10. Ram lambs to new homes

As the autumn draws in after a non-existent summer, and the lambs are weaned from their mothers, it’s time to decide who goes where. I tend to leave the lambs with their mothers much longer than is typical, because natural weaning occurs anyway, plus it generates less stress for all involved including me.

Hip - one of the first born twins (plus Hop) this Spring, ready to go to his new home with three other lambs.

Waiting until about 20 weeks meant that days and days of wailing lambs and uncomfortable mother sheep with overfull inflamed udders was prevented. There was really only one night of baaing and then all settled down. The mothers were quite happy to have a break too. I separated out the ewe lambs from the ram lambs at the same time, as all the rams that had been booked for purchase at time of weaning needed to be accessed easily, plus some of the bigger ones were getting frisky. After a few weeks of grass the weaned lambs had put on some weight, as often they lose a bit when separated. It is important to wait until this happens because going to a new environment can be stressful and they need to be in their full health and up to optimum weight when moving home especially heading into winter. Weak underweight lambs pick up parasites and diseases easily and strong ones generally don’t. After two weeks I was happy that they were ready to go and over the space of a few days all that were scheduled to go to new homes headed off.

The very best and biggest lambs with big sets of horns were purchased as breeding rams for farmers interested in developing their own Herdwick flocks. Then there were lambs purchased as pets to be cute but efficient lawnmowers and weed clearers. They were castrated at 12 weeks since the new owners did not want to breed sheep. These ones were picked because they didn’t develop large horns and it is easier to manage pet lambs if they don’t have them. Often they can get caught in fences or branches and horn injuries can be nasty to treat.

The last few we have decided to keep for the moment and let them be little rams in with the two adult Valais Blacknose Rams for companionship. They were terrified at first but then decided the big chaps weren’t so scary after all.

All the ewe lambs went back into their mothers after a four week break and drying off time where milk production stops completely. So a calm happy flock is what I find every morning now, with all of them in their different groups and hopefully this coming winter will be a bit less effort now that we have all paddocks fenced with sheep wire and proper gates. Speaking of proper gates, never underestimate the value of a properly hung gate for an easy life.