No Grass????

[Muttley]

It looks like it could be a hard year for grass for our sheep. We only have a few and am wondering what might be a good ration to supplement the sheep on pasture.

Also how young can a lamb be when we pull them from momma and give no milk. As well what should we then feed them.
I am thinking of pulling lambs early
this year for grass reasons.

[jensco]

The ewes seem to have the lambs weaned by about 3 months old (some stealing may occur). A good lamb creep/starter feed can be introduced well before that - use the manufacturer's guide. Our lambs start nibbling at it at one week old. Our sheep get a little grain (barley is popular) to bring them closer to the barn at night (predator control) and would be good to supplement poor pasture. They also have access to a flock mineral.

We had to corral our flock. They were escaping this spring to get anything that was turning green. I think it will be a touch and go year for pasture all over.

I'm sure other shepherds will have other great tips too!

Good luck!

[cakadu]

Ideally the lambs should be at least 2 months old before they are weaned. Mom usually decides when she's had enough of them and will sometimes kick them off by 3 months as Jensco has stated. Part of it will depend on the breed and part will depend on when mom gets tired of getting up-ended everytime they go to drink.

We do have one lamb that has gotten stealing down to an artform. He just waits until the ewes are busy eating either grain or hay and then he moves in and drinks for all he is worth. He's got his own mom, so I'm not sure why the thievery, but he thinks it's just great.

We feed whole barley to everyone as we got tired of a rolled ration and everyone picking out the bits that they liked and leaving what they didn't. The barley is left whole as that keeps their rumen functioning better. The lambs do start to eat at about a week to 10 days old.

We just had another snowstorm on Tuesday night in Central AB and it is drizzling again - although the forecast was for sun. Go Figure! We're keeping our fingers crossed that the grass comes, but even with all the moisture we've had in the last few weeks, the ground is still cracked, so we're definitely not out of the woods yet. At the same time, we're not nearly so dry as some areas either.

Normally by this time the sheep have long since forgotten about hay, but this year they seem to be wanting the assurance of hay around. The grass better come because the hay is almost gone.

Here's hoping.

[woolpuller]

I know of some flocks that are milking sheep and wean at 30 days. Our flock is at 60 days

[pr_fire]

I wean my lambs at 40 to 50 days, have had no problems over the last 15 years