Grazing: Early weaning can help good pasture management.
Weaning, by definition, creates two different flocks with wildly
different nutritional needs: dry ewes and weaned lambs. Dry ewes
need only maintenance levels of nutrition; growing lambs need
high levels of protein and energy. We can choose to manage these
groups as two separate units or as a single mob. If we don't
wean, then we are really choosing to manage them as a single
mob. Keeping them together means that we will often underfeed
and overfeed at the same time. As pastures mature, we will
underfeed the lambs, who need more energy and protein for
growth, but we will still allow too much feed for the ewes, who
will simply gain weight. A mob of dry ewes, however, gives us
all sorts of good options: The second item hits the checkbook
even more directly. How much does it cost to worm a flock? What
if we can save over 50% of that cost without compromising the
health of the lambs? As every shepherd knows, sheep on green
pasture usually become infested wi