Raising and Finishing Pet Lambs

Peter005

I'm thinking of buying about 10/12 pet lambs off farmers from done deal and raising them on lamblac for 4 weeks then moving them to concentrates and then hopefully putting them out on grass for the summer and eventually sending them to the factory.

I'm just wondering has anyone done something like this before and did they find it to be profitable? or is it too much work?

I was prepared to get a big bucket feeder and feeding them 3 times a day.

I already have a small pedigree flock so have the land fenced for sheep and have a few spare stables.

Any advice would be great

arctictree

Peter005 wrote: »

I'm thinking of buying about 10/12 pet lambs off farmers from done deal and raising them on lamblac for 4 weeks then moving them to concentrates and then hopefully putting them out on grass for the summer and eventually sending them to the factory.

I'm just wondering has anyone done something like this before and did they find it to be profitable? or is it too much work?

I was prepared to get a big bucket feeder and feeding them 3 times a day.

I already have a small pedigree flock so have the land fenced for sheep and have a few spare stables.

Any advice would be great

In my experience, very hard to make money from pet lambs. They thrive well early and you need to get rid of them early. The longer you keep them, the less well they do.

Back of the envelope calculation:

Lamb Cost : 20
1 Bag lamlac : 15
1 Bag Nuts : 10
Misc (Tagging, Vacination, Worms etc) 5

Total - 50

Maybe sell for 80? A lot of hassle if you have small numbers. I heard that it can be hard to get them to weaning on only 1 bag of lamlac though?

Lambman

Tried it here they were kept inside first 4 weeks on milk and nuts out till good grass then and unless they're still getting meal and more meal they'll go backwards on ye on the grass alone!

IH784man

4 weeks of you want to be looking at them this time next year,7/8 weeks at full strength and they will be gone this summer and might leave €10/15 if they kill well

Peter005

Thanks for the help everyone, not sure its worth it now after all :P

Jonny303

If you've kids its a great thing to do when they're young, profit or no profit.

Our pet lambs on average are out preforming our regular lambs this year, it had me worried so I compared weights last year to this year and the lambs on their mothers are doing better than they were this time last year! It's always been a case with us that the pets never do as well so I don't know whats happend this year!

Willfarman

Jonny303 wrote: »

If you've kids its a great thing to do when they're young, profit or no profit.

Our pet lambs on average are out preforming our regular lambs this year, it had me worried so I compared weights last year to this year and the lambs on their mothers are doing better than they were this time last year! It's always been a case with us that the pets never do as well so I don't know whats happend this year!

Are you using the new type milk replacer?