Weaning Lambs

I treated my first batch of lambs a little differently than this current year's. I was watching my first thinking to myself, "Oh, how cute", later it was, "Wow, they grow fast", later still it was, "Man, that's gotta hurt", and later still, "That's got to be the most stupid Ewe on the planet. For goodness sake, he's got horns!"

Sooner or later they (or you) have got to give mom some rest or else they'll suck the life out of her, and with twins or better that seems especially true. Once a lambs climb to about 20-25 lbs they're demand for mothers milk seems constant and you begin to fear that the mother's having a hard time keeping up. It's not really true necessarily but it certainly can put a real burden on mom to keep herself healthy and well fed.
 
Of course, to help nursing ewes and their lambs it would be great if you had the space to keep them separated so that you can give the moms plenty of extra nutrition without all of the others around gulping it up just as fast. Even so, eventually there will come a time when the baby is just big enough to fend for itself and it's time to cut the apron strings on junior.

The First Few Weeks:

At just about a week old you should start to see lambs eat along side their mother. They won't eat much, but they will start to nibble here and there at whatever the mom's eating. At the early stages of development the lamb's stomach is not fully formed, that being the rumen (this is the first compartment where some of the biological breakdown of the grasses and grains begin). Because of this it's really really important that baby lambs get liquid nutrients; in turn that means that the mother is drinking constantly making up for the water loss. In time, about 3 - 4 weeks, you should see the lambs do a fair job eating the regular grains you're providing in addition to foraging with mom a portion of the time; when it doesn't get in the way of play time. By about 6 - 8 weeks (Closer to 8)it's time to cut the cord and start weaning the little ones.

Problems Mating:

When my lambs were about 2 weeks old I turned a yearling ram in with the nursing ewes and observed their behavior. As expected, the ram was all over the ewes and they were in no mood to play. But every time the ram got near the ewe she would run, turn in circles, and the lambs would stick to her heals; sometimes to the point of getting in the way of the ewe and getting knocked over. But the ram chasing after every pretty girl stopped after that first day

. . . . No harm done and I left the ram in the same pasture. 
 
As time went on I kept noticing that when the ram came near the ewe, the lambs would insist on nursing; every single time. I saw the lambs behavior as though they were thinking to themselves, "Since mom's giving attention to someone, it must be time to eat!" The ram got so frustrated at times with the little ones getting in the way that he even chased the lambs once or twice - they were "much" faster.
 
That was MY observation.
 
The result of all of this was that although I kept my ram in close contact with the ewes, the lambs prevented the ram from successfully mating and I lost out on fall lambs that year. It was particularly discouraging since all the books, as well as a few testimonials, were saying that leaving the lambs with mother wouldn't change the fertility and that leaving the ram in with the ewes all year "Increased" the chances of fertility --- that's not at all what I found,

The next year I left the ram with the ewes and lambs except at 6 weeks from my last lamb being born I pulled my lambs into their own pasture to wean them away from mom(s).
 
My GOSH, suddenly the world was coming to an end (from the perspective of the sheep). The mothers were screaming, the babies were screaming, the rams were just plain puzzled, and being that their pasture is in the middle of the two groups, they had no idea of who to comfort first so they tried doing both, unsuccessfully. Even the goat was poking her head through the fence trying to give aid to the situation.
 
The lambs were unstoppable at trying to get through the gate and fences. They had this great notion that if they ran faster they would make it through the field fence; their head made through but that was all.

Be very careful that you secure your gates and fences before pulling out the lambs as they can hurt themselves the first few hours. Any opening that they see that is large enough for their head to pass through will be a crash spot; and why you see barrels on the ewe side of the fence covering the bottom of the gate. If they can't see the mother they won't charge the fence. They run with their heads down and get confused and lost as the approach the barrel; loosing sight with their mom. This suddenly short circuits their thinking and they forget that mom is on the other side until the lamb once again raises its head; they can't "charge" the fence like that.

Looking at that same picture (top of page), you can see that I put some poultry wire along the top of the gate to discourage them from trying to jump through the large gate opening on the top. When the wire was absent the lambs made attempts to jump through it even though it was at the wrong angle to escape. 

You should be wary using poultry wire because of its sharp edges and the hole size. I felt it would be a mistake to run the wire to the bottom of the fence because I was worried the lambs would get their hoofs caught in it as they tested the fence.



By the next day the chaos was quieting down a little and they were about half as talkative as the previous day. The mothers were also grazing more and fussing less. By the third day it was mostly quiet, that is to say, until I would show up. By this time the mothers utters and teats were very swollen. I feel that out of some sense of wanting relief from the swelling the ewes were bleating at the same time they had their head in the grass eating - it's terribly funny to watch/listen to a sheep calling and chewing at the same time.

By the end of the second week of separation everyone was fine and the mood was much calmer. The mothers swollen utters could be seen starting to reduce in size slightly but the lambs were as skittish as feral cats, running full steam across the pasture as I would approach to feed them, then calming down on the far side after they realized I was there for feeding time (I don't handle my sheep a lot so they are fairly nervous anyway). By this time the mothers were still being fed heavy rations and their weight was starting to fill back into their trunk and hips. I later found that heavy feeding should be avoided to help ease the swelling and milk production.  
 

Why Wean Lambs?

From the narrative above you can read that there are two main reasons to wean lambs and a third not discussed much.

1) Loss of weight by the ewe. As the lamb grows the quantity of food needed by the lamb increases. At some point in the lambs development the ewe will have a hard time managing to find enough high protein food and start losing body weight as she is literally drained by the lamb or lambs as her body attempts to keep up. This is especially true for multiple lambs all nursing on the same ewe.

2) The ewe will most likely NOT breed while weaning. This isn't because she doesn't want to, but because the lamb/s are getting in the way. I've read many mixed arguments about this but this was my direct observation as described above.  

3) Food value is lost. There is a great deal of energy consumed by the ewe converting solid food to liquid milk. Just like human babies, lambs will get a great deal more nutritional value by taking the solid food and converting it for energy directly; gaining significantly more weight and growing faster in the same time frame. This is what we all want for bigger and better growth for potential freezer lamb, selling extra sheep, and/or for the general health as the young sheep grow into adult breeders.

Research Paper:

Growth of West African Sheep Weaned at Two Different Ages (April '81) 

Other observations:

Lambs. . . . .
If sheep are the dumbest animal on earth I simply have no words to classify lambs. There is simply no reasoning, comforting, or pleasing a lamb (In my opinion) until they get familiar with your routine and nature. Don't let it get to you, simply be patient and time will heal all wounds. It's a massive culture shock for them being completely separated from the rest of the flock. I can only relate to it as though I were air-lifted to the middle of China and dumped without a passport somewhere near the capital and expected to blend in. (and I don't look Chinese)
 
I've also noticed that the lambs will hover near the corner of the pasture that is closest to the ewes. It's something to think about before you separate them. If you want to feed and/or water them on the opposite side of the pasture then they may never get the idea that food or water are there since they won't explore or stray. I use a cut up plastic drum for feed and water for special occasions such as this; it's nothing fancy, it's not pretty, and it's certainly not permanent. I started feeding them wherever they felt most comfortable and then moved the bucket day by day until they eventually got to where they would normally be fed -- no one ever got lost in the move and hunger drove them to start following me to the main trough. I later found that another, more mature animal could also serve as a guide since they'll act as the leader of this unhappy band.
 
As an aside, you should also consider changing the feed supplements for the lambs. The lambs are growing at their fastest rate at this time. My lambs weighed an average of 30 lbs at almost 60 days and in the next 3 - 4 weeks they put on at least another 20% in body weight. Supply plenty of mineral supplement (at will), use a high protein feed that is rich in carbohydrates to keep up their energy and growth, and medicate the feed with decoquinate (Deccox) to help prevent infestation of cocciodia, a parasitic protozoa. An infestation at an early age can significantly reduce your lamb's healthy growth - and your profit.


Ewes. . . . .
Unlike the first time when I let the mothers naturally wean the lambs away on their own, the freedom the mothers now had allowed them to rest, eat, gain weight, and allow their hormones to get back into order. They went into estrus fairly quickly.
 
Since the ram was already in the flock and the babies weren't kicking at his heels, good Ol' Buck finally had his first calm date with his ladies in months, and the ladies were responsive. The ewes were also presenting themselves to the ram in the next pasture so they weren't that unhappy about the little ones being taken away.
 
I think I can confidently say that weaning is worth the couple weeks of noise as it can give the pleasure of an additional fall lambing.

Week Three of Weaning. . . . .

The lambs were eating normally again after familiarizing themselves with the pasture. Even though they were still afraid and running around when I entered the pasture, they calmed down rather quickly once I left; hunger is a great equalizer. Since everyone was so much calmer I shook up the small flock once again by removing the rams and placing them in with the large rams. Being so small, the large rams didn't feel any competition and accepted them right away -- except when it came time for feeding (it figured).

To compensate for the missing rams, I placed our goat in with the baby ewes. Buffy, our ewe goat, is a little boar who doesn't like to share food. I've seen her take up to 6 feet of feeding trough and defend it (Both sides, front-back and side-to-side) as her territory. As one sheep would approach she'd run to that side and when she wasn't looking another would start on the opposite side, and then she'd look and run to that side while another returned to where she had just been. It's almost comical. What gets me is that while she's busy defending, everyone but her is eating out of the trough -- her just deserts.

Placing Buffy in with the weaning lambs was a whole new game, but now the sheep were faster; not smarter, just faster. And there are a lot more of them in the same space.  

When is Weaning Complete?

Simple answer - at about 2 months. After this length of time the mothers will have had time to dry out and if you've exposed them to a Ram in the meantime then they will have moved beyond the desire to nurse the lambs. The lambs will "try" once you bring them back into the flock but expect the mothers to butt heads and chase the lambs off until they get a clue that the free lunch is over.

I've re-introduced the ewes lambs (not rams) back with the mothers as early as 5 weeks but that was out of need else I would have kept them the full 8 - 9 weeks away before re-introducing them with the flock. It was a little harder on the youngest and smallest lamb and she proved to be the ewe who tried the hardest to nurse once again even though she was very accustomed to solid foods and was gaining weight rapidly.