Can we continue to tether our lambs

Hi everyone. I have read the forums for ages - so much good advice. I have a question though that I haven't been able to find the answer for.

We have a couple of gorgeous lambs which the children have raised for Ag Day this year - one ewe, one wether - currently 8 weeks old and still being fed milk. Trouble is they have discovered how to jump/climb out of their pen (netting with warratahs which we move every few days). The only way we have been able to keep them safe is to tether them. They seem perfectly happy at the moment.

The thing is that we have only cattle fencing on our LSB and to sheep proof it is going to cost quite a bit. We were intending on only keeping the wether till autumn next year (yum - and yes the kids know). Could we keep them on tethers till 10 months old? At that stage we could hand the female on to a friend. Has anyone kept sheep on a tether before? Any advice appreciated, thanks.

hi and welcome to the LSB cyber family Mumof3too
Um i doubt you will have to teher then for that long
I only have 7 wire fencing on the entire grove and at pressent 15 sheep and 9 lambs , as well as pigs and goats there lol
Or are you meannig cattle fence as in hotwires and about a 2 or 3 wire ?

Our lambs stay behind 3 electric fence wires/tape

We cannot keep our sheep behind an 8 wire fence with some of the wires hot .... . The ground is too dry, and they move too quickly because a pulse comes through the fence every 1.2 seconds .....
If they were my sheep, my boundary fences are sheepproof, so I would let them go on the whole property. Also, train the lambs to eat pellets now, and wean them onto pellets at about 12 weeks. Train them to come to your call, because you are going to have to check them every day from late November to ensure they have not got flystrike.

I should add that the electric fence behind which we currently have our sheep and lambs is not a boundary fence. Interesting point LR - when our lambs are in the traditionally fenced paddock we can't neccessarily keep all the lambs in there either. Maybe ours are just good lambs this year.

Thanks for the replies. The plan is to keep them on a tether for a bit longer so they are too big to find the little gaps and then try putting a couple of extra wires on the outside post and rail we have and then run a 8 wire fence across the paddock where we need to divide it up. (Presently one huge paddock which is divided up for cattle with a single tape.)

Hopefully that works!

Hi, we have a wether thats a year old and he's our lawnmower on a tether. He was running with the ewes until they started lambing then just caused them greif. So on the rope he went, all around the house, outside along the road side (we're almost at the end of the road so not much traffic). it's great as he can still see the girls but gets the best grass.

We have portable electric fences here so ok for keeping the horses and cows in, but the lamb and calves just go straight underneath it. The calves I don't mind wandering about, our place is safe for them and soon they'll be too tall to keep it up, but the lamb is tethered and will be while we are here, for the forseeable future. It's either on the tether or in the freezer.