How to care for winter-born lambs of cashmere goats? Farming experience shared

Lambs born in winter have relatively high survival rates and cashmere yields, and their resistance is also stronger, but improper feeding and care will increase the mortality rate of the lambs. The care techniques for winter-born lambs of cashmere goats are summarized.

1. Colostrum

The only nutrient a lamb can obtain from 1 day to 5 days after birth is colostrum, whose content of nutrients and immune substances is much higher than that of normal milk, and it is of great significance to the lamb's physical health throughout its life. Therefore, a lamb should receive colostrum within 1 hour after birth. Because newborn lambs can only suck a limited amount of milk at one time, they should be nursed once every 2 hours to 3 hours, and ewes that give birth to twins should let both lambs come close to suckle at the same time.

2. Artificial supplementary feeding of milk powder

When artificially nursing, it must be mixed and fed on the spot, and it must be fresh and clean. Fresh milk, milk powder, milk replacer and nursing utensils must all be heated and sterilized before use. Feeding and drinking should achieve fixed temperature, fixed quantity, fixed time and fixed quality. For lambs within 4 weeks after birth, feed 6 times to 8 times a day, with 50 milliliters each time; from 5 weeks to 7 weeks after birth, 4 times to 5 times a day, with 100 milliliters each time; at about 9 weeks after birth, nurse 2 times to 3 times a day, with 150 milliliters each time. Under normal conditions of supplementary feeding of forage and feed to lambs, lambs over 5 weeks old can no longer be given supplementary feeding. For special lambs, the number of supplementary feeding days should be extended as appropriate.

3. Prevent wool balls from blocking

When newborn lambs eat wool, it enters the stomach, and over time, the wool becomes tangled into balls, blocks the digestive tract, and causes death. Therefore, when lambs suckle, the wool around the ewe's udder should be cut clean to prevent accidental ingestion, and at the same time, the scattered wool in and around the sheep pen should be raked clean with a rake and burned with fire.

Lambs can begin to be trained to eat forage and feed at 10 days of age, so as to stimulate the development of the digestive organs and promote sound cardiopulmonary function. After 20 days of age, lambs can graze together with the ewes. After 1 month of age, lambs gradually shift to mainly eating feed; in addition to nursing and grazing intake, a certain amount of forage and feed should be supplied. The feed should be diversified, preferably a mixed feed of more than 3 kinds such as soybean cake, corn and wheat bran, and the hay should mainly be high-quality alfalfa, green-cut soybean, etc. Lambs are generally weaned at 3 months to 4 months of age, not exceeding 4 months of age. After weaning, lambs are grazed and raised in groups according to sex and physical strength.

4. Do a good job of heat preservation, pressure prevention and trampling prevention measures

After birth, lambs have imperfect thermoregulatory function, sparse and wet hair, and thin skin, so temperature fluctuations are relatively large, making them prone to colds and inducing pneumonia. In large-group raising, when ewes and lambs are in the same pen, it is easy for lambs to be crushed and trampled to death. In order to improve the survival rate of lambs, corresponding measures should be taken.