Spring lamb prices

kk.man · 02-03-2021 10:53pm

Lamb prices should remain stable at present prices because sheep are simply not in it. Easter is four weeks away and we had bad enough winter which would have set back the SL. World price for sheep meat is very good globally.

However supermarkets looking at the pricing structure are not paying the factories enough and as a result many sheep are killed at a loss just to keep the 'contract'. Where's my crystal ball again.....

orm0nd · 03-03-2021 7:59am

Robson99 wrote: »

Any quotes / prices paid this week

7/kg freely available

Agents giving more than that in the marts for flesh.

Mad about baa baas · 03-03-2021 10:26am

orm0nd wrote: »

7/kg freely available

Agents giving more than that in the marts for flesh.

I brought a small few ewe lambs to cahir yesterday 46kg.. 156. Very happy. were nice quality to be fair but I think I'm still keeping nicer ones.. do people think breeding hoggets will be scarce this year as prices are currently so good?

Mad about baa baas · 03-03-2021 10:27am

orm0nd wrote: »

7/kg freely available

Agents giving more than that in the marts for flesh.

I brought a small few ewe lambs to cahir yesterday 46kg.. 156. Very happy. were nice quality to be fair but I think I'm still keeping nicer ones.. do people think breeding hoggets will be scarce this year as prices are currently so good?

arctictree · 03-03-2021 10:44am

I'd say any ewe lambs being sold now are going straight to the factory. A farmer would be mad to buy them, your only getting the runts of last year's crop that have been fattened up. I'm bringing my last hoggets to Mart this Saturday and they'll be in one pen, males and females...

03-03-2021 12:11pm

Mad about baa baas wrote: »

I brought a small few ewe lambs to cahir yesterday 46kg.. 156. Very happy. were nice quality to be fair but I think I'm still keeping nicer ones.. do people think breeding hoggets will be scarce this year as prices are currently so good?

Be hard to see hoggets being sold for under e220 a head tbh.....wouldnt be worth someones time to keep em,at present prices otherwise

Mad about baa baas · 03-03-2021 12:54pm

arctictree wrote: »

I'd say any ewe lambs being sold now are going straight to the factory. A farmer would be mad to buy them, your only getting the runts of last year's crop that have been fattened up. I'm bringing my last hoggets to Mart this Saturday and they'll be in one pen, males and females...

Agreed.. I know mine were the culls of my lot bought with the aim to keep for breeding hogget sales.. I'm just wondering will people cash out now with sheep that would normally be kept for breeding

Kevhog1988 · 03-03-2021 1:44pm

Mad about baa baas wrote: »

Agreed.. I know mine were the culls of my lot bought with the aim to keep for breeding hogget sales.. I'm just wondering will people cash out now with sheep that would normally be kept for breeding

just watched a few minutes of the sales in Roscommon. In lamb ewes going for between 130 & 150. If the price held for the summer they would be cheap sheep.

kk.man · 03-03-2021 2:32pm

Kevhog1988 wrote: »

just watched a few minutes of the sales in Roscommon. In lamb ewes going for between 130 & 150. If the price held for the summer they would be cheap sheep.

I agree.. In lamb ewes and some ewes with lambs appear to be good value. The problem with in lamb sheep is that with abortions with Enzo etc you are really talking a gamble. No one wants to lamb ewes anymore either.

I would hazard a guess ewe hoggets come autumn will be big money. Between the huge price of lamb now and brexit problems with the UK mainland there should be demand.

I off loaded what I considered to be second rate hoggets because of the good prices but what I have kept are top drawer or so I think!

Albert Johnson · 04-03-2021 10:30pm

Mad about baa baas wrote: »

Agreed.. I know mine were the culls of my lot bought with the aim to keep for breeding hogget sales.. I'm just wondering will people cash out now with sheep that would normally be kept for breeding

The short answer imo is no they won't cash out. An occasional lad might kill a few hoggets he has to hand and take advantage of a quick euro and free up grass for ewes and lambs. However the men that buy ewe lambs to sell as breeding hoggets often don't lamb ewes and therefore if they sold the hoggets they'd have to buy something in the place of them to keep the land ate. They'll keep them until the breeding sales and buy in another crop of ewes lambs after as usual, whether they get much money that's there system and they'll stick with it in most cases.

For every lad that decides to kill a few "breeding" hoggets to free up space and capital there'll be another tool with a bundle of scrap that gets very fond of them. He'll have a light bulb moment where he identifies that there killing the good, bad and ugly of sheep and that anything capable of taking the ram will be like gold dust in September. Suddenly a bundle of fats that wouldn't be considered sheep any other year are "breeder's" and he'll expect a ransom for them in the backend. The last time hoggets peaked in May at €145 I witnessed artic loads sold from €85-100 the following September to clear them.

kk.man · 05-03-2021 1:52am

It's very difficult to put a figure on part time farming in terms of profit and expenditure.

Take for example and they are many more :

I share the same electricity bill (farm + house)
I have my own water from the farm well
I have my own firewood
Last summer I bought agri diseal and auto when oil was at 27 dollars a barrel. I filled everything that resembled a tank in the place.
I forward bought my fertiliser

A successful company would be judged on the same lines.

weatherbyfoxer · 05-03-2021 9:38am

killed scotch hoggets yeasterday average 50kg made €155 average..rang factory to book them in at 10am and had them in and killed by 2.30pm...unusual for them to take them in as quick this time of year...numbers must be way down

downtown3858 · 05-03-2021 9:41am

What price you get

weatherbyfoxer · 05-03-2021 9:42am

downtown3858 wrote: »

What price you get

700 flat

arctictree · 06-03-2021 1:26pm

Got €123 for 41Kg wether lambs earlier in the Mart. Thats the last of last year's lambs gone.

Some mad prices earlier. Lads getting €80 for 25kg hoggets!!

Tileman · 06-03-2021 2:32pm

arctictree wrote: »

Got €123 for 41Kg wether lambs earlier in the Mart. Thats the last of last year's lambs gone.

Some mad prices earlier. Lads getting €80 for 25kg hoggets!!

Was that baltinglass? Was there many sheep there

arctictree · 06-03-2021 2:52pm

Tileman wrote: »

Was that baltinglass? Was there many sheep there

Yep. About 30 lots, a lot were single lots though.

eire23 · 06-03-2021 3:13pm

arctictree wrote: »

Got €123 for 41Kg wether lambs earlier in the Mart. Thats the last of last year's lambs gone.

Some mad prices earlier. Lads getting €80 for 25kg hoggets!!

How could a hogget born last year only be 25kg??! Nearly impossible I'd have thought

arctictree · 06-03-2021 4:49pm

eire23 wrote: »

How could a hogget born last year only be 25kg??! Nearly impossible I'd have thought

I've one like that. Also there was another pen of 2 x 23kg hoggets!!

Green farmer · 06-03-2021 6:15pm

eire23 wrote: »

How could a hogget born last year only be 25kg??! Nearly impossible I'd have thought

Very easy for it to happen. All you need is a lamb that gets rejected by ewe in field, but survives somehow. Never thrives but stays the same.

arctictree · 06-03-2021 7:14pm

Green farmer wrote: »

Very easy for it to happen. All you need is a lamb that gets rejected by ewe in field, but survives somehow. Never thrives but stays the same.

I think they can manage to survive in a flock by robbing a suck off the ewes and starting to nibble grass early.

Green farmer · 06-03-2021 7:37pm

arctictree wrote: »

I think they can manage to survive in a flock by robbing a suck off the ewes and starting to nibble grass early.

Sounds about right. Had a handful of hoggets in today for a cobalt dose and have one like that. A foot smaller then everything else, but fat and healthy. It's like they get stunted and takes alot to get them moving again.

Duke92 · 06-03-2021 8:10pm

Anyone hear what hoggets are for Monday

eire23 · 06-03-2021 8:12pm

Green farmer wrote: »

Very easy for it to happen. All you need is a lamb that gets rejected by ewe in field, but survives somehow. Never thrives but stays the same.

But if you see a lamb going backward in the field because the ewe hasn't enough milk or has been rejected by the ewe would ya not take him off her and put him in with the pets and they will train him to eat. Ya will end up with a good lamb then instead of a stunted poor lamb. It would do my head in to leave a lamb like that and have to go into the field and see him!

rule supreme · 06-03-2021 8:12pm

arctictree wrote: »

Yep. About 30 lots, a lot were single lots though.

Any ewes and lambs there

Green farmer · 06-03-2021 10:13pm

eire23 wrote: »

But if you see a lamb going backward in the field because the ewe hasn't enough milk or has been rejected by the ewe would ya not take him off her and put him in with the pets and they will train him to eat. Ya will end up with a good lamb then instead of a stunted poor lamb. It would do my head in to leave a lamb like that and have to go into the field and see him!

Their easily spotted it you've a handful of ewes, but if you've a big mob in a field, they can go under the radar. Could be a month or two old by the time theyd look anyway different to the other lambs. Quiet often at first dosing of lambs. At that stage it's probably mid summer and grass is growing and your pet lambs weaned. the stunting has probably taken effect at that stage.

Dickie10 · 06-03-2021 10:24pm

lads would you still feed ewes with lambs in field meal after lambing, i always did for about a month but they have great grass this year seems a waste, but i also know the pressure a ewe with two lambs is under once lambs are 4-6 weeks old

eire23 · 06-03-2021 10:29pm

Green farmer wrote: »

Their easily spotted it you've a handful of ewes, but if you've a big mob in a field, they can go under the radar. Could be a month or two old by the time theyd look anyway different to the other lambs. Quiet often at first dosing of lambs. At that stage it's probably mid summer and grass is growing and your pet lambs weaned. the stunting has probably taken effect at that stage.

Can't agree with ya there green. Maybe if ya had a few hundred ewes in one lot ya could miss a lamb going backward but anything around the 100 ewe mark with twins running should be no bother at all.

kk.man · 06-03-2021 10:29pm

Dickie10 wrote: »

lads would you still feed ewes with lambs in field meal after lambing, i always did for about a month but they have great grass this year seems a waste, but i also know the pressure a ewe with two lambs is under once lambs are 4-6 weeks old

You have good meath ground there, i wouldn't if I was you. This evening I brought meal to my dry ewe hoggets, I got a feeling they weren't as egar for the grub. Better kept for lambs in creep feeder imo.

charolais0153 · 07-03-2021 2:54am

Dickie10 wrote: »

lads would you still feed ewes with lambs in field meal after lambing, i always did for about a month but they have great grass this year seems a waste, but i also know the pressure a ewe with two lambs is under once lambs are 4-6 weeks old

Tetany be a worry

Spring lamb prices

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