We started weaning lambs this week. We wean the lambs at around 12 weeks of age. Leaving lambs on ewes for a longer period will only begin to have a negative impact as ewes will be competing with lambs for good quality grass, writes Edward Earle.
We weighed a few of our lambs to see what the weights were like and overall, we were happy with the average result of 33kgs.
As we were weaning the lambs, we gave them a Cobalt B12 dose. Cobalt is an important mineral to maintain lamb thrive.
B12 is an essential vitamin required by the gut microbes to convert the stomach contents into the food elements that the lamb is capable of digesting.
Lambs were introduced to new grass in the paddocks while ewes were re-introduced to the old paddocks.
Grass required to maintain growth
Now is the time where grass is most important for the lambs to maintain growth. Ewes will be used to graze out the paddocks after lambs have grazed first.
Drying off the ewes is critical at this stage to avoid mastitis. The way we do it is that after weaning the lambs, we let them back in with the ewes after 2 days to suck as the ewes will be stocked.
Then after another 3 days, the lambs suck the ewes again. Then 3-4 days later, we will go through them and milk any ewe that is stocked.
Sorting the lambs from the ewes takes no real-time with sorting gate at the end of the race.
With the opportunity of having the lambs and ewes in the pen they were also put through the footbath.
Factory-fit lambs
On another note, I expect to have a few lambs fit for factory at the end of next week. It is sad to see that the factories are starting to pull the price as more lambs start coming on stream, but there is nothing new there.
