moving Lambs!

[Donn Hewes]

Weaning lambs at one month of age and going straight to pasture is challenge in many respects. As a 100% grass fed sheep dairy, the lambs are weaned as soon as they are old enough and big enough. We weigh each lamb and make sure it is #35 and vigorous (healthy). Often a triplet may need to stay with the ewe for a few extra days or a week.

A group of lambs this young can also be hard to move or drive. They don’t understand the dog relationship very well and their instinct to go back to the momma is huge. Since they are just getting pasture there is no use trying to wean them in the barn for a few days. We just take the two groups to the opposite corners of the farm and let all our neighbors enjoy the music!

Hauling them with horses has made it easy and fun to move them; no matter if the weather is warm and dry or if the ground is to wet for a truck. I always like watching them pop out of the trailer while the horses say hey where did you come from.

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[Rivendell Farm]

Weaning that young must be interesting. We used to wean at two months when we winter lambed, but kept the lambs on grain. Now that we pasture lamb we wait until three months, and are toying with the idea of not actually weaning at all, letting it just happen naturally. They look good for one month old. Bob

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