Spring lamb prices

arctictree

Got €103 for a dozen 43kg ewe lambs in Baltinglass earlier. I have about 50 Lambs left and all are under 40kg. Starting feeding them today for the next 6 to 8 weeks and will hopefully sell before lambing....

Murang

Dickie10 wrote: »

brought 37 kerry stores to navan last night. €5:75 to 23 kg

How did the Kerry stores do

Tileman

arctictree wrote: »

Got €103 for a dozen 43kg ewe lambs in Baltinglass earlier. I have about 50 Lambs left and all are under 40kg. Starting feeding them today for the next 6 to 8 weeks and will hopefully sell before lambing....

What breed were they arctictree?
Had meant to head down there myself this morning but something came up and changes the plans.

arctictree

Tileman wrote: »

What breed were they arctictree?
Had meant to head down there myself this morning but something came up and changes the plans.

Lleyn x Kerry Hill, nice looking lambs

Dickie10

Murang wrote: »

How did the Kerry stores do

averaged €122, some butty short lambs wont ever kill more than 18.5 kg brought average down, top was killing 132 euro

Dickie10

i put the invoice up here how much they were cant remember exactly

k mac

Have 13 store ewe lambs Suffolk texel and Suffolk mule crosses I bought that are now average 41kgs. They were dosed for fluke last week so the withdrawal is up around 22nd January. They are short on grass now and have been getting a tiny shake of meal to keep quiet and get to the trough. What would they be worth now in the mart/done deal. Am I better off starting feeding meal now and if so how much ( I was thinking .5 kg a head twice a day)and when the withdrawal is up see what weight they are and then decide whether to bring to the mart or finish myself. Have 1 outlier with them that's 55kg I don't want to go feeding will I have to see if the local butcher will take here would be hoping for around £130 for her.
If they were getting enough meal would they manage with very little grass, have silage I could give in small amounts too I suppose

arctictree

k mac wrote: »

Have 13 store ewe lambs Suffolk texel and Suffolk mule crosses I bought that are now average 41kgs. They were dosed for fluke last week so the withdrawal is up around 22nd January. They are short on grass now and have been getting a tiny shake of meal to keep quiet and get to the trough. What would they be worth now in the mart/done deal. Am I better off starting feeding meal now and if so how much ( I was thinking .5 kg a head twice a day)and when the withdrawal is up see what weight they are and then decide whether to bring to the mart or finish myself. Have 1 outlier with them that's 55kg I don't want to go feeding will I have to see if the local butcher will take here would be hoping for around £130 for her.
If they were getting enough meal would they manage with very little grass, have silage I could give in small amounts too I suppose

See the other thread on store lambs. It absolutely makes sense to horse in as much meal as you can in to them given current prices. I just started a group of 50 on Saturday on meal. Already about half of them are eating. Hope to have them all eating in a couple of days and then I'll add a few troughs and up the ration.

BTW, I'd try to separate that 55kg lamb and give it hay/silage only. No point giving the factory free meat. Although last year we had a couple of pet lambs in the garden and my son kept feeding them over the autumn/winter. They ended up at 63Kgs after XMas! Sold them in the Mart in the end.

memorystick

Just saw on Agriland that quotes €6.20 being got. You’ll see sheep back in fashion!

Could all prices be posted here. It’s handy to reminisce on past prices. Only if Mods are ok.

Dickie10

got €6 last Thursday ICM navan killed 31 and 4 ewes. one docket came back today , had 26 ewe/weathers lambs averaged €127. next load had 5 ram lambs 50-53kg, cheviot cross and 4 ewes i prob get it tommorrow . have 150 left should get rid of 60 this month

Dickie10

well thats the trouble now lads getting out of sucklers back to sheep , although i dont think that many will jump at them, a lot of beef and tillage men will have nightmarish memories of childhoods spent running after sheep broke out, huge amount of fencing and facility set up to leave sheep sustainable enterprise. my cousin got in on gravey train this autumn with 40 ewes i will lookon with interest, can see him giving them gate after 2 years

Green farmer

Dickie10 wrote: »

well thats the trouble now lads getting out of sucklers back to sheep , although i dont think that many will jump at them, a lot of beef and tillage men will have nightmarish memories of childhoods spent running after sheep broke out, huge amount of fencing and facility set up to leave sheep sustainable enterprise. my cousin got in on gravey train this autumn with 40 ewes i will lookon with interest, can see him giving them gate after 2 years

I suppose you have to like sheep to work with them. Wouldnt be too worried about too many getting in to sheep having any impact on prices overall. Think theres room for everyone. Were a small country supplying a huge market. The factors that dictate our prices are on a bigger scale then us increasing our national flock by a few percent either way.

Edit
Just googled it there. Last year Nz only filled about half their EU quota of 228,000 tonnes of sheep meat. So shortfall of 114,000t of lamb at 20kg a carcass, 50 lambs per tonne = 5.7 million lambs. ??? Would that be an accurate guess ?

memorystick

Ill be selling in the middle of February and should have a batch of Cheviot wethers around 50 kgs. Do butchers like wethers or would they rather hoggets?

Green farmer

memorystick wrote: »

Ill be selling in the middle of February and should have a batch of Cheviot wethers around 50 kgs. Do butchers like wethers or would they rather hoggets?

Butcher I used deal with wouldnt touch rams lambs but had no issue with wethers.

Dickie10

wethers grand, same as ewe lambs there not tainted. should be a reduced price on ram lambs after december. thats coming from someone fattening the last 14 ram lambs

Dickie10

swineflu has been great for lamb trade there been a huge cull in pig population in china, leaving them needing another protein source, thats where NZ lamb is going instead of EU, but even before that by scanner from New Zealand was saying their ewe population is continually dropping the last 20 years as more convert to dairy.

kk.man

memorystick wrote: »

Ill be selling in the middle of February and should have a batch of Cheviot wethers around 50 kgs. Do butchers like wethers or would they rather hoggets?

Monitor their fat content... I had a few last year and terrible hard tó put Meat on them. I swore never again.. Just my experience.

memorystick

kk.man wrote: »

Monitor their fat content... I had a few last year and terrible hard tó put Meat on them. I swore never again.. Just my experience.

Thanks. They see to be fleshing up well. It’s my first time to have wethers.

weatherbyfoxer

will a mid-season lambs who has been castrated with the rubber rings finish as fast as a lamb left as uncasturated?

wrangler

weatherbyfoxer wrote: »

will a mid-season lambs who has been castrated with the rubber rings finish as fast as a lamb left as uncasturated?

No, but you have to keep ram lambs well fed or they go screwy

memorystick

Any word on prices for next week?

weatherbyfoxer

wrangler wrote: »

No, but you have to keep ram lambs well fed or they go screwy

think i seen somewhere teagasc say it take 2 weeks longer to finish castrated lambs over ram lambs,due around 50 or 60 llyen x rams this year in mid march and it would be the best option for those...the rest is inlamb to texels so bit unsure if ill bother do them as the texel ram lamb turn into right little bulls of sheep..ha ha

wrangler

weatherbyfoxer wrote: »

think i seen somewhere teagasc say it take 2 weeks longer to finish castrated lambs over ram lambs,due around 50 or 60 llyen x rams this year in mid march and it would be the best option for those...the rest is inlamb to texels so bit unsure if ill bother do them as the texel ram lamb turn into right little bulls of sheep..ha ha

I'd agree with that, Lleyn mature very young, and running around after ewes destroys them,
I presume if they were taken away from the ewe lambs they'd be alright but some are chasing even before weaning. Texels would be later getting active and wouldn't be as bad anyway. That's my experience of the two breeds but it's a long time here since any lambs weren't castrated at birth

Kevhog1988

wrangler wrote: »

I'd agree with that, Lleyn mature very young, and running around after ewes destroys them,
I presume if they were taken away from the ewe lambs they'd be alright but some are chasing even before weaning. Texels would be later getting active and wouldn't be as bad anyway. That's my experience of the two breeds but it's a long time here since any lambs weren't castrated at birth

how do you find the castrating at birth? was thinking of going that way this year, do tails, balls and navel as soon as they drop

wrangler

Kevhog1988 wrote: »

how do you find the castrating at birth? was thinking of going that way this year, do tails, balls and navel as soon as they drop

I wouldn't do them until they're 24 hrs old, You shouldn't anything that'd discourage them from sucking. Their stomach less and less able to absorb the antibodies as time goes on , it ie a 100mls at one hour old gives more benefit than later on, iykwim

Kevhog1988

wrangler wrote: »

I wouldn't do them until they're 24 hrs old, You shouldn't anything that'd discourage them from sucking. Their stomach less and less able to absorb the antibodies as time goes on , it ie a 100mls at one hour old gives more benefit than later on, iykwim

Makes sense. Cheers

paddysdream

wrangler wrote: »

I wouldn't do them until they're 24 hrs old, You shouldn't anything that'd discourage them from sucking. Their stomach less and less able to absorb the antibodies as time goes on , it ie a 100mls at one hour old gives more benefit than later on, iykwim

Agree with that.Only tail lambs here and havent castrated anything for years but even with tailing always leave them a day or two and also never tail lambs on the day they are going out if lambed inside.
Find an odd lamb will lie down for a while and with twins the ewe can sometimes be happy to wander off with one after getting out of the trailer.Usually they are ok but it can be another stress on a lamb at a time when they dont need it.

Find ram lambs respond much better to meal feeding esp. ad lib,compared to either wethers or ewe lambs.
They must be kept separate though.Had a problem here a couple of years ago where ram lambs were only separated with a fence from ewe lambs.Ram lambs were destroyed with muck from mounting one another and spent much of the day up at the fence.Had to house them eventually as would have ended up having to shear them before killing they would have gotten that dirty.That said they were still thriving pretty good despite all the time spent trying to get into the next field.

paddysdream

memorystick wrote: »

Any word on prices for next week?

6:20 seems to be the going rate all the week.Hear 6:50 being offered for Monday but unsure about that.
Good enough as sold last of mine in 2019 at 4:90.That would have been late January.From memory meal costs were on a par with this year price wise.
Even 6:20 to 23kgs is grossing a lamb at 142 euro whilst 6:50 lifts it to almost 150 euro a head.

Tileman

paddysdream wrote: »

6:20 seems to be the going rate all the week.Hear 6:50 being offered for Monday but unsure about that.
Good enough as sold last of mine in 2019 at 4:90.That would have been late January.From memory meal costs were on a par with this year price wise.
Even 6:20 to 23kgs is grossing a lamb at 142 euro whilst 6:50 lifts it to almost 150 euro a head.

Yea that’s great money. Have 30 left to go over the next couple of weeks. Will get rid of them before the ewes start lambing.

Green farmer

Tileman wrote: »

Yea that’s great money. Have 30 left to go over the next couple of weeks. Will get rid of them before the ewes start lambing.

Have 30 as well. But their the runts and screws that were left over after everything else was sold. Mine wont be ready for a while yet as I haven't pushed them in any way.