What age do you wean?

[aggieterpkatie]

We have weaned at 6 weeks, because we had a horrible coccidiosis out break one spring, and couldnt' get it under control with the mom's and kids on pasture, and we had no way to dry lot the mom's and kids, so we weaned the kids into a dry lot pen. And left the mom's on pasture. It worked like a charm and the kids took off in their growth rate. The kids were 6 to 9 weeks of age.

We wean as early as possible, because a sheep farmer explained it to us like this. A meat animal isn't designed to keep milking they produce most of their milk the first few weeks, after a few weeks their milk supply drastically goes down and the kids are mostly eating forage and grain(if provided) as the main part of their diet. It is more efficient for us to take the grain that we are feeding the does and put it into the kids as soon as we can and just put the does back on pasture, that way the kids are directly using the grain. At least that is what this sheep farmers theory was and he has a very very successful farm. We monitor growth rate and I have never seen a difference in growth rate with my 10 to 12 week old kids compared to my younger kids when they are weaned. They all Have a small period of adjustment after being weaned and then they take off.

Now with all that said, If you don't mind feeding until 12 weeks or even 16 weeks, it certainly wont hurt anything.

Plus, like the studies say, decreasing milk production encourages them to eat solid foods, which helps promote rumen development.

 

[elevan]

If you dam raise and you pay attention,you'll notice that the dam will start kicking the kids off more often starting at around 5 weeks and usually by 8 weeks they are getting very little milk, if any. There are exceptions to this of course, but it's what I've noticed in my herd. So at 8 weeks I feel very confident in pulling a kid away from their dam.

 

[Fluffygal]

Thanks for posting this topic. I was wondering the same on when to wean.
Enjoyed reading everyone's feedback. Thanks Again.