Lambing in drought years is certainly a challenge. Ewes often reach lambing in low fat score (below 2) conditions, and while they are often fed large quantities of supplements, they still fail to produce sufficient milk to achieve good lamb growth. Under these circumstances lambs will be very lightweight at weaning and their survival rates and performance post-weaning will be compromised. In drought conditions, the ewes also compete much better on the feed trail, thus leaving only small quantities of supplement for the lambs to eat.

What we want is for lambs to selectively eat more of the feed supplements, and a technique called ‘creep feeding’ achieves just that. The contents of this Primefact include the following:

• Setting target weaning weights
• What is 'creep feeding'?
• Creep feeding helps with early weaning
• When to start creep feeding
• The hardware for a creep feeding arrangement
• Locating the creep pen
• What to feed
• Feeding rates and economics
• Managing feeding
• References.