Buying store lambs

farm14

Just wondering when will store lambs be available in marts to buy or could I get some now. I'd be interested in buying store lambs now. My system is ad lib meal so they would be goingIinto a shed

Mountain Mayo

i know the mountain lamb trade will only really start at the start to mid august. Will be plenty of lambs to choose from then. Do you buy lamb rams or wethers?

tomwaterford

farm14 wrote: »

Just wondering when will store lambs be available in marts to buy or could I get some now. I'd be interested in buying store lambs now. My system is ad lib meal so they would be goingIinto a shed

have you any estimated costings on this??
as its something I would half be looking at...even 30 lambs for the first year

farm14

Mountain Mayo wrote: »

i know the mountain lamb trade will only really start at the start to mid august. Will be plenty of lambs to choose from then. Do you buy lamb rams or wethers?

Ok thanks. Tell me this what marts are good for buying store lambs? Are yours pure horny sheep or crossbred? What sort of liveweight gain/day would be achievable with d mayo horned lambs?

farm14

tomwaterford wrote: »

have you any estimated costings on this??
as its something I would half be looking at...even 30 lambs for the first year

Ah its just simple maths really. I just stick to a budget you have to know as you go along how much lamb has eat if you want to make profit. If I can buy lamb cheap enough im happy enough to feed them meal if I can make €10 head.

Mountain Mayo

We have pure horny lambs and texel cross lambs out of mountain ewes, any of the marts in the west would have plenty of mountain and crossbred light lambs. Ballina, ballinrobe and maam cross would be able to sort you out. There does be loads on donedeal aswell. You can buy 27-32kg lambs for about 35 or 40 euro when the glut comes into the market, around september time. I have never fattened mountain lambs, usually just sell the light ones off in one day at the mart. Gonna start for the first year this year tryin to finish my own. If that goes well i might buy some for the winter to finish. With the price lamb is at the moment it might not be even worth it to be honest. I know lads that have fattened them and they can get them to kill out around 19 kgs

jt65

Mountain Mayo wrote: »

We have pure horny lambs and texel cross lambs out of mountain ewes, any of the marts in the west would have plenty of mountain and crossbred light lambs. Ballina, ballinrobe and maam cross would be able to sort you out. There does be loads on donedeal aswell. You can buy 27-32kg lambs for about 35 or 40 euro when the glut comes into the market, around september time. I have never fattened mountain lambs, usually just sell the light ones off in one day at the mart. Gonna start for the first year this year tryin to finish my own. If that goes well i might buy some for the winter to finish. With the price lamb is at the moment it might not be even worth it to be honest. I know lads that have fattened them and they can get them to kill out around 19 kgs

think they''l will be a good demand for stores from your area over the next couple of months

a lot of of cattle men with grass building up & money scarce until the sfp comes in,

had a couple asking me to source lambs , 2 brothers talking about 1200 to 1500 between them

Green farmer

I suppose it's a trade off. Pay bigger money for lambs now but grass is plentiful. You'll have lambs out door quicker. Or cheaper lambs in September but grass will be dismissing faster and keeping lambs longer.

That's a lot of lambs jt65. I'm going to try and source some myself, but need to have my own lambs gone first and the few quid in for them.
Take a zero off the quantity your sourcing and that's what I'm looking for. Also the other downside of buying a lot of store lambs is you need a lot of capital at your disposal to buy serious numbers

arctictree

When selling store lambs, do ye lads tag with a full electronic tag set?

razor8

Green farmer wrote: »

I suppose it's a trade off. Pay bigger money for lambs now but grass is plentiful. You'll have lambs out door quicker. Or cheaper lambs in September but grass will be dismissing faster and keeping lambs longer.

That's a lot of lambs jt65. I'm going to try and source some myself, but need to have my own lambs gone first and the few quid in for them.
Take a zero off the quantity your sourcing and that's what I'm looking for. Also the other downside of buying a lot of store lambs is you need a lot of capital at your disposal to buy serious numbers

In long run you could be making trouble for yourself, bringing in resistance to worms, footrot, codd etc, I would be happier to buy dry cows or cheap heifers to clean off surplus grass IMO

Green farmer

I was hoping to run them as a separate flock, with no interaction with my ewes. But fair point all the same, bio security should be a concern.

ganmo

Green farmer wrote: »

I was hoping to run them as a separate flock, with no interaction with my ewes. But fair point all the same, bio security should be a concern.

If they are worm resistant you ewes will pick them up the next time they graze it.

I remember someone telling me it takes 2/3 years of no grazing to kill the buggers and that was a best case scenario

Mountain Mayo

It may depend on where you buy the lambs from aswell. I'd say that once you buy in the lambs dose them well and dip them and let them starve for a good day for them to clean themselves out. I know that when we shear the ewes we leave the lambs in a pen for a day. We dose them when they come in off the mountain and leave them clean themselves out in the pen. At least they are not putting the buggers out on the grass they will be eating

ganmo

Mountain Mayo wrote: »

It may depend on where you buy the lambs from aswell. I'd say that once you buy in the lambs dose them well and dip them and let them starve for a good day for them to clean themselves out. I know that when we shear the ewes we leave the lambs in a pen for a day. We dose them when they come in off the mountain and leave them clean themselves out in the pen. At least they are not putting the buggers out on the grass they will be eating

But they are putting out the drug resistant worms so that wormer will have reduced power the next time

Green farmer

If you really wanted to make 100 % absolute about the worms, you could ask your vet for one of the new perscription orange wormers on the market that have no resistance what so ever. However it's advised to only use these when you have definite confirmed resistance issues, to ensure that resistance doesn't develop to these new products. It's taken 30 years to get 2 new wormers so who knows how long before we get any more further products.

ganmo

And follow the instruction so you don't develop resistance to them.
There was research done in the north where they tested the genes of drug resistance worms...there was 3(from memory) different pools of genetics meaning that the resistance developed on 3 different farms and animal sales and movements have spread the buggers

greysides

ganmo wrote: »

I remember someone telling me it takes 2/3 years of no grazing to kill the buggers and that was a best case scenario

I can't remember details but I think ending up with a sterile field is not possible. Infection levels will drop and drop but never reach zero.

greysides

Mountain Mayo wrote: »

At least they are not putting the buggers out on the grass they will be eating

That would be at odds with the more recent thinking on sheep dosing. Google 'SCOPS' and let 'in refugia' become your new watch-word.

Green farmer

Once biosecurity issues were dealt with, any one know would certain marts be better then others for sourcing stores in the munster area, or would it make no difference

WellKiiid??

Just wondering how you got on with the store lambs? Did you buy? How many? Is it worth it?