When Should You Wean Lambs? It’s Not Just About Age...

Weaning lambs is a key management decision that can impact both flock health and the availability of good grazing. While lambs are typically weaned between 12 to 14 weeks of age, age alone isn’t the only factor that should guide your timing.

The body condition score (BCS) of the ewe and the availability of quality grazing are crucial in determining the right moment to wean.

Interestingly, once lambs reach 8 weeks old, the intake from grass provides more energy than the intake from their mother's milk, therefore the competition for grass significantly increases. How soon this competition becomes a concern largely depends on grass growth and pasture management, which can vary year to year.

If your ewes are maintaining good condition and there's an abundance of quality forage, you may choose to delay weaning. In such cases, postponing weaning won’t negatively affect lamb growth rates, and it could even reduce the stress associated with early separation.

If lambs have access to creep feed from an early age, their daily live weight gain (DLWG) may remain steady even after they reach 8 weeks old - when milk intake typically starts to decline in importance. Therefore, the weaning decision could be made based on the ewe's BCS and how long before the lambs will be finished.

Where Should Lambs Go at Weaning?

An important decision at weaning is where to place the lambs during and after the weaning process.

To reduce stress and minimise disruption, it is best to move the ewes and leave the lambs in the same place for 48-72 hours. Keeping the lambs in a known space helps them settle more quickly, eat consistently and avoid added stress.

Once the transition period has passed, the lambs should be moved to a clean pasture - ideally a low parasite burden pasture or onto a well managed forage crop.

Maximising Lamb Growth Rates After Weaning...

To achieve optimum growth rates after weaning, lambs should be turned onto high-quality pasture with a sward height of 6-8cm if you're using a set-stocking system. On a rotational grazing system, the sward height should be 10-12cm pre grazing and 5-7cm when exiting the pasture.

But height isn't everything - quality matters. The quality of the grass should be young and leafy with a ME value around 11.5MJ rather than stem and dead matter (8MJ), however, this is a challenge when grazing aftermaths because they can take 3 weeks to recover.

Would you like more advise on flock management, body condition scoring or creep feeding your lambs? Contact your local DN Ruminant Specialist who will be happy to advise...

Contact your local DN Ruminant Specialist