Spring lamb prices

Green farmer

Anyone get any wool prices for this year ?

ganmo

https://www.britishwool.org.uk/price-indicator
Not much change in that from last year

https://www.landmark.com.au/wool/wool-market-reports-selling-roster
Haven't looked at the data in that link

Rows Grower

Green farmer wrote: »

Anyone get any wool prices for this year ?

Is there any representative of Irish sheep farmers that meets with the wholesale wool buyers?

Genuine question.

I only rear a couple a year myself for the table over the last decade but I can't understand how wool seems to be a non profit (for the farmer), non negotiable market.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Rows Grower wrote: »

Is there any representative of Irish sheep farmers that meets with the wholesale wool buyers?

Genuine question.

I only rear a couple a year myself for the table over the last decade but I can't understand how wool seems to be a non profit (for the farmer), non negotiable market.

Demand for synthetic fibers is greater than that for wool. The last time it was profitable to shear sheep was the last time that Chinese demand for wool and natural fibers drove demand.

ganmo

Rows Grower wrote: »

Is there any representative of Irish sheep farmers that meets with the wholesale wool buyers?

Genuine question.

I only rear a couple a year myself for the table over the last decade but I can't understand how wool seems to be a non profit (for the farmer), non negotiable market.

In Ireland it's an open market with 3 or 4 buyers with the only regulations being about how the wool is stored.
In England the farmer has to sell to the wool board and gets paid when they sell it

Rows Grower

ganmo wrote: »

In Ireland it's an open market with 3 or 4 buyers with the only regulations being about how the wool is stored.
In England the farmer has to sell to the wool board and gets paid when they sell it

So is the wool board like an English sheep farmers union?

Do Irish sheep farmers have any collective bargaining with the buyers?

ganmo

Rows Grower wrote: »

So is the wool board like an English sheep farmers union?

Do Irish sheep farmers have any collective bargaining with the buyers?

The collective bargaining generally takes the form of gathering a load together which will mean an extra 5c/kg

A few years back the Donegal carpet company approached the wicklow sheep owners society looking to source wool, that was the only time I've know for domestic demand to have any impact on the price

Bleating Lamb

Was talking to a man that is still producing lambs for ‘Easter trade’....not surprisingly this is going to be his last year at it.....factories extracting the urine in last while with quotes for lamb.
There will be a lot of sinewy hoggett ‘lamb’ on market next year methinks.

orm0nd

Was offered 6.60 +.10 for a bundle of springs. Anybody know if there's more to be had.

Lambman

Was chatting till a butcher from kilkenny over the weekend he has his own abbatoir and we got talking about sheep and the prices and he agrees the price off spring lamb is madness he's paying 6.50 till 23kg for spring lamb at the minute. He wreckons he can still get plenty a hoggets down there paying till 23.5 and I said it must be some difference killing a hogget at say 50kg live weight till kill out at that and was probably just about kept alive over the winter and never seen meal and a spring lamb at 45kg till kill out at 23.5 because it was creeped from a week old and he totally agrees and said there isn't a big enough difference in the prices till make any farmer even consider lambing early till have spring lambs.

Willfarman

The grass fed hogget that you belittle is where the premium should be. Tender full of flavor and a healthier more sustainable product than opaque tasteless milk and meal fallacy.

ganmo

I caught a small bit on the radio yday where they went over what ppl spent their money on over Easter
44 million on Easter eggs
23 million on lamb

Willfarman

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_holidays This is where the sheep meat eaters are lads. There might be lift next week or week after.

Duke92

How dear did hoggets get after
Did the big money come during Easter
They were all saying they’re be a great trade for Easter and Ramadan
Haven’t been keeping an eye on since mine are gone 6 weeks

charolais0153

One lamb went :rolleyes:
21.6kg 131. Should be 15 euro a head dearer at least...

ganmo

finally started updating it

Bleating Lamb

Talking to an early lamb producer who is selling lambs in last few weeks,he reckons good fed lambs are around a tenner back on this time last year.

Lambman

Willfarman I agree with some off what your saying but I strongly disagree with you saying it's more sustainable and would like you till explain it till me. How can keeping a lamb 11 months be sustainable in the slightest? If you can't breed a lamb till be away before that age your doing it wrong... If you haven't enough ground till get lambs away before that age your doing it wrong... If you can't work out how much it costs you till keep a lamb for that long your doing it wrong... It's people like you keeping lambs till this time off year that's ruining the spring market for lambs and giving factories a safety net till do what they like.

orm0nd

Bleating Lamb wrote: »

Talking to an early lamb producer who is selling lambs in last few weeks,he reckons good fed lambs are around a tenner back on this time last year.

Inputs are way lower this year which offset most of the price difference.
Having said that we're still quitting early lamb and cutting back numbers overall.

kk.man

Lambman wrote: »

Willfarman I agree with some off what your saying but I strongly disagree with you saying it's more sustainable and would like you till explain it till me. How can keeping a lamb 11 months be sustainable in the slightest? If you can't breed a lamb till be away before that age your doing it wrong... If you haven't enough ground till get lambs away before that age your doing it wrong... If you can't work out how much it costs you till keep a lamb for that long your doing it wrong... It's people like you keeping lambs till this time off year that's ruining the spring market for lambs and giving factories a safety net till do what they like.

What you say has merit and it can be all about a spread of cash flow. However I bought stores last Oct/Nov and I had them out the door in late Jan (for luck) and these left good money, less time on the farm and less labour. They were not housed either.
I can see how early lamb producers would be [EMAIL="p@%"]p@%[/EMAIL]&** off with they way they have been treated in recent years. There is smarter ways of turning money in sheep however non of us has a crystal ball.

Lambman

I agree kk man I bought lambs this last 2 years as well in around November cause I'd a surplus off grass after all the ewes were tipped and rams taken away. I'll have all lambs gone every year mid August no matter what weight but a high % will be factoried by that stage this is because from then on I build up grass for the ewes pre tupping this way I can keep more ewes which gives me more lambs which is more profitable than keeping on screws a lambs that will need feeding from then on anyways till do any thrive... Everybody's different I get that but this system suits me.

Green farmer

Lambman wrote: »

.. It's people like you keeping lambs till this time off year that's ruining the spring market for lambs and giving factories a safety net till do what they like.

Think your taking aim at the wrong target. factories would just import in lambs from across the water if they couldn’t get hogget lambs here instead of giving you the extra few cent. Or they could say demand was weak and cut back production dates to suit. Any of those tactics sound familiar over the last few years ? Or you could take aim at Mills for constantly increasing the price of ration fed to spring lambs, at a time when grain prices are falling. Either way I don’t think it’s productive blaming other ordinary farmers that are trying to make ends meat ( literally)

Birdnuts

Bleating Lamb wrote: »

Talking to an early lamb producer who is selling lambs in last few weeks,he reckons good fed lambs are around a tenner back on this time last year.

Probably down to the kind early spring folks enjoyed which led to higher output of early lamb. A surplus of quality carcasses now entering the system

Lambman

Your contradicting yourself saying the Mills increase the price in spring so why not feed them and get them away earlier? People holding out for a price increase in the spring for hoggets aren't taking into account that hogget has as much eat as a ewe during that time so why not sell early and winter extra ewes instead a carrying over hoggets?

Dinzee Conlee

Lambman wrote: »

Your contradicting yourself saying the Mills increase the price in spring so why not feed them and get them away earlier? People holding out for a price increase in the spring for hoggets aren't taking into account that hogget has as much eat as a ewe during that time so why not sell early and winter extra ewes instead a carrying over hoggets?

But aren’t you contradicting yourself saying people should carry extra ewes - but yet you bought stores and sold em as fat hog this winter/spring?
You seem to be giving out about people keeping hog over the winter whilst doing it yourself?

The reality is different systems suit different people.
I buy stores and sell some fat and some for breeding... it suits me... The main reason it suits me is cos I don’t have time to take off for lambing ewes - be it early or late...

To be honest, no matter what system you have with sheep, there isn’t much money out of them. In ways you would be better off without them, and get someone else to farm the land for you... But sure we need to get the hardship somewhere

Green farmer

Lambman wrote: »

Your contradicting yourself saying the Mills increase the price in spring

I haven’t contradicted myself. I think you misread what I said.

Lambman

Dinznee conlee yea because I needed grass grazed and I wasn't bothered wether I bought empty ewes or hoggets but nobody scans that early... I'm still trying till find a balance I've over 3 x the sheep I had in 2015 still not big numbers but trying my best. Im just saying if your breeding lambs not fight till slaughter before 11 months then it's a bad sign. This is why factories don't panic about spring lamb because there is a steady supply off people keeping lambs on till that age hoping for a rise in price without actually working out what it costs them.

Ard_MC

Lambman wrote: »

Dinznee conlee yea because I needed grass grazed and I wasn't bothered wether I bought empty ewes or hoggets but nobody scans that early... I'm still trying till find a balance I've over 3 x the sheep I had in 2015 still not big numbers but trying my best. Im just saying if your breeding lambs not fight till slaughter before 11 months then it's a bad sign. This is why factories don't panic about spring lamb because there is a steady supply off people keeping lambs on till that age hoping for a rise in price without actually working out what it costs them.

I think your from the same part of the world as myself. Horned ram lambs? Ur wasting your time feedin them young. Let them grow a frame and as much weight of grass. Then aim for finish in dec to march. Worked well for me this yr and dont think its a bad sign at all. Never had a better yr.

These lads buyin stores are the only outlet for alot of lambs along the west coast. If they give a fair price for stores, good luck to them with their gamble with them. And its their business to make a profit how they see best. Maybe its early spring lamb ppl should forget about it and let the hill lambs of the west coast fill those few months.

Lambman

Havent had a horned lamb since I started my own flock 5 years ago.... I do understand everyone is different if you have horned lambs then I'd imagine you lamb from 1sr April on... Look who can speak that's gonna agree with everyone? I just says the problem I see and explained myethod... If everyone did what I do then it would be worse 😂.... It just works for me. Saying that the old man still has 18 odd cows here because it worked for him we're as I wouldn't have 1.

razor8

Have to agree with lambman. For a lowland mid season flock you need to have at least 80% of your lambs gone by tipping time or else your effecting the next years lamb crop. Unless your very lowly stocked the costs just don’t add up