Ewe management after weaning

Weaning time gives farmers a chance to press the reset button on thin ewes, writes Michael Gottstein, Teagasc Head of Sheep Knowledge Transfer, who looks at strategies to ensure ewes recuperate after weaning.

We are seeing a lot of thin ewes on farms at mating time. It is not uncommon to see 25-30% of ewes sub-optimal in terms of body condition score (BCS) at mating time, and that percentage rising to 50% at lambing time.

Thin ewes are poorer mothers, and have lower milk yield and poorer colostrum quality. In the past spring, farmers with a big proportion of ewes in poor condition at lambing experienced much higher levels of mortality in lambs.

Weaning time gives us a chance to press the reset button on these thin ewes, as the ewes need time to recuperate after weaning.

Forcing ewes to lose weight after weaning is not a good idea. Restricting ewes for a week to ten days after weaning to help to dry them up is a good idea. After that, ewes should be grouped according to body condition, with thin ones getting priority access to grass and heavier ewes being used to graze out paddocks.

Ewes in poor condition need good-quality grass. They must be given priority access to grass as soon as possible after weaning. If you are tight for grass then these ewes can be grazed with the lambs 10 days after weaning, without any risk of the lambs starting to suckle again.

Weaning

The optimum time to wean lambs is at 14 weeks or 100 days of age. Because lamb performance is a little bit back on most farms this year, there may be a temptation to leave lambs suckling ewes a bit longer. This is a bad idea as sheep are selective grazers and the ewes will compete with the lambs for the best grass, thus reducing lamb performance.

After weaning, it is a good idea to divide the lambs into grazing groups according to weight. Many farmers find that running a finishing group of lambs of over 35-38kg that are receiving 300-500g of concentrates daily is useful in terms of keeping lambs moving. Lighter lambs can be allowed to gain weight on grass and subsequently moved into the finishing group once they achieve the desired liveweight.

Finish lambs versus selling as stores

Farmers who are pondering trying to finish lambs or selling a proportion as stores can use the interactive Teagasc Store Lamb Calculator to help them work out the economics of the different options.

This article first appear in the Teagasc Sheep Advisory newsletter for July. For more insights on topics such as grassland management, lameness and updates from the Better Farm Sheep Programme and Teagasc researcher, click here.