once but I think he was on milk replacer (for lambs) first but when I ran out of that and didn't want to spend for more I just gave him the milk from our Jersey and he did fine. It's a few years ago but I think he was probably 3 to 4 weeks when I put him on the cow milk. --LINDA

-- linda skountzos (skountzos6@netscape.net), January 05, 2002.

Well here I am answering my own questions, lol.

I found this in an old animal husbandry book of mine (1961)

It says "The lamb should be fed 2 or 3 feeds of colostrum either from the mother or from another ewe." Later, cow's milk may be substituted. The secret of using cow's milk is to feed often but only small amounts at a time. For the first day or so, one ounce fed at two-hour intervals is sufficient,. Later the amount mayb be slowly increased and the feeding intervals spread further apart."

So it sounds like it may be doable?

-- Tracy (zebella@mindspring.com), January 05, 2002.

I've never used Egg in a lamb or calf ration I've heard of it being used as a protein source in an emergency ration though. Pretty expensive isn't it? Wheat germ oil is a fat alright but not a milk sourced fat so I'd think it would act as a laxative. I've also heard of using gelatin as a protein source? Lambs take to a creep ration very fast especially if it's palatable. Adding some milk replacer powder to the soymeal/oats (for example) gets them interested faster. Fresh small amounts and carefully put into the lambs mouth to get them used to the different taste initally and they should be eating within a week. Sounds like these free lambs will have pretty short lives if you don't take them personally I'd use replacer over cow's milk, but I should really examine the idea mroe closely for my own use.

-- Ross (amulet@istar.ca), January 05, 2002.

Oh yeah one more difference between cow milk and sheep's milk is sheep's milk is homoginized (butchered spelling sorry)naturally and does not seperate. I doubt that will make a big difference. Store bought whole milk will be very low in fat and might have caused the scours, it's not really "whole milk". I have a chart that compares sheep goat and cow milks by components if you think it would help I'll type it out.

-- Ross (amulet@istar.ca), January 05, 2002.

here is what my vet friend had to say about it:

On a dry matter basis, there's not that much difference between cow and sheep milk, but I can't find anything in my references that says specifically whether you can or can't. My feeling is that you probably could, but you'd want to supply a creep feed fairly early for some supplemental nutrition, and keep an eye out for diarrhea. The main thing that's different is the size of the fat globules, which may affect digestibility. I've bottle raised assorted critters on milk from other species (foals on goat milk, baby otters and sea lions on cow's milk (with alot of supplementation), etc) and done okay. If I had my druthers, I would probably rather use a lamb milk replacer, either entirely or as a supplement to the cow's milk.

-- Tracy (zebella@mindspring.com), January 05, 2002.

Tracy if its only 40 or 50$ for a ewe lamb pair, why not buy them to butcher? Certainly less expensive than bottling kids, replacer, meds, wormers, labor, all add up to certainly more than 40$ a lamb! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), January 05, 2002.

I know Vicki But I love bottle feeding critters, it's my failing....lol.

And they are usually just discarded if no one takes them, and I am a sucker....

Tracy

-- Tracy (zebella@mindspring.com), January 05, 2002.

C'mon Vicki even the sheep farmer worked out it wasn't to save money!

-- Ross (amulet@istar.ca), January 05, 2002.

Tracy how about a March vacation, to my house! I love milking, I love everything about the big does, but all them little rats, all them buckets of milk, pasturising, heat treating, worrying, you can have it! ;)

Of course sheep milk should be your first choice on the lambs, then more then likely goats milk, but we would never choose any milk replacer to feed kids over cows milk, either raw or just plain ole vitamin D grocery store milk. We send all our kids who are sold to folks without does to milk, with instructions to use it rather than replacer. Just can't see how lambs can be that different. I pick up two infant 48 hour doe kids tommorrow, they are part of a doe kid back program I do with folks, they will get what is left of my frozen goat/pet milk for sale, dyed a lovely shade of green, then will move on to grocery store milk until the does freshen in March. But then I still would go buy the ewe and lamb pair and let the ewe raise the lamb herself :) I know Ross!! Their just used to me on this list!! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), January 05, 2002.

I tried cows milk and egg as lamb replacer for the number of orphan lambs I had was getting kind of spendy and the old timers up here swore that they used to use it. I even used whole unpasteurized milk from my buddy's brother's dairy...no luck. All lambs on that ration died.

Now I try to hand milk some ewes who only have one lamb survive and freeze the milk for future emergencies....this seems to work well. However, I milk the ewes about 3 times a day to get about 4 ounces of milk so it is a bit time consuming.

-- Gary from MN (hpysheep@midwestinfo.com), January 06, 2002.

I have raised lambs on milk from a Jersey cow. They were a few days old when I got them and were eating powdered replacer. I bottle fed them for a few weeks and then let them nurse from the cow. She was NOT happy and had to be kept in the stanchion eating grain.

The secret to raising babies on a bottle is don't overfeed. A couple of ounces every few hours is much better than a lot 2 or 3 times a day. If they begin to scour dilute the milk by half with sterile water. I raised 5 lambs and didn't lose any.

-- Margaret (booldawgs@earthlink.net), January 06, 2002.

I agree with Margaret, our family has raised dozens of lambs on cows' milk especially jersey. Don't overfeed, the lamb will keep drinking until he appears about to burst if you let him. Make sure the milk is warm.

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), January 06, 2002.

I spent more in buying lamb replacer and the "time", cute at first last year on a bottle ewe lamb. I sold her for about 1/3 of the money of milk replacer in her.

-- debbie (bwolcott@cwis.net), January 07, 2002.

Hi there, Greetings from England ! Does anybody out there know if it is possible to continue feeding lambs with Jersey milk after they have finished from their natural mother. I am considering trying to fatten the lambs for meat on Jersey milk and meadow hay ?

-- James Fowles (james@beesnees.com), March 21, 2002.