Weaning

eorna

Out of interest when do people wean lets say 1st of march born lambs?

rangler1

eorna wrote: »

Out of interest when do people wean lets say 1st of march born lambs?

Wean lambs here at 12 -14 wks old

Green farmer

just thinking the same question here. Mine were born 20th march on, and I think I saw one of the ram lambs attempting to climb a ewes back. Normally I'd leave them until going out the gate to wean but, might do it early this year. 12-14 weeks sounds good. Would they thrive better by themselves if on good grass rangler ?

rangler1

Green farmer wrote: »

just thinking the same question here. Mine were born 20th march on, and I think I saw one of the ram lambs attempting to climb a ewes back. Normally I'd leave them until going out the gate to wean but, might do it early this year. 12-14 weeks sounds good. Would they thrive better by themselves if on good grass rangler ?

The advantage of weaning is you can give the lambs the best of the grass, let them eat the leaf off it and then move them on.
The ewes aren't much use to the lambs after 12 week, but they are great for cleaning off stemmy grass when they're weaned.
Granted, you need good fences to have the ewes following the lambs

Green farmer

Would you wean them all or would you leave any of the smaller ones with their mothers for a bit longer ? Finding the singles have preformed much better then some of the doubles. Trying to fence the place properly here. I can see the advantage of fresh grass ok.

Forgot to add, I have the place fenced to a level that the ewes are well contained , but the lambs are breaking my heart, finding tiny gaps. Wife thinking about divorcing me over them breaking out and causing havoc. Good fencing is the only way to put good manners on sheep.

rangler1

Green farmer wrote: »

Would you wean them all or would you leave any of the smaller ones with their mothers for a bit longer ? Finding the singles have preformed much better then some of the doubles. Trying to fence the place properly here. I can see the advantage of fresh grass ok.

I wean everything because of the numbers here, we try and keep them as a group, 90% would be lambed in the first fortnight this year, sometimes they'd be slow to start and we'd put back the weaning to suit if only a small percentage lambed in the first fortnight.
There's no reason that you can't leave the ewes with a few younger ones if you can identify them......might even be an advantage, the lambs can be hard got in for dosing for a while after weaning, the few ewes might settle them

Bullocks

I want to keep the 7 ewe lambs for breeding this year . How long would i want to keep them seperate to wean or will they eventually stop sucking

ganmo

Bullocks wrote: »

I want to keep the 7 ewe lambs for breeding this year . How long would i want to keep them seperate to wean or will they eventually stop sucking

They will eventually stop sucking, but the ewe would be a rake I jig time.
Think we had ewes back with their lambs after 2weeks with no sucking, we were trying to put condition on a few of the ewes

Sheep breeder

we would try kill as many lambs from the ewes before we would wean to avoid the price drop and always found lambs killed out better off the ewe.
no point weaning lambs near the hook and set them back for two weeks and the price dropping and then the ewes getting fat.

Sheep breeder

Green farmer wrote: »

Would you wean them all or would you leave any of the smaller ones with their mothers for a bit longer ? Finding the singles have preformed much better then some of the doubles. Trying to fence the place properly here. I can see the advantage of fresh grass ok.

Forgot to add, I have the place fenced to a level that the ewes are well contained , but the lambs are breaking my heart, finding tiny gaps. Wife thinking about divorcing me over them breaking out and causing havoc. Good fencing is the only way to put good manners on sheep.

if lambs are breaking out then the grass must be better in the other field.
years ago was at the sheep seminar one night and frank crosby from ucd was giving a talk on feeding ewes and a guy in the crowd asked him a question about his ewes getting out from the fields to nextdoors cow paddocks under the sheep wire etc, franks reply a simple Hunger.

Green farmer

Grass is always greener on the other side of fence, but in my case their mad to get at the wife's potted plants, flowers and shrubs. They love laurel hedging.

jfh

We have ours weaned, ewes have a lot of milk though, even though we have them locked in on hay. Had to milk them. We might have weaned a bit early but lambs seem to be happy & getting the best of after grass.

orm0nd

weaned everything bar a couple of sets of triplets to day

some of the hoggetts with doubles are handy enough but at this stage I'm more interested in the ewe's welfare than the lambs

Green farmer

orm0nd wrote: »

weaned everything bar a couple of sets of triplets to day

some of the hoggetts with doubles are handy enough but at this stage I'm more interested in the ewe's welfare than the lambs

When were they born ormond ? Going doing mine soon ?

orm0nd

Green farmer wrote: »

When were they born ormond ? Going doing mine soon ?

mostly march, but would have been some in April (18 th latest)

will have after grass for the lambs in a week or so but fencing isn't great there so want to have them settled for then

Bleating Lamb

jfh wrote: »

We have ours weaned, ewes have a lot of milk though, even though we have them locked in on hay. Had to milk them. We might have weaned a bit early but lambs seem to be happy & getting the best of after grass.

When did ewes start and finish lambing?....half thinking of weaning here..started lambing around 14th March,most lambed in a fortnight.Would usually leave them on till mid July at earliest to wean.

ganmo

think we'll have the suffolk cross lambs weaned next weekend, dosed them there this evenin

White Clover

ganmo wrote: »

think we'll have the suffolk cross lambs weaned next weekend, dosed them there this evenin

Are they out of cheviot ewes ganmo ?

ganmo

yup all chev ewes here...bar one suffolk

AnFeirmeoir

Going to start weaning them this evening. Lambed from 1st mar to 1st april. A few are touching40KG but i think i'll wean them anyway as prices are sh1t

jfh

Bleating Lamb wrote: »

When did ewes start and finish lambing?....half thinking of weaning here..started lambing around 14th March,most lambed in a fortnight.Would usually leave them on till mid July at earliest to wean.

Same date. actually some of ours were later. Saying that lambs are happy out without mothers

Birdnuts

AnFeirmeoir wrote: »

Going to start weaning them this evening. Lambed from 1st mar to 1st april. A few are touching40KG but i think i'll wean them anyway as prices are sh1t

I lambed later here but think I'll do the same thing later in the summer given the poor outlook. Grass growth is still behind on my place in North Mayo as we've had no let up from the rain and cooler temps compared to folks further east so keeping grass ahead of lambs is still a challenge. Better to cut losses ASAP would by current view on the matter.

sea12

Weaned all lambs today. More to do with running out of grass than anything else. Dosed them for worms and gave them a cobalt dose. Off to the furthest fields from house now. Could be a noisy night on the neighbours.

Bleating Lamb

sea12 wrote: »

Weaned all lambs today. More to do with running out of grass than anything else. Dosed them for worms and gave them a cobalt dose. Off to the furthest fields from house now. Could be a noisy night on the neighbours.

Did the same job here today:)...was going to do it last week but it didnt suit...noticed over last ten days that particularly with sets of twins that they were wandering away from their mums...will dose in a few days when they have settled down.....lambs and ewes in good shape given the terrible month of May they endured.

sea12

[.....lambs and ewes in good shape given the terrible month of May they endured.[/QUOTE]

Was pleasantly surprised with the good condition of the lambs. Felt better on their backs than they looked. Definitely behind last years lambs though. Although with current price I'm not too worried if it takes a few weeks to start moving them on.

Green farmer

Eventually got around to weaning mine today. Turf cutting, weather, and having suitable after grass delayed it. Some look a bit small but they are all healthy looking.

Username John

Just done weaning mine there now, put em through footpath and waiting for it to dry in a bit...

Weighed the lambs, disappointed with last 3 weeks progress. Looking at the numbers, they only put on about 2kg average I'd say..
They going to a bit better grass now, but even still, tis early for growth to be so bad... And weaning will knock em a bit too for a small bit...

They have been dosed, and got bolus. So not much more we can do.. For now anyways...

Bullocks

Username John wrote: »

Just done weaning mine there now, put em through footpath and waiting for it to dry in a bit...

Weighed the lambs, disappointed with last 3 weeks progress. Looking at the numbers, they only put on about 2kg average I'd say..
They going to a bit better grass now, but even still, tis early for growth to be so bad... And weaning will knock em a bit too for a small bit...

They have been dosed, and got bolus. So not much more we can do.. For now anyways...

I don't know what weather you have been getting John but here for the last few weeks cattle and sheep are just eating wet grass nearly every day and they are just eating to sustain themselves not mind putting on weight . It cat weather for thrive this summer

Username John

Bullocks wrote: »

I don't know what weather you have been getting John but here for the last few weeks cattle and sheep are just eating wet grass nearly every day and they are just eating to sustain themselves not mind putting on weight . It cat weather for thrive this summer

We havent had super weather, and a few bad days. But overall it hasn't been too bad - wet yes, but not cold. And warm enough at times between the showers...
Maybe the grass is going through ema a bit quick, but I wouldn't say the weather is entirely to blame to be honest Bullock.

Think my grass is just a bit poor too... Or, well, grass management more than the grass I guess...

Bullocks

Username John wrote: »

We havent had super weather, and a few bad days. But overall it hasn't been too bad - wet yes, but not cold. And warm enough at times between the showers...
Maybe the grass is going through ema a bit quick, but I wouldn't say the weather is entirely to blame to be honest Bullock.

Think my grass is just a bit poor too... Or, well, grass management more than the grass I guess...

I had great plans for grass management this year but a spurt of growth and the father letting cows where they shouldn't have twice put me upside down .

Username John

Lads - how long do ye leave the ewes on bare ground after ye wean em?

Weaned last Saturday here, and now field the ewes are in are as bare as the floor, but the next fields have good enough grass.

I'll bring em in tomorrow an check em, but just wondering what most people do?

sea12

Username John wrote: »

Lads - how long do ye leave the ewes on bare ground after ye wean em?

Weaned last Saturday here, and now field the ewes are in are as bare as the floor, but the next fields have good enough grass.

I'll bring em in tomorrow an check em, but just wondering what most people do?

I left them in pretty bare field for 2 weeks. Just changed them today to the paddocks that the lambs were in. Still a few bags under them but look ok