The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: cairnhill on July 19, 2010, 11:27:03 am
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This year I had 4 boy lambs and only kept one intact, Ralphie. He is coming up for 4 months old and I was thinking I should be planning to wean him. Is it simply a case of removing him from his Mum, and does she run the risk of developing mastitis? Unfortunately Ralphie is 17 days older than his werther twin buddies Ron and Reg, so he would be on his own until they are ready to be weaned.
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Personally I would leave ralphie a little while and wean all the lambs together.
I take them from mum and put mum onto bad pasture this helps her dry up as she needs everything to feed herself it only takes a couple of weeks for everything to be back to normal, if you leave on good pasture she will produce for a while longer and mastitis chances are increased. My Grandpa believed in letting nature do this as when the lambs were to big mum just wouldn't feed them as it was uncomfortable, but with intact boys involved the decision is yours. Mine come out at the end of the month before they get big enough to mount the girls.
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I have a set of twins 4 weeks younger than the rest and will wean them all together once the youngest are 12 weeks old, they make a hell of a racket when weaned, ewes and lambs! you need to move them as far apart as possible, out of earshot, they settle after a couple of days or so, just check the ewes as they dry up for signs of mastitis.
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I do the opposite Dixie - I put them in adjoining flelds and don't get any problems with bawling. With just a wire fence between them and their dams they can lie close and even graze close but just can't be suckled and after an initial bit of surprise they just settle down.
Anna, if your entire lamb is not showing signs of mounting his dam (successfully) then I would leave him until the others are ready to be weaned in a couple of weeks - just watch him :o
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Fleecewife, thats interesting, I thought the ewes would trample their way to get to the lambs!
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They would have a couple of months ago but not now as they are starting to get a bit annoyed at their lambs, especially horned breeds. Being able to see and hear their lambs seems to be enough. The bond between siblings is probably stronger.
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I thought I read somewhere that ram lambs don't become fertile until about 6 months. I wasn't planning on separating mine until beginning Sept when he will be about 5 months and was hoping he would be fully weaned at that point. Please advise if this is not the case. Thanks.
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Fleecewife I have experienced exactly the same allow them physical contact along a fence line and the mums are more than happy not to be pestered by butting for milk, the lambs are quite independant and naturally cut their ties no bawling.
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I have already weaned all my lambs. My philosophy is that by this time they are in competition with their mothers for the grass and the ewes will be increasing the worm burden. I put my ewes on hard ground and feed them straw for low nutrition roughage until they dry up. The lambs are on good clean pasture which more than compensates for the milk.
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As youngest lamb is now 4 months old I have seperated them all from the ewes in adjacent paddocks. This seems to be working well and the bleating is minimal. However I am concerned that I should be doing more for the ewes to dry them up. I did see a suggestion to put them on hard ground and feed straw which seems harsh but maybe necessary ??? Can anyone say roughly how long the milk will take to dry up with or without removing from grazing. Just want to do the right thing to minimise stress and risk of mastitis.
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Hi Anna. We had our ewes in today to take the tup lambs out. One was already decidedly fruity so if we get early lambs we'll know who was the culprit !
Most of the ewes had already dried up, having weaned their lambs themselves. Those which haven't we will keep a close eye on. We don't have anywhere with poor grass at the moment with all that rain, but we have put out hay for a bit of dry feeding. We have never had problems with mastitis at this end of lactation - so far ;D We will keep a careful watch. I think there is more chance of a problem if you wean earlier than 4 months when the ewes are still in full production.
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Fleecewife - that was really useful info, thanks. :) That's what I do and I was worried it was the wrong thing. I love this forum. ;D
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thank goodness for Fleecewife!!! :) :) :)
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We have successfully weaned 3 ram and three ewe texel x charollais lambs over the last week. We brought them all into a pen in the barn - mothers and lambs, wormed, vaccinated, drenched and did their feet before turning the lambs out onto fresh lush pasture and keeping the ewes in the pen and fed them on hay for four days. The ewes looked a bit confused and sorry for themselves but this started the process of separation and drying up. We then turned the ewes onto a poor area of pasture which we want to graze down and improve. Neither lambs nor ewes lifted their heads for the first two days! Ewes look happy having got rid of their suckling lambs and the lambs have put on a massive amount of weight since gaining their independence. It also was an opportunity to use up the last few bales of last year's hay. :sheep:
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Ive never been called harsh before! ;D