Cotton*wood
Loving the herd life
The people who sold me the sheep didn't really do any selecting at all, just herded the whole flock (of 66 ewes) into a holding area and let me choose four that I liked the looks of, so it was really pretty random. But indeed, as we do selecting, we will definitely be keeping the ones that do best on only pastureSome breeds you can skip grain but it highly depends on your pasture and the sheep themselves. Not all sheep or breeds can handle pasture only feed systems. You are likely in a situation where the people sold the offpsring of sheep who were not really good on pasture....because of that very reason. Sheep that work for pasture only can be bred up too.
Thanks for answering my question. I think I can do this, and I think it'd be good for the ewes. Now just to figure out how to move the lambs and not the ewes, or vice versa. They usually travel as a mob.....Sorry I forgot to answer the other question. At 4 months they should have been weaned at least a month ago. Any nursing is still forcing the ewes to produce milk, long term the ewe can not sustain that esp without grain. If you can separate the lambs for 2-4 weeks to let the ewes dry off you should be ok to put them back together after that. If you have any male lambs you need to band them or keep them separate, they can breed at 4 months old.
It is very possible also that your sheep are great pasture only sheep.....just not ment to be nursing for 4 months after carrying lambs for 5 months. Thats 9 months of a calorie deficiency any animal would have a hard time keeping condition on just grass for 9 months while prego and nursing.