[Jacob-list] banded sacks not dropping and weaning question

[gordon johnston]

Hi Tom
The little purses will drop off all in good time, no need to do anything.
Sometimes they are left dangling by nothing but wool, in which case you can
snip through the wool.  Otherwise you will eventually find mysterious little
bags with a band at the top lying around where they fell off.

The ewes will wean the lambs themselves by about 4-5 months, which is ample
time for them to get back into shape for the next breeding season (they
should have 2 clear months away from the lambs before they go back to the
ram).  Before then the lambs will eat increasing amounts of grass, until
weaning becomes a very gentle process ; anything which avoids stress for
both ewe and lamb is good.
If you have masses of grass and do not feed grain, the lambs will taste all
the better and will not be fat - here in Britain we have seen just how fat
Jacobs can become with too much grain feeding.  There is no rush to fatten
them as fast as possible as they do with commercial sheep.  Slower maturing
produces a better quality product, which is the whole point of rearing your
own.  Fatty lamb is less pleasant to eat, and the firmer muscle produced by
grass fed animals is delicious.  Here there is an increasing interest in
mutton, which is from animals of 2 - 4 years, grass fed only, and it is
superb !  So don't rush to get a production line going. Having said that, if
you have good quality grass and plenty of it, they will not take long to
finish.
We have found that the ewes will show less interest in their grain once they
are getting enough grass, but you should perhaps start to decrease the
amount they are getting now.
For shearing, I agree with Linda - get hand shears and get someone, or a
video, to show you how to do it. Gordon's first efforts took ages but now
it's 10 - 20 mins each, and the cost of hand shears is very small.  The
sheep are ready to shear when there is a marked 'rise' in the fleece ie when
you part the wool, you can see where the new growth is coming in, all over
the body.  With hand shearing you cut through this line, so there needs to
be half an inch or so of growth.

Juliet in Scotland