Lamb Milk Replacer Feeding Schedule

Feeding schedules for lambs on Sprayfo Primo Lamb or Alpha lamb milk replacer

Colostrum first

Always ensure each animal has adequate intake of controlled quality colostrum in the first 12 hours post birth (approx. 10% of its body weight).

Mixing rate for ad-lib feeding

Mix 200g Sprayfo lamb milk replacer per litre of water.

Ad-lib machine feeding

Ensure that you always follow machine manufacturing instructions, particularly for:

Set up
Feeding capacity/numbers
Cleaning
Calibration*
Mixing temperature

*Over mixing can be identified when product separates or froths. This can cause an issue through some semi-automatic feeding systems, eg. the Heatwave.

Mixing instructions for restricted feeding

Always follow feeding instructions (see restricted feeding schedule)
Heat all required water to 40-42°C
Start stirring water, then slowly add lamb milk replacer powder, mixing until fully dissolved (approx 2 minutes). Do not over mix^
Best drinking temperature 38-39°C

^Mix to make up a litre, NOT on top of a litre, eg. add 160g lamb milk replacer (powder) to 840mL water to make 1L lamb milk replacer. This is an approximation. Over mixing can be identified when product separates or froths.

Restricted feeding schedule for lambs

PLEASE NOTE: Sprayfo feeding recommendations are designed to cover a range of farming systems and lamb sizes. With smaller lambs, or in certain situations, different feeding schedules might be more appropriate.

What is important is that you get enough milk (at the right concentration) into the lambs over the course of a 24 hour period. If you have the ability to feed smaller amounts more frequently, this is a preferred option. It is certainly a better option with smaller lambs and can help to reduce the risk of bloat.

So, if you are dealing with small lambs that may not take 600ml per feed from day 14, consider the following feeding programme:

feed 3 x 400ml (rather than 2 x 600ml) for two to three days (from day 14)
then switch up to 450ml x 3 for another two to three days (let’s say up to day 20)
then up to 500ml x 3 to about 22 / 23 days of age.

At this stage, you should be able to go back to the standard feeding rates which by this age are 700ml twice a day.

Alternative feeding option: Sprayfo Alpha Lamb + Sprayfo Primo Lamb

If you have fed Sprayfo Primo Lamb milk replacer in the past and felt the lambs struggled with the transition from colostrum to a whey milk replacer, try feeding Sprayfo Alpha Lamb (casein-based or skim milk) powder for the first 2 weeks post-colostrum.

It could help to reduce the risk of nutritional scouring.

In week 3, switch the lambs onto Sprayfo Primo Lamb (whey) milk replacer to encourage rumen development.

The benefits of this alternative feeding option are:

reduced risk of nutritional scours in very young lambs (common during the colostrum to milk replacer transition)
switching to Sprayfo Primo Lamb from week 3 will encourage early rumen development
easier weaning transition

Weaning instructions for lambs

Weaning can start when animals are a minimum of 16kg AND consuming 250g concentrates per animal per day:

Slowly reduce concentration of lamb milk replacer or overall volume consumed over 1-2 week period
Continue feeding concentrates at 200-300g per day for at least a month.