Spring lamb prices

IH784man

4.70 this week I think

Green farmer

Weekly kill is down but annual kill is up. Maybe they have flooded the market

I don't know if it really makes much difference. In reality we're only a small player in a huge international market. Surely It depends on how much lamb the French are eating, and what contracts the Irish factories have secured on the international marketplace.

rangler1

Green farmer wrote: »

I don't know if it really makes much difference. In reality we're only a small player in a huge international market. Surely It depends on how much lamb the French are eating, and what contracts the Irish factories have secured on the international marketplace.

I think there's no more Ramadan now...well that's there excuse anyway

Green farmer

too many factors go in to trying to determine what prices are paid. You'd drive yourself mad trying to figure if out. If you can get a decent price take it and run. As they say, no one ever went broke from taking a profit when it was on offer. :pac:

rangler1

Green farmer wrote: »

too many factors go in to trying to determine what prices are paid. You'd drive yourself mad trying to figure if out. If you can get a decent price take it and run. As they say, no one ever went broke from taking a profit when it was on offer. :pac:

Very true, I'm always selling this time of the year, so happy enough to take what's going, Last batch that went were two weeks on meal, you can really see it in them, the orf is cleared now and they're picking up as well, they lost a months thrive with the Orf, never saw it as bad,...haven't taken under €100 yet so happy enough

sea12

Going through the lambs on Saturday and discovered 3 with orf. Haven't had it in years. 3 good lambs too. Isolated them but say there will be more.

What did u treat them with rangler

rangler1

sea12 wrote: »

Going threw the lambs on Saturday and discovered 3 with orf. Haven't had it in years. 3 good lambs too. Isolated them but say there will be more.

What did u treat them with rangler

If it doesn't get infected, I leave it alone, infected ones I spray the mouths with the alamycin spray for the feet and give them an alamycin injection too.....we can only get the alamycin spray from a vet, but the ordinary foot spray doesn't seem to work, I only had to treat 5 or six out of 200, but 80% plus had swollen mouths, but if the skin doesn't break, they'll put it over in a week to ten days...they won't be doing much grazing though.
Nettles, thistles, and briars play havoc with it, wear gloves if you go near it, it's very sore if you get it

Dickie10

i got on my hand to years ago, wasnt sore but looked wretched. its a virus so i think time eventually cures it but it does have a chocking effect on lamb thrive. last year i went for the two extremes, i had first lambs around jan 28th and finshed feb 20th and then ewe lambs arond april 1st to may 5th. found it worked well, i got all the main flocks lambs gone by august 15th, except ewe lambs for breeding and ewe lambs lambs are ready for off now some are gone, but they took almsot zero meal to produce, a small bit on ground 2-3 weeks before they lambed and none after jsut grass these lambs are only on grass now and are ariiund 46kg average, i need 50kg thugh to get 22kg cold

AnFeirmeoir

which way are prices going at the moment ?

rangler1

AnFeirmeoir wrote: »

which way are prices going at the moment ?

Quotes are down in the findo I think

Green farmer

rangler1 wrote: »

Quotes are down in the findo I think

Doesn't inspire confidence as we're pouring the meal into them

weatherbyfoxer

What live weight are lads drafting lambs at?

Green farmer

weatherbyfoxer wrote: »

What live weight are lads drafting lambs at?

I'm leaving the needle on the weighing scales get to minimum 47kg + to try and get near the 22kg weight limit.

On a different note any one know the rough conversion rate of meal needed to add 1kg dead weight ? And what daily gains should I be hoping for, when feeding 1/2kg a day meal with them on average grass ? Finding the ram lambs easier to finish here

Username John

Green farmer wrote: »

I'm leaving the needle on the weighing scales get to minimum 47kg + to try and get near the 22kg weight limit.

On a different note any one know the rough conversion rate of meal needed to add 1kg dead weight ? And what daily gains should I be hoping for, when feeding 1/2kg a day meal with them on average grass ? Finding the ram lambs easier to finish here

I always worked with a conversion rate of 7:1
So for you feeding 0.5 kg / day, you should get a 0.5 deadweight increase / week.

Obviously that's assuming they have good grass or something else to keep em going as well, and the meal is going directly onto their backs...

rangler1

Username John wrote: »

I always worked with a conversion rate of 7:1
So for you feeding 0.5 kg / day, you should get a 0.5 deadweight increase / week.

Obviously that's assuming they have good grass or something else to keep em going as well, and the meal is going directly onto their backs...

Grass quality is important, If I fed lambs adlib they'd eat 7kgs/wk and put on 2kgs week, which would correspond with your figures, but anytime I said that at a teagasc meeting, they'd say it was impossible as the best conversion rate would only be 6 -1 so mine must have been getting the rest from grass.
I hasten to add that that growth rate would only be for the first 3 - 4 weeks feeding of 40kg lambs, it reduces hugely after that so compensatory growth must be a factor.
You need to be comparing cost of meal with growth rate when you're feeding meal....no point aiming for an extra kilo dw if it's costing too much to get it

Green farmer

So a rough rule of thumb would be a 25kg bag of meal or €8 would result in a 3.5kg deadweight gain ( 3.5kg @ €4.50 a kg = €16 ) . So whatever you'd get for the extra kgs in the factory, 1/2 of that would be to the mill and 1/2 to yourself.

weatherbyfoxer

rangler1 wrote: »

Grass quality is important, If I fed lambs adlib they'd eat 7kgs/wk and put on 2kgs week, which would correspond with your figures, but anytime I said that at a teagasc meeting, they'd say it was impossible as the best conversion rate would only be 6 -1 so mine must have been getting the rest from grass.
I hasten to add that that growth rate would only be for the first 3 - 4 weeks feeding of 40kg lambs, it reduces hugely after that so compensatory growth must be a factor.
You need to be comparing cost of meal with growth rate when you're feeding meal....no point aiming for an extra kilo dw if it's costing too much to get it

That intreasting rangler,have about 50 lambs left ranging from 40-45kg grass is tight here so thinking of feeding them adlib mix of 20% soya meal 20% soya hulls and 60% rolled barley for up to 4 weeks

rangler1

Green farmer wrote: »

So a rough rule of thumb would be a 25kg bag of meal or €8 would result in a 3.5kg deadweight gain ( 3.5kg @ €4.50 a kg = €16 ) . So whatever you'd get for the extra kgs in the factory, 1/2 of that would be to the mill and 1/2 to yourself.

I also get a lot more U grades if I finish them on meal which is worth 10c kg extra,
Those lambs would be doing a kg/wk on grass before they'd go that heavy feeding anyway. I'm not doing ad lib feeding this year.
The ones on meal are getting .5kg/day on good grass and gaining 1.4kgs/wk (198gms/day) I've others on good grass and no meal and they'd break your heart getting stuck in the sheep wire....they mustn't be getting enough roughage, there isn't a blade of grass left in the ditches

rangler1

weatherbyfoxer wrote: »

That intreasting rangler,have about 50 lambs left ranging from 40-45kg grass is tight here so thinking of feeding them adlib mix of 20% soya meal 20% soya hulls and 60% rolled barley for up to 4 weeks

What protein is the soya hulls...nice source of roughage too I'd say

ganmo

rangler1 wrote: »

What protein is the soya hulls...nice source of roughage too I'd say

about 10%

Farrell

ganmo wrote: »

about 10%

Stupid question, but is soya hulls the outer shell? If so do you crush it & feed it that way?

gazahayes

Farrell wrote: »

Stupid question, but is soya hulls the outer shell? If so do you crush it & feed it that way?

Yes the outer shell of the soya bean.
It usually comes in pellet form it's mainly used as a fibre source and a filler in rations.

Farrell

gazahayes wrote: »

Yes the outer shell of the soya bean.
It usually comes in pellet form it's mainly used as a fibre source and a filler in rations.

Thanks see it mentioned with feeding cattle allot & now here, asked local Co-op (Lakeland) about it, they said they could look to get it for me, but reckoned it comes whole & in bulk bags.
If you don't mind, general rule, what size bags & how much?

gazahayes

Farrell wrote: »

Thanks see it mentioned with feeding cattle allot & now here, asked local Co-op (Lakeland) about it, they said they could look to get it for me, but reckoned it comes whole & in bulk bags.
If you don't mind, general rule, what size bags & how much?

Most feed mills would have it loose don't know about Co-ops. Mill would probably sell it by the tonne bag. Can't say I know of anyone feeding it to cattle but we use about 20 tonne a month in the piggery as a fibre source.

weatherbyfoxer

Bigger branches of glanbia co ops have it..local one here will weight out straights on scales on teleporter ( eg 600kg barley 200kg soya hulls 200kg soya meal) and mix it in the shed with the bucket and bag it in half ton bags for you free of charges only thing is you cant get them to mix minerals through it as their not licenced for it

jd06

50kg in kk only making 100euro
Even heavier not making much more
Bad trade
61kg clean texel making 105.

paddysdream

Anyone with prices this week.Offered 4.75 for today but not enough fit to a make a worthwhile load.

Willfarman

4.70 all I can get.

paddysdream

Willfarman wrote: »

4.70 all I can get.

That seems to be about as good as is going.The 4.75 was a call at 11am for lambs to be in the factory before 2pm same day.

ganmo

Lots of sheep coming down from the north