mystang89
True BYH Addict
I've looked up different threads here and abroad about weaning, the how to's and when to's but I haven't really found the answer to my particular situation.
As most of you know we had our first lambing on 5/10/18 from one ewe who had twins, one ram and one ewe. I've read to wean them around 60 - 90 days or so for a normal weaning. Normal being relative to the shepherd since early seems to be earlier than what I'm comfortable for my first lambing. I've read the ram lamb should definitely be taken from the mom before 3 months in order to avoid any possible early breading.
My pasture is a total of 7 acres. It is split up into the front pasture and back pasture, around 3 acres each....ish. I will not be splitting it into smaller paddocks if I can at all avoid it. It's just personally not how my wife and I want our land to look. At the moment I've been keeping the ram (father) in a different pasture than the lambs and ewes. When it comes time for the ram lamb to be separated I thought about just putting him in the pasture with the ram (father). I don't really know how to go about slowly weaning the ram lamb off the mom. Should I start weaning him off around 2 months by just having him in the same pen as the mom at night then to the other pasture with the dad during the day?
Then there's the lamb ewe. I have 2 pastures. One for the males and the other for the females. How do I go about separating the ewe lamb from the mom? I read that after about 6 months the ewe mom will pretty much wean the lamb on her own by not letting her suckle long. Do I need to really do anything special?
Then there's my particular breed and the main reason why I bought these sheep, MILK! I want to milk my sheep for as long as she lactates which I think was from 160 ish days to 200 something days, different factors depending. Most...all of what I read was people letting their sheep dry up because they weren't going to milk the sheep. The milk dried up and the mom couldn't nurse anymore anyway. I want to milk them. How can I milk her while she still has a lamb attached to her teat? Milk in the morning and let the lamb have at it during the day then milk again at night? Milk only in the morning and put the lamb ewe in a different stall at night?
I also read that the sheep produces the most milk from the first 8 weeks or so and after that they taper off. How do I make it so the ewe doesn't decrease her milk production any faster than normal? How often are you supposed to milk a sheep anyway? I suppose that'll be a different thread but figured I'd throw that one in for a bonus!
As most of you know we had our first lambing on 5/10/18 from one ewe who had twins, one ram and one ewe. I've read to wean them around 60 - 90 days or so for a normal weaning. Normal being relative to the shepherd since early seems to be earlier than what I'm comfortable for my first lambing. I've read the ram lamb should definitely be taken from the mom before 3 months in order to avoid any possible early breading.
My pasture is a total of 7 acres. It is split up into the front pasture and back pasture, around 3 acres each....ish. I will not be splitting it into smaller paddocks if I can at all avoid it. It's just personally not how my wife and I want our land to look. At the moment I've been keeping the ram (father) in a different pasture than the lambs and ewes. When it comes time for the ram lamb to be separated I thought about just putting him in the pasture with the ram (father). I don't really know how to go about slowly weaning the ram lamb off the mom. Should I start weaning him off around 2 months by just having him in the same pen as the mom at night then to the other pasture with the dad during the day?
Then there's the lamb ewe. I have 2 pastures. One for the males and the other for the females. How do I go about separating the ewe lamb from the mom? I read that after about 6 months the ewe mom will pretty much wean the lamb on her own by not letting her suckle long. Do I need to really do anything special?
Then there's my particular breed and the main reason why I bought these sheep, MILK! I want to milk my sheep for as long as she lactates which I think was from 160 ish days to 200 something days, different factors depending. Most...all of what I read was people letting their sheep dry up because they weren't going to milk the sheep. The milk dried up and the mom couldn't nurse anymore anyway. I want to milk them. How can I milk her while she still has a lamb attached to her teat? Milk in the morning and let the lamb have at it during the day then milk again at night? Milk only in the morning and put the lamb ewe in a different stall at night?
I also read that the sheep produces the most milk from the first 8 weeks or so and after that they taper off. How do I make it so the ewe doesn't decrease her milk production any faster than normal? How often are you supposed to milk a sheep anyway? I suppose that'll be a different thread but figured I'd throw that one in for a bonus!