What to Do When a Ewe Doesn't Have Enough Milk? Practical Solutions for Sheep Farmers

In recent years, the economic returns from raising sheep have been quite good. The market price of mutton is relatively high, market demand is strong, and with the promotion of sheep milk products, the prospects for the sheep farming industry have become even more prosperous. However, when raising ewes, many farmers report that ewes experience insufficient milk production after giving birth. So when this situation arises, what should we do? Let me explain below.

1. Stimulating Milk Production in Ewes

If a ewe has insufficient milk after lambing, we can use scientific methods to stimulate milk production and increase her milk yield. There are many methods for stimulating milk production in ewes, such as feeding a porridge made by boiling peanut kernels and eggs in water, feeding brown sugar water mixed with concentrated feed, boiling kelp into soup and feeding it continuously about three times, using honey to stimulate milk production, and using soy milk to stimulate milk production. Of course, Chinese herbal medicine can also be used to stimulate milk production. The herbs generally used are Angelica sinensis, Ligusticum chuanxiong, pollen, Vaccaria seed, pangolin scales, white peony root, Astragalus membranaceus, Tetrapanax papyriferus, licorice, and others, decocted in water and given to the ewe. The milk-stimulating effects of these methods are all very good.

2. Foster Nursing

When a ewe has insufficient milk, we can also use foster nursing to raise the lambs and improve the economic returns of farming. But this method is generally only suitable for large-scale farms, where there are relatively many ewes. We can raise reserve ewes and nurse ewes in advance, so that when a ewe has insufficient milk after lambing, timely feeding can be carried out without affecting the growth of the lambs. There is also another point to note when using a nurse ewe for foster nursing: the ewe must be restrained, and humans must assist the lambs in nursing. Only after multiple training sessions can the lambs nurse normally later on.

3. Early Supplementary Feeding

When a ewe has insufficient milk, there is another option: end the lambs' nursing period early and enter the feeding period as soon as possible. That is, when milk is insufficient, supplement the lambs' diet with some forage or other feed and let them eat freely. By around twenty days, let the lambs eat feed and gradually reduce the number of nursings, using specialized lamb feed for feeding.

4. Milk Powder Feeding

Milk powder feeding is actually also a common method used in many farms today. Many farms use milk powder feeding not only because the ewe has insufficient milk, but also possibly because the ewe had a difficult birth or illness, making it unable to nurse normally, so we need to feed milk powder manually. However, when feeding milk powder manually, we must feed at fixed times and in fixed amounts, and as the lambs grow, gradually increase the amount of milk powder and reduce the number of nursings.

That is all the content I wanted to share with you today. If you encounter this situation while raising sheep, you can refer to the methods above to solve the problem. If you want to learn detailed methods for stimulating milk production in ewes, you can leave us a message.