Weaning – a special time of year!
As producers, we look forward to this phase of the annual production cycle. Getting those babies away from their mothers and on their own to take full advantage of their genetics is satisfying. With forward thinking and planning, weaning is the first stage in getting those valuable females in your herds and flocks back into condition and ready for the upcoming breeding season.
A stressful time
While we are looking forward to this transition, we must also keep in mind that this new experience for the little ones may lead to a great deal of stress for all. Not only are the babies missing the security of having their mothers nearby, but they often experience a new environment, new pen mates, and most definitely a new feeding program! Gone is the comfort of running to Mom for a quick meal of her warm, satisfying milk.
The females are also going through their own version of the “empty-nest syndrome”. Their offspring are gone, and even though they are now receiving much-needed R&R, they are subject to the hazards of a different diet and drying up their milk supply.
When is the best age to wean?
It varies, depending on the management system. Lambs and goats are typically weaned around 90-100 days of age, although if handled properly, they can be early weaned successfully between 45-60 days of age.
Other weaning factors.
Even more important than age, weight and dry feed consumption are critical. A general recommendation is that lambs and kids should not be weaned until they are 3+ times their birth weight. These youngsters should be consuming enough dry feed (either with their dams or through a creep) to satisfy their basic maintenance requirements plus additional growth. A creep feeder will help get them onto a high quality, nutrient-dense feed at an early age and more capable of handling weaning stresses.
Weaning Guidelines:
1. Approximately 1-2 weeks prior to weaning, change the high-quality lactation diets to a low-quality forage diet. This will reduce the dam's milk output, which will reduce the risk of mastitis and other udder problems. It will also encourage greater dry feed intake from the babies.
2. Make sure babies have access to water during this pre-weaning stage. If utilizing a creep, place a water source inside the creep. With reduced milk intake, they will appreciate having water available to keep them eating and promoting a healthy digestive system.
3. Do NOT attempt to wean if your stock is grazing lush, spring pastures! Those pastures are too high in both nutrient content and water to allow for successful reduction in milk output from the females. Likewise, do not turn freshly weaned females out onto lush pastures for the same reason. The high nutrient levels will keep udders in a producing state and with no babies to reduce the milk supply will lead to udder problems.
4. Remove ewes from babies when weaning. Keep babies in familiar surroundings and ideally, do not mix groups together.
5. Dry feed offerings should remain the same as they were receiving prior to weaning. I.e., Kalmbach creep feeds or the same concentrate diet that their mothers were consuming if you did not provide a creep for the babies.
6. Give all babies their first vaccination for CD-T (overeating disease and tetanus) about 1 week before weaning. The 2nd round should be given 4 weeks later.
7. After weaning, let the babies have time to adjust to their new status in life. Do not attempt to sort, vaccinate or move them for a few days.
What to feed
Kalmbach Feeds® has a variety of feeds that are ideal for newly-weaned babies.
For lambs, we offer Start Right® Lamb Creep (618LCDX), Start Right® Lamb Developer (616LGDX), 18 Starter-Developer Pellet (618BOV), and Power Takeoff (T6920FOC). All of these feeds are medicated with either Deccox or Bovatec for coccidiosis control and contain ammonium chloride for urinary calculi prevention.
For goats, we have 18% Start Right® Kid (6618D), 16% Goat Grower (6616DEX), Game Plan® 18 Starter Developer Goat (6616FOC), and GTO Turbo® (T6616FOC). These feeds are medicated with either Deccox or monensin for coccidiosis control and ammonium chloride for urinary calculi prevention.
