Lambs weaned - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Monday 27 August, 2012

by Rosemary at 7:15pm in Sheep 1 comment Comments closed

We weaned our lambs last weekend. The youngest was 18 weeks old, the oldest 21 weeks, so well able to cope without Mum. All the single tup lambs are now bigger than their mothers.

We took the opportunity to dag any sheep that required it, give them all a spray of Crovect and take a faecal sample from the lambs. The sample came back low, but with tapeworm so we will worm them before they go off to fresh grazing at Barry Mill.

The ewes are now in one paddock, on our poorest grass, with the lambs and gimmers in an adjacent one. Unfortunately, the dividing fence was insufficient to prevent one tup lamb making his way back to his mum. There’s always one.

Sometime during the next week, the gimmers and ewe lambs will go back in with the ewes, while the tup lambs, Nemo and Dickie go off to Barry Mill. They’ll stay there as long as there is decent grazing.

The tup lambs will go off for slaughter mid October, just in time for Nemo to join the ewes. And so the cycle begins again.