We have just been spaning a batch of sheep and lambs and wondered at what age other people tend to spane their lambs? these lambs were aroung 16 weeks old. One lamb had lost its mother around a month ago and was suprisingly just as good as the other lambs, this is what prompted the thought of spaning earlier.

 I have heard of people spaning as young as 6 weeks and also of people leaving them till over 5 months. Just wondered what people thought the pros and cons of both ideas were.

I always had the decision made for me by the amount of feed available, the number of fields, and the quality of the fencing. I never did reach a satisfactory conclusion. Now in a semi-retired state, and with only a handful of stock, I sell the wether kids (no sheep) once a year and the doe kids spean themselves or the dams do it for them when the new kids arrive.

We do ours anytime round now having lambed in April, depends on how soon we have silage off the meadows slightly but normally have them done in time to do it now. We run swales both pure and crossing to the BFL and do them all at the same time. I've never heard of anyone doing them as early as 6 weeks though...has anyone ever tried it on here?

August is the the month for spaning here, it gets done on a day when not much else is needing doing. It doesn't want to be left any later as the ewes have to prepare fore next year.

topdog:

We do ours anytime round now having lambed in April, depends on how soon we have silage off the meadows slightly but normally have them done in time to do it now. We run swales both pure and crossing to the BFL and do them all at the same time. I've never heard of anyone doing them as early as 6 weeks though...has anyone ever tried it on here?

Yes, but only with cade lambs when they've just finished a bag of milk replacer. They take a little bit of a check, and a tip is to fill the milk feeder with water for a few weeks, because otherwise they take time to learn to drink from a trough, and in the meantime get dehydrated.