# Do ya'll let your Katahdin sheep ween there lambs themselves or not?



## herdsman

Do ya'll let your Katahdin sheep ween there lambs themselves or not?


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## boykin2010

I separate my lambs from their mothers at 12 weeks usually. This gives the mother time to gain weight back and get back in condition for breeding in the fall. I do know people that let the ewes naturally wean the lambs though. I don't have the heart to watch a set of twin lambs nursing from their mother once they are 3-4 months old! Sometimes they will lift the poor ewe off the ground trying to get milk. 

You may get more responses if you kept all of your questions in one thread. You can have one thread but ask multiple questions.  Just a suggestion...


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## herdsman

boykin2010 said:
			
		

> I separate my lambs from their mothers at 12 weeks usually. This gives the mother time to gain weight back and get back in condition for breeding in the fall. I do know people that let the ewes naturally wean the lambs though. I don't have the heart to watch a set of twin lambs nursing from their mother once they are 3-4 months old! Sometimes they will lift the poor ewe off the ground trying to get milk.
> 
> You may get more responses if you kept all of your questions in one thread. You can have one thread but ask multiple questions.  Just a suggestion...


How do you dry off the ewe That is not what I wanna go through I mean I do it enough with my cattle. So how do you do it and also how do you wean lamb off the bottle


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## Shelly May

At around 60 days of age is when we wean babies off, take them and put them in seperate lot, several babies together, this
keeps gives them companionship, At about 2 weeks of age they should have been exsposed to creep feed and eating well on 
their own, so make sure their new lot has feed available and grass or hay. Momma is put in another pen, For two days she is 
allowed NO WATER and JUNKY GRASS Hay, this will trigger her body to stop producing milk, after two days, let her have water 
again. Crying stops at about 2-3 days later, Keep lambs seperated until sold. If you are keeping some return back in when they
have been seperated average of 2 months. Katahdins can breed at about 6 months of age if they are in good condition, So keep
males seperated from females at about 5 months of age to be safe. We keep all males and females seperated from each other
at weaning, But this requires two sererate pens, Some people don't have this option. Also make sure they have had 2 doses of 
CDT before you wean them off Momma. Good Luck!


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## Shelly May

Sorry I needed to add something, WE do not let them wean the babies them self, BECAUSE as boykin 2010 said the 
lambs get so big that they lift momma up off the ground, THIS CAUSES teet damage when the lambs hit momma so hard
and lift her off the ground. You don't want her teets damaged or she will be no good to you on the next lambing, Milk production.


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## Bossroo

I raised hundreds of lambs per year... always weaned them at 5 MONTHS of age. Most commercial flocks around the world do too. Much closer to what Mother Nature does.  Also, much more economical to send the just weaned  lambs from pasture  at or near slaughter weight to auction than feeding them expensive feed to reach market weight.   The lamb hitting the ewes udder is a signal for the ewe to let down milk flow and is perfectly normal.  I never had any ewes injure teet or udder damaged from this.  When weaning time comes, I run the flock through a chute and seperate the ewes into one pen and the lambs into another pen.  The fence between the pens has a small mesh so that the lambs can't get their heads through it in an attempt to nurse.  The ewes get the poorest hay that I have on hand, and all the water that they want for a few days, then sent to a pasture on the oposite side of the ranch.  The lambs get top quality hay as well as grain for a couple days untill the beging starts to taper off.  Since I ran 2 types of sheep... one was wool type ewes ( Ramboulett and Corriedale ) bred to Suffolk rams... the largest of the x bred lambs were loaded onto a truck and sent to auction. The rest, I returned to pasture to gain weight, then sent to auction.  While the purebred Suffolks... I seperated the ram lambs from the ewe lambs and let them out into seperate pastures .  The purebred  lambs were sent to pasture for a few months, then brought in then graded as to quality as potential herd sires  /replacement ewes( for me and yearling auctions) , and returned to pasture with alfalfa hay and grain added.  Those that did not meet the grade, were immediately sold/ sent to auction for meat.


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## BrownSheep

We typically tak ours off at 4-5 months although even when left with the ewe she has already started weaning by then.


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## Alice Acres

We officially wean (by removing them) at 4-5 months old too. And as mentioned, the ewe has already started to dry up and limit their nursing. By that time they just get a suck or two before mom moves away.


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## Shelly May

Guess that is info for individual farms, As Mine are all sold before they are born, and I run 258 head of ewe's,
We wean at this age (see earlier post). Because we need to make sure lambs are doing well and ready to go
to their new homes. making sure they are well adapted to grain, Hay, Pasture. And are gaining well at 90 days of
age, so we wean at 60 days.


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## boykin2010

Weaning lambs at 5+ months may work for some breeds. Most of the time, Katahdin breeders wean between 60 and 90 days for several reasons. 
One of the main reasons as Shelly May already pointed out is that Katahdin lambs can start breeding at 5 months of age. You wouldn't want ram lambs to breed back their dams or sisters. Also, they are not seasonal breeders and can breed year round unlike other breeds of sheep. 

Katahdins grow so quickly, there is no need to keep lambs with mothers past 90 days. It is beneficial for me to start the lambs on grain and hay to get them ready to be sold. Their mothers will also thank you because they will start gaining their weight back for the next breeding season. Also, you do not have to worry about the teats getting messed up with over zealous 100+ pound  twin lambs trying to nurse at the same time.... Lambs gain more weight once they are weaned and established on grain and hay. 

Just my opinion. But, what works for some people may not work for others.  Management practices differ depending on breeds of sheep. This is what I do for my Katahdins...


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## Shelly May

X2 From Another Katahdin Breeder


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## gruberguy

About the same here.... But I believe each situation is different... Had coyotes kill week old twins... Ewe accidently bred back within 2 weeks... She had 4th of July twins again... I pulled them off a little early than normal because our Oklahoma heat and drought was taking a toll on her body with those twins on her, even with the best feeding, her body never really recovered until I seperated them... Each situation is different I believe, if you see the ewe limiting their nursing a lot, I believe your safe in seperating. Good luck!


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