Case Study – James Lees, North Yorkshire
James Lees has made a radical change to his lamb finishing enterprise after successfully introducing alkasystems technology. Potential growth rates have been exploited to an average 0.27kg DLWG, the risks reduced and losses have been minimal.
“Previous years lamb finishing was a hit and miss affair. I had tried to creep feed outside but struggled to get them all to eat, some readily finished while others didn’t but there was always the minimal risk of lambs gorging and suffering from bloat. If we’d housed them and fed conventional concentrate, then the risk would have been higher,” says James Lees, who runs an 600-ewe flock near Easingwold, North Yorkshire.
“However, after learning about alkasystems technology and its ability to minimise the risk of acidosis to concentrate fed lambs, we decided this season for the first time to introduce indoor finishing. So far, 400 lambs have been fed and gone, with a further 130 head to come in.” They were dosed with Zolvix, given a multivitamin, and initially introduced to molassed sugar beet pulp and silage before fed Alkafinisher, a 15% protein, fully mineralised 6mm nut containing 42% starch and sugar sources and including 15% Alkabarley to encourage fast and efficient finishing while supporting rumen function and health.
During the five-week housing period to finishing they recorded 7.95kg average growth to achieve an average 47kg target weight. Only 1.5% of lambs were affected by bloat.
“We’ve found indoor finishing to have various benefits,” he explains. “We’re finishing three quarter bred Continental lambs and while they have the genetic potential for good growth and finish we found it difficult to fully exploit off grass. We believe feeding Alkafinisher has allowed this performance to be optimised while the challenges are minimised, especially with variable grass quality.
“Also we hadn’t been able to protect against Pasteurella and Clostridia, due to a lack of availability of vaccinations. Consequently, the risk from these was high.”
He adds: “Furthermore, we’ve concluded that because of summer worm burdens and heavy stocking rates, indoor system works better for us, and we’re able to save more grass for the ewes. We’re planning to make more use of this system next season.”
For further information about AlkaFinisher, please contact your local Dugdale Nutrition sales representative at https://www.dugdalenutrition.com/sales or call the Alka-line on