Weaning at 12 weeks ammo needed

[Bones]

Weaning ewes earlier, will boost lamb numbers for next year's crop,

 

[Lovegoodstock]

So many different systems. Someone said why leave on ewe when you have fresh grass growing after silage, makes sense but we silage late and that suits for shearlings a month before sale to get really fit and turns a 125 mule into 170 without cake. Do you creep lambs? Lambs crept tend to go on better post weaning, timing is massively variable, 2 weeks ago my lambs put on nothing, but was seriously hot, I don't creep, ewes all under hedges, those lack of weight gains suggest weaning, following weeks they have fully compensated and 2 big draws, my ewes are big girls, even when lambs are gone and they are shut up on a bare field around 12/ acre, they get so horribly fat that you would think are candidates for a scanning of 1.1 per ewe, so leaving lambs on longer suits, last 14 months the normal high may price peaking first week in june then continually falling seems to have gone, so the rush to sell lambs to beat price fall seems to have gone, so the cheaper way of finishing lambs and maximising your stocking on your grass is for me, maybe others the way forward

 

[Kiwi Pete]

So many different systems.

Not really fair to compare 2 farms when 1 is short on grass.
Plenty trial work been done on this such as weaning 1 lamb off hoggs with twins, the arranged lamb grew faster and all on the same grub.
But it all depends what suits your farm, we have rape /irg in and new leys so will wean lambs to eat that at the end of July, rest will be weaned end August.

It is odd, the more I learn about "farming holistically" the more I discover that the old boy often just did the same things that are considered 'alternative' 'holistic' now.

I have concluded that most generations have probably gone through the same throes - splitting up their herd into little mobs, then realised although it was fractionally better it didn't really pay every year because they spent it in the tractor topping what the stock could have done - or spent 5 hours travelling the farm seeing all the little flocks when they could have consolidated them, not spent the time and effort, and not have to claw it back from lamb and calf sales?
@Henarar is a bit "old fashioned" but it really is as modern as anything - success leaves clues.

Animals impact and influence on their environment is hard to put a value on, one of the first "marginal reactions" is usually to bunch up our animals as much as possible -leveraging the labour they provide towards maintaining the pasture, leveraging our time inputs because we can stand in one place and see all our stock, and make decisions accordingly... simply...

In short, holism vs reductionism: why farmers seldom degree on a thing; we all sit at different points on that scale.

It isn't because they didn't have big horsepower, a strand of wire is the most powerful tool of them all - few recognise that our fortunes really do rely on having stock in the right place at the right time for the right reasons - examine those reasons.

 

[firther]

personally i leave them on till end of july as there is less a problem with bad bags