Spring lamb prices

ganmo

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

ah, ok...

We did bloods before on a few sheep. Didnt come back with anything much... Was disappointed, as I know we are lacking in something...
Never got around to doing the herbage tests, and the way am farming now, not having top thrive isn't something that overly worries me...

there are so many body systems for managing blood mineral content that if a deficiency shows up there you're in real trouble

Duke92

ganmo wrote: »

there are so many body systems for managing blood mineral content that if a deficiency shows up there you're in real trouble

The biggest problem is the built up of worms in the ground and where not getting cold enough winters to kill them off
You could have the best most fertile ground in Ireland and if you have a big burden of worms you’ll never get a great trive if ground could be free from sheep for a year it makes a huge difference

Dinzee Conlee

ganmo wrote: »

there are so many body systems for managing blood mineral content that if a deficiency shows up there you're in real trouble

Yeah, but I had kinda hoped something would - even something small... And nothing...

Well - actually, no. The only thing that did show up in bloods was low Phosphorus, which is something that soil tests have been telling us for a while...

ganmo

Duke92 wrote: »

The biggest problem is the built up of worms in the ground and where not getting cold enough winters to kill them off
You could have the best most fertile ground in Ireland and if you have a big burden of worms you’ll never get a great trive if ground could be free from sheep for a year it makes a huge difference

where are you getting that we don't have cold enough winters?
the eggs can survive through winters harsher than ours.

I remember asking a vet how long ground would have to be fallow before resistant worms wouldn't be an issue and he said that he had seen resistance in land left for 5 years

wrangler

ganmo wrote: »

where are you getting that we don't have cold enough winters?
the eggs can survive through winters harsher than ours.

I remember asking a vet how long ground would have to be fallow before resistant worms wouldn't be an issue and he said that he had seen resistance in land left for 5 years

They don't die in the winter alright, mixed grazing is the only answer.

Duke92

ganmo wrote: »

where are you getting that we don't have cold enough winters?
the eggs can survive through winters harsher than ours.

I remember asking a vet how long ground would have to be fallow before resistant worms wouldn't be an issue and he said that he had seen resistance in land left for 5 years

No we don’t get cold enough winters your right

Duke92

And worms don’t live in ground over 2 years

Duke92

https://www.her.ie/style/boohoo-is-the-first-online-fashion-retailer-to-ban-wool-from-all-products-450428
Check this out

Green farmer

Duke92 wrote: »

https://www.her.ie/style/boohoo-is-the-first-online-fashion-retailer-to-ban-wool-from-all-products-450428
Check this out

They’d rather use environmentally unsustainable products laden with microplastics etc. sad really.

leoch

Lambs back 4/5 euro a head in the mart today lamds @ 56 kgs 125.00ea

gozunda

Duke92 wrote: »

https://www.her.ie/style/boohoo-is-the-first-online-fashion-retailer-to-ban-wool-from-all-products-450428
Check this out

Check out v&v they're saying that we shouldn't breed sheep at all .... :rolleyes:

https://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057915638/4/#post109445435

Green farmer

I see there ifa are saying factories are back 20cent. This is the face of supplies getting more scarce by the day. Any logical reason for this other then factories playing games ?

wrangler

Green farmer wrote: »

I see there ifa are saying factories are back 20cent. This is the face of supplies getting more scarce by the day. Any logical reason for this other then factories playing games ?

Probably just because they can.
Biritish processors are probably trying to unload a lot of lamb due to the uncertainty in a months time

wrangler

Green farmer wrote: »

I see there ifa are saying factories are back 20cent. This is the face of supplies getting more scarce by the day. Any logical reason for this other then factories playing games ?

The fact that beef is now 30% cheaper than lamb must be having a huge effect, and there's no sign of that moving.
Our Optimism for lamb price might've been premature

Green farmer

wrangler wrote: »

The fact that beef is now 30% cheaper than lamb must be having a huge effect, and there's no sign of that moving.
Our Optimism for lamb price might've been premature

Yer probably right with extra supplies from up north and across the water. Read articles today about lads culling entire flocks if brexit doesn’t get sorted. also heard that the mild weather has finished lambs quicker then anticipated across the water as well. Still ,locally I was in the mart last week, numbers looked very small. Going to be some fun finding supplies come Easter and Ramadan.

Separately, was just reading the teagasc technical updates book. Says ad lib concentrate food conversion ratio was 9.1kg of dry matter intake per 1kg of carcass gain. So I’m working out to turn a 35kg lamb into a 45 kg lamb, your looking at 91kg of meal. At €310 a tonne, that’s €28. Those figures should right ?

ganmo

Green farmer wrote: »

Yer probably right with extra supplies from up north and across the water. Read articles today about lads culling entire flocks if brexit doesn’t get sorted. also heard that the mild weather has finished lambs quicker then anticipated across the water as well. Still ,locally I was in the mart last week, numbers looked very small. Going to be some fun finding supplies come Easter and Ramadan.

Separately, was just reading the teagasc technical updates book. Says ad lib concentrate food conversion ratio was 9.1kg of dry matter intake per 1kg of carcass gain. So I’m working out to turn a 35kg lamb into a 45 kg lamb, your looking at 91kg of meal. At €310 a tonne, that’s €28. Those figures should right ?

29.50 using 95%DM

Green farmer

ganmo wrote: »

29.50 using 95%DM

Not far out so. Wouldn’t see the costs of getting them out the gate adding up

Siamsa Sessions

Green farmer wrote: »

Not far out so. Wouldn’t see the costs of getting them out the gate adding up

I'm looking at numbers at the moment and thinking of moving any lambs left here in late July as stores.

Based on the last three years' figures, a 35kg lowland-bred lamb would make 80-85 euro in July. If you keep the lamb at home and put another 10kg on him, he might make 95 euro in September, before you count the costs of grass, a little meal, lameness/veterinary, mortality, etc.

Doesn't make sense for small producers like us.

Dinzee Conlee

Green farmer wrote: »

Yer probably right with extra supplies from up north and across the water. Read articles today about lads culling entire flocks if brexit doesn’t get sorted. also heard that the mild weather has finished lambs quicker then anticipated across the water as well. Still ,locally I was in the mart last week, numbers looked very small. Going to be some fun finding supplies come Easter and Ramadan.

Separately, was just reading the teagasc technical updates book. Says ad lib concentrate food conversion ratio was 9.1kg of dry matter intake per 1kg of carcass gain. So I’m working out to turn a 35kg lamb into a 45 kg lamb, your looking at 91kg of meal. At €310 a tonne, that’s €28. Those figures should right ?

We always used 7:1 ratio

So 0.5kg/day, would give you a 0.5kg increase. We would have fed lambs at grass...
But maybe we did 7:1 cos it made the maths easier

A 35kg lamb is light enough Green, if you have to start feeding ration...

If you have light lambs like this, as Siamsa says - is it worth selling em as stores? I think you mentioned you find the lleyns hard to finish? Maybe you could sell those as stores and finish the others? (assuming you have another breed of ram/lamb?)

Would it be worth putting in a green crop to help finish lambs?
Do you have any idea where are they losing thrive - how are they doing up to weaning? How are they doing post weaning?

On a side note, I sent off some lambs last week... got the docket yesterday, disappointed with the kill-out, but they were light-ish enough...

Green farmer

Ya, I know where it all went wrong last year. The drought. Lambs were just so poor after it. Way back in terms of quality, weights etc. the year before I sold a lot over the summer for the Muslim festivals off grass and got a lot out the gate. Think I’ll do the same this year, if the grass grows. Frustrating really. I fixed the ph etc, two years ago and was starting to reap the rewards, it last year was like one step forward, two back.

Young95

Any one know what the factories r paying for cull ewes

Westernrock

Green farmer wrote: »

Yer probably right with extra supplies from up north and across the water. Read articles today about lads culling entire flocks if brexit doesn’t get sorted. also heard that the mild weather has finished lambs quicker then anticipated across the water as well. Still ,locally I was in the mart last week, numbers looked very small. Going to be some fun finding supplies come Easter and Ramadan.

Separately, was just reading the teagasc technical updates book. Says ad lib concentrate food conversion ratio was 9.1kg of dry matter intake per 1kg of carcase gain. So I’m working out to turn a 35kg lamb into a 45 kg lamb, your looking at 91kg of meal. At €310 a tonne, that’s €28. Those figures should right ?

It’s 1kg of carcase gain not liveweight so you wouldn’t be putting 10kg of carcase on them more like 6/7kg (35kg lamb dying 16-17kg up to 22/23kg carcase). We used to always say 10kg of meal fresh weight per 1kg carcase for easy counting so a bag of meal would bring the carcase weight up 2.5kg.

wrangler

Westernrock wrote: »

It’s 1kg of carcase gain not liveweight so you wouldn’t be putting 10kg of carcase on them more like 6/7kg (35kg lamb dying 16-17kg up to 22/23kg carcase). We used to always say 10kg of meal fresh weight per 1kg carcase for easy counting so a bag of meal would bring the carcase weight up 2.5kg.

Yea, we used to do weighings too and lambs eating 1kg/day would put on 2kg easily per week, at that stage (36kg plus) most of the weight gain would be DW as the KO would be shooting up as well.
That would be conditional n two things
1) that the lambs wouldn't be fat already and growing.
2) that they would be in their first six weeks of heavy feeding

After six weeks conversion is poor

Lambman

Always have all my lambs away before Rams go till ewes no matter what weight... Ewes are priority them 4-5 weeks always buy stores after that depending on grass. IMO keeping more ewes is more profitable than keeping all lambs an extra 5 months till finish them. Sold lightest lot off 33kg ewe lambs last year not sure might a been mid August €89.

eorna

Any of ye have been in the factories/marts recently?
Are they getting the numbers they are normally be looking for or they are just killing what comes handy at that price without worrying about numbers??
All reports seem to show numbers killed are down so makes one wonder whats the story??

arctictree

Thinking of filling the trailer with all I have left over. A few lambs, a few ewes and a couple or rams. It's either now or in April (after lambing). What ye think?

Dickie10

was in navan last night with the last few scraps from last year lairage was very quiet at 8:30 about 60 sheep in all

Dinzee Conlee

arctictree wrote: »

Thinking of filling the trailer with all I have left over. A few lambs, a few ewes and a couple or rams. It's either now or in April (after lambing). What ye think?

I think prices are back this week... hard to know what way prices will go..

If it was me, i’d keep em - but do you have grass for em?

ganmo

Sheep Sales Report - 19th February 2019
Posted on 19/02/2019 by
867 Sheep on offer. Tougher trade for all types of fat hoggets. Store hoggets and fat ewes a similar trade to last week.

Butcher Lambs €115 to €120 or €65 to €70 over €/kg
Factory Lambs €108 to €115 or €63 to €70 over €/kg
Store Lambs €70 to €104 or €40 to €64 over €/kg
Fat Ewes €96 to €120 per head
Feeding Ewes €64 to €92 per head




Sheep Sales Report - 12th February 2019
Posted on 12/02/2019 by
1462 sheep on offer. Butcher and factory hoggets that little easier by €1 to €2 per head on last week. Good quality store hoggets similar to last week.

Butcher Hoggets €124 to €128 or €67 to €75 over €/kg
Factory Hoggets €112 to €125 or €62 to €71 over €/kg
Store Hoggets €90 to €110 or €50 to €60 over €/kg
Lighter Store Hoggets €63 to €88 or €30 to €47 over €/kg
Fat Ewes €105 to €122 per head
Lighter Ewes €64 to €100 per head



On my phone so can't make it look pretty

wrangler

ganmo wrote: »

Sheep Sales Report - 19th February 2019
Posted on 19/02/2019 by
867 Sheep on offer. Tougher trade for all types of fat hoggets. Store hoggets and fat ewes a similar trade to last week.

Butcher Lambs €115 to €120 or €65 to €70 over €/kg
Factory Lambs €108 to €115 or €63 to €70 over €/kg
Store Lambs €70 to €104 or €40 to €64 over €/kg
Fat Ewes €96 to €120 per head
Feeding Ewes €64 to €92 per head




Sheep Sales Report - 12th February 2019
Posted on 12/02/2019 by
1462 sheep on offer. Butcher and factory hoggets that little easier by €1 to €2 per head on last week. Good quality store hoggets similar to last week.

Butcher Hoggets €124 to €128 or €67 to €75 over €/kg
Factory Hoggets €112 to €125 or €62 to €71 over €/kg
Store Hoggets €90 to €110 or €50 to €60 over €/kg
Lighter Store Hoggets €63 to €88 or €30 to €47 over €/kg
Fat Ewes €105 to €122 per head
Lighter Ewes €64 to €100 per head



On my phone so can't make it look pretty

We had John Walsh from ICM at our AGM tonight so the mild winter has the hoggets coming in to them too heavy and they're getting too many lambs in July and August.