Selling direct to butchers

grayh0und

G'day. Another questions for you all! We sell our lambs in early autumn at the mart, and my understanding is they're bought by farmers up country someplace that finish them off on ration. Is there any scope to sell them direct to butchers? We didn't do well last year at the mart, and just wondering if this is something i should look into further.

Green farmer

If you want to sell them to the butchers, they’ll have to be well finished. Up to yourself as to whether you want to put the time and effort into them. I finish everything here myself, out of stubbornness. Some years I do well other years you struggle to break even. Also alot of cost in it as your taking resources from your ewes over the winter. Totally down to what prices are like next spring. I sell to butchers and factories. Butchers are way pickier as to what they’ll accept, won’t accept ram lambs after August unless castrated and want top quality, but will only pay the same as a factory. The factory will take everything good, bad and ugly. Up to yourself really.

Siamsa Sessions

Generally, factories want lambs around 42-45kg but butchers will want them 45-50kg. There will be exceptions, but this is my experience.

Getting the extra 5kg on them to make them butchers' lambs can be hassle in terms of extra work and extra cost of concentrate - as Green farmer said above.

Give some of the factories a ring and ask them if they'll take a few of your lambs. If the factories are miles away from you, ask them about haulage from wherever you are. They will usually be able to give you the number of an agent who covers your area.

We're in Waterford but send lambs to Kildare with a guy who's based in Kerry. He starts off in Kerry on a Thursday morning, arrives to us in the afternoon and ends up in Kildare that evening.

Having said all that, there might be a few more quid in it if you can sell your lamb as a "product" to a local butcher. Google 'Achill lamb' or 'Comeragh lamb' to get an idea of "products" (i.e. have a story and people apparently pay more for it) as opposed to common-or-garden lamb.

grayh0und

Thanks for all of this - very helpful. We're just taking things over on the farm and am unsure of what they weighed out when we sold them at mart last year but fairly sure it was some way shy of 40kgs. I guess it's weighing up the extra cost / time in finishing them and then thinking you may or may not get enough out of it to make it worth your time!

Siamsa Sessions

grayh0und wrote: »

Thanks for all of this - very helpful. We're just taking things over on the farm and am unsure of what they weighed out when we sold them at mart last year but fairly sure it was some way shy of 40kgs. I guess it's weighing up the extra cost / time in finishing them and then thinking you may or may not get enough out of it to make it worth your time!

The breed matters too - we sold Llyen-X wether lambs last August as stores. They’d have made an extra fiver if we finished them (after costs) and sold them in October. Cut and run with stores can be the best option depending on your set-up. Handy to have all lambs gone too when breeding season starts so you can concentrate on the ewes

grayh0und

What would the expected carcass weight be on a 40kg lamb?

Siamsa Sessions

grayh0und wrote: »

What would the expected carcass weight be on a 40kg lamb?

Anywhere between 15kg and 18kg but depends on breed and amount of meal fed to them

Kill out % is generally 40 - 45% this time of year but again depends on several factors

Dinzee Conlee

grayh0und wrote: »

Thanks for all of this - very helpful. We're just taking things over on the farm and am unsure of what they weighed out when we sold them at mart last year but fairly sure it was some way shy of 40kgs. I guess it's weighing up the extra cost / time in finishing them and then thinking you may or may not get enough out of it to make it worth your time!

If you dont already have one, a worthwhile investment might be a weigh scales...

ganmo

depending on the time of year, breed etc max 50% down to 40%
so 20kg down to 16kg

grayh0und

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

If you dont already have one, a worthwhile investment might be a weigh scales...

Yeah it's on the list! We're just getting into this really and as of now use a neighbors yard when working with the sheep. Once we have our own yard set up this would be the first thing I'd buy.

Iodine1

Sheep scales are very portable and are essential unless you are quite experienced, and even then have to weigh some annually to keep sharp. Old lad here used to judge by how easy or not his help was hauling up each lamb! Not convinced about accuracy of this method!!!

charolais0153

Iodine1 wrote: »

Sheep scales are very portable and are essential unless you are quite experienced, and even then have to weigh some annually to keep sharp. Old lad here used to judge by how easy or not his help was hauling up each lamb! Not convinced about accuracy of this method!!!

The flesh on the lamb is always a good indicator. If hes thin he isnt fit and will kill out badly.

Iodine1

charolais0153 wrote: »

The flesh on the lamb is always a good indicator. If hes thin he isnt fit and will kill out badly.

Agreed. Flesh is more important than size, big but thin is no use.