[thenovice]

I have 1 shearling ewe with triplets (she has done well for a first timer). To make life easier for myself, I was planning to remove the ram lamb at the end of july, and leave the 2 ewe lambs in with the ewe to self wean. Anyone had any experience with this? I was planning to leave her as a dry ewe next lambing, and then put all 3 to the tup next  year. Thoughts folks? Thanks all

[Fleecewife]

That's what we do routinely.  The ewes will have them all weaned by about 5 months, which leaves a couple of months for them to be ready for the tup again.  There are no problems with mastitis that way as the cessation of lactation comes about slowly.   Twin tup lambs coming off at 4 months could mean a greater likelihood of mastitis, but we have never had a problem - milk production has already dropped a fair bit by 4 months anyway.

[jaykay]

It's exactly what I do too, though I tend not to to take the boys out til August.

[Buffy the eggs layer]

Do you put the ewes on poorer pasture to assist the reduction in milk or just let them do things in their own time?

[Calvadnack]

We leave our ewes to wean their lambs, although all boys are banded and we don't keep a ram.  The ewes just sort it out without all the stress and noise !! 

[Fleecewife]

Do you put the ewes on poorer pasture to assist the reduction in milk or just let them do things in their own time?

Just let them do it in their own time.  Carefree and stressfree     It's a natural process so we let it proceed naturally.  The only exception would be if lambs are going to new homes in August when they may need a bit of help with weaning - they'll be almost there anyway.

[lachlanandmarcus]

Same here, all the boys banded, all left to wean naturally, not done anything special grass wise.