# How long for ewe to dry up?



## moonkitten

First time sheep owner here...

I have a katahdin ewe whom I just separated from her ram lamb on the weekend. He was about 13 weeks old and still nursing (even though he is at least as big as she is if not bigger!). The two of them are still crying all day and she looks like she still has milk. How long until she dries up and forgets about him?

:hair:hair


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## MDKatie

It will take a couple days for her to forget about him. She'll probably be over it before he is.  And make sure you're not feeding grain...just plain grass hay and/or pasture while she's drying up. In a few weeks you shouldn't be able to notice much of an udder at all.  If you want, you can check her udder in a week or so, and make sure it's not unusually hot or hard, but usually they dry up with no problems.


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## bergere

Depends on the ewe.... have had ewes that were happy to kick their lambs to the curb.
Not one baa out of any of them.

And others.... had this one ewe... she just did not want to give up the lambs. Drove me nuts.
Only way I got her to shut up, was to sell her lambs. Once she couldn't see or hear them... within a week or two, she was back to being her quiet self. 

As long as he can't sneak a drink through the fence, they normally dry up in 3 to 4 weeks. At least that is what most of my ewes did.

And as Katie said... keep an eye on her, to make sure she doesn't end up with mastitis. 

I know it doesn't help you much... but each ewe can vary a lot.


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## Two Tracks

Hello, I milk my ewes everyday after weaning so that I can make some yummy cheese with it till I regretfully have to wean them "from me" ha ha, so they can dry up and get conditioned to be bred again in 10-12 wks. I'm in the throws of that now, so to prevent mastitis I milk them out 1/2 way for say 3 days then skip a day, milk 1/2 way, skip a day and so on, till I notice they are indeed waning then I'll skip 2 days, milk 1/4 way then just feel their bags to tell if they need to absorb the rest (it's a sad time for me, because I love the rich sheep milk my ewes provide. You could try that, cheesemaking is pretty easy and it's "putting up food" 

If you don't want to do all that, in the past I would milk out the ewes a little bit for relief and mastitis prevention (lost a good ewe, basically overnight she got mastitis and I swore I would not lose another) milk out a bit once a day for a couple days then every other day for about 7-10 days, it helps to have ewes penned up and fed only poorer quality hay for faster dry up, rich foods will promote milk production. That's what I do, everyone has their ways of shepherding. ~Chris


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## moonkitten

Thanks everyone. That really helps alot. I'm not sure I can milk her -- she's really skittish -- but I'll keep an eye on things and try to catch her long enough to check the condition of the udder every couple of days.


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## Double C Acres

I agree with what was said. I usually catch the ewe to check her udder a few days after weaning lambs, if it's hard or very warm I milk some out till soft, if it's already soft I just leave her be and keep an eye on it but it usually only takes a few weeks. And about the crying....it's heartbreaking! I've found they seem happier if they can at least share a fenceline, and they will eventually be quiet. Good luck!


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## Rambo Lamb

We had to milk a few of our Shetlands this year up to 5 days post-weaning in order to feed a bottle lamb who was not doing very well on Super Lamb milk replacer. (Eventually we just bought fresh goat's milk from a small healthy herd of goats in the area for him, but wanted to transition him first with fresh sheep's milk from our farm.) Our ewe with the oldest lambs was already dry at time of seperation from lambs (all lambs 10-12 weeks old) and most other ewes still had some milk when we checked them a day or two after separation. We milked about 4 off and on for several days, froze their milk or fed it to our bottle lamb, and then quit milking. At two weeks post-weaning, a week without milking on those 4 ewes, they are all drying up nicely--we have the ewes on pasture alone with the usual minerals and supplements available to them.

Yes, I would agree with the prior comments--2-3 days for ewes to forget lambs and somewhat longer for lambs to forget about ewes. We generally separate them for a minimum of 3 weeks and that seems to do it for our Shetlands. Shetlands might require a slightly shorter time of separation than some other breeds because they are lamb-dependent milkers. If there is not a lamb on them, you really cannot milk them for more than a week or two before they dry up anyway. That is what dairy sheep owners in our area have found, at least, and here in Northern WI we have quite a few sheep dairies.


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