Greater efficiency and lamb weight gains occur if lambs are creep fed than if only the ewes are concentrate fed. For rapid weight gains, creep diets need to be palatable, high in energy and must contain adequate protein, minerals (especially calcium, since grains are low in calcium), and vitamins, such as intensive lamb creep. Rumen development is stimulated by intake of solid feed. Hence, creep fed lambs will do better at weaning than those that have relied on just their mothers’ milk.

To achieve high performance and encourage rumen growth, lambs should receive a diet that ferments rapidly and does not lead to an accumulation of indigestible fibrous material in the rumen resulting in pot-bellied lambs. This can be avoided by feeding Intensive lamb creep as only high quality ingredients are included.

According to current research, creep feeding during the first 12 weeks of life will cost half as much as feeding a lamb in September to achieve compensatory growth lost earlier in the season. When creep feeding has to be introduced as an emergency measure to try and salvage poor growth rates during the first three weeks of a lamb’s life, it will not achieve the same benefit that would have been gained if it had been offered earlier when feed conversion ratios are twice as high than later on in their lives.

Farmers should also consider the quantity and quality of grass available to ewes & lambs after lambing. If you’ve got a grass gap during the early stage of lactation the lamb growth lost will never be recovered without supplementary feeding. Creep feeding can be used either as a vital support to growth from a very early age to about seven weeks and then withdrawn, or can be used right up to slaughter. There’s no way that a ewe suckling twins can supply all their nutritional requirements beyond two weeks. So these twin lambs need to be getting into creep feed before three weeks old.