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Dairy Sheep Questions

1175 Views 23 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  CindyinSD
I got three dairy lambs this spring; one ramling and two ewelings. Now I have three ewelings (I guess they're all ewelings still... the seller didn't know when the original girls were born). The ramling seeded the littlest eweling and maybe (hopefully) got the other ewe pregnant as well before he went bonkers and ended up in freezer camp. He was huge. I had no idea he was gonna get that big. (Okay, you can laugh now...) 🤦‍♀️ I think they are polled East Freesian/LaCaune cross (sorry about the spelling), but the seller wasn't sure about the mix. I was fortunate to find dairy stock around here at all so I wasn't about to make any complaints. Besides, they're all nice, healthy gals and the ram has contributed significantly to filling up our freezers.

The baby (Sugar Plum, 'cause that just seemed to be her name) was born Dec 29th. How long should I wait before sharing some of that milk? I was thinking a couple of weeks, but that's just a guess on my part.

I've been giving both of them alfalfa/grass (~50:50) hay since SP made her appearance. (Before that, they'd been grazing a mixed grass/alfalfa round bale most of the days, with a rack-full for when they're stalled. They share a stall, so... Also an extra ration of all-stock sweet mixed grains. That's a Folgers canister twice a day for the two ladies to share. Chickens take some of that... prolly a considerable quantity of "some". The sheep don't seem desperate to get at it, so I'm assuming they're getting plenty. They also have a protein block and of course, fresh non-frozen water. Should I be giving them more feed, or maybe less? Different?

I have materials to build a milking stand and it won't take too long, but what with the bomb-cyclone winter blast event and the garage stuffed with vehicles and feed and all, I haven't started on it yet. Now that the ordinary cold doesn't seem so bad, I'd like to get that built asap. The ones I've seen on Youtube just have a stanchion at the end of the rectangular platform, with a food dish. The ewe hops up and goes to her munchies and you milk her. Would it be better to have side rails? A ramp to ascend? Am I over-thinking this? Can I use this platform to shear them as well? (They came freshly shorn, so I haven't had the shearing experience yet.)

Okay... in fewer words:
1. Am I feeding them properly?
2. When can/should I start milking (lamb-sharing?) I don't want/intend to separate them (esp at night), but I wonder whether Ewekalalie will reach her production capacity If I don't place some demand on it fairly early in the game. 🤷‍♀️
3. Will a platform with a stanchion be sufficient for shearing, hoof trimming, etc.?
4. Thanks so much for any wisdom ya'll can share with me!
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How wonderfully exciting! I have always been curious about milking sheep. I have a small herd of dairy goats, so all my knowledge is based in that experience. It is still ruminant.

Sweet feed is always a poor choice for ruminants. The molasses isn’t beneficial for their digestion.

Folgers cans come in many sizes. We get the BIG ones. I know that would be too much.

A quart of goat feed weighs about a pound. My bred doe (HUGE Saanen) gets about 3/4 pound morning and evening. The dry goats get about 1/4 pound.

Are you in central Texas or southern Missouri. I have too many milk stands! Yes, I trim hooves and milk and everything on a simple platform with the stanchion at one end.

Reconsider separating them at night after two weeks so that you can milk in the morning. Otherwise, you won’t get much milk.

Train the ewes to the milk stand as soon as possible. Train them to having their udder messed with. This prevents rodeos later.

Keep us posted about how it’s going.
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Corn is heating internally, but with your weather, that is good.
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Yes, goats and sheep acquire intestinal parasites from short grass. The larvae climb up the stems in the morning dew. Treatment is meds from the feed store. You wait till the dead worms and medication clears their systems before harvesting the lamb/goat kids.
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Yes. Overgrazing means the sheep and goats are having to eat short new growth. In the dampness of the morning dew, the worm larvae have climbed the grass blades and infested the livestock.
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