Corn cob meal may be a suitable feed alternative for lambs for some Ontario sheep producers. A recently completed research project supported by Growing Forward 2 (GF2) focused on finding new, inexpensive ways to feed lambs.
The project was in response to producers asking the Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency to investigate whether high moisture corn cob meal would be a suitable replacement for corn. With production costs increasing on-farm, the opportunity to save $5 to $10 per lamb can make a significant difference to a sheep farm’s profitability.
Dr. Paul Luimes of the University of Guelph Ridgetown Campus completed a lamb feeding trial to determine feed consumption, lamb growth, carcass characteristics and meat quality of lambs fed three different types of concentrate diets: whole corn and mixed grain, whole corn grain, or corn cob meal. In each case, a vitamin/mineral premix and dried distillers’ grains with solubles as a protein supplement were added.
Corn cob meal was found to be less expensive to feed than the corn and mixed grain diet, with savings of approximately $13.40 per lamb based on 20 kilograms of gain. The advantage was less clear when comparing corn cob meal to whole corn only, but could still provide some producers, especially larger farms, with benefit.
More information is available from the Agricultural Adaptation Council at www.adaptcouncil.org. Growing Forward 2 is a federal-provincial-territorial initiative. The Agricultural Adaptation Council assists with the delivery of GF2 programming in Ontario.
Source: AAC