Later Lambing

AntrimGlens

So I took out the remaining 25 lambs last night as I had decided I wasn't going to buy meal to finish them and I just wanted rid of them to be honest. 15 of them were hitting the 21kg mark on the scales with the other 10 around 17.5kgs. I was last through the sale ring and got £69.50 for the heavier ones (mix of suffolk/char/dorset) and £60 for the lighter ones.
So it got me thinking about lambing later in the year, running everything as stores and buying no meal as i was getting less for fat lambs during peak season with £9 of meal in them.
Reason for later lambing would be they're would be little point in me bringing out stores at the end of August as they'll still not be increasing in price as this would be the period for most stores coming out.
So if i lambed late April/May and sold stores approx 21kg in mid Oct what are the downsides. Obviously if it's a bad autumn weather wise and not much spare grass about, lower demand for heavy stores but what other factors should be considered.
Pros & cons please.

dglhills

To be honest I think lambing later in the year and selling stores is a no brainer if you have to feed lambs to finish them, unless they are for a guaranteed market with good returns like a butcher etc. or as the case is in some instances you have access to very cheap meal i.e. by being able to buy/grow straights and mix your own ration.
The other thing is though stores are a very good trade this year in comparison to the price in the factory so it may not pay this year to feed and it might next year and so on.
This year we sold all our cross bred lambs in late July early August they were making €2/kg live weight, avg. 30-32kg and hadn't eaten a penny with a slight premium for the ewe lambs €5-€7.
There are other benefits to getting rid early like they can't die/kill themselves on you anymore and your ewes and replacements are in better shape this time of year. Then again if you have the grass its hard to justify selling them, so after rambling on a bit everyone's situation is different and almost every year is too. I for one am not looking forward to next year, I fear a price collapse is on the way.

Ard_MC

Toying with the idea, if i have to up my numbers for the commonage I will run a May lambing flock on it and sell them as stores now with min costs. Alot of scottish hill farmers dont lamb to May so should work ok in the hills of Dun na nGall!

razor8

dglhills wrote: »

To be honest I think lambing later in the year and selling stores is a no brainer if you have to feed lambs to finish them, unless they are for a guaranteed market with good returns like a butcher etc. or as the case is in some instances you have access to very cheap meal i.e. by being able to buy/grow straights and mix your own ration.
The other thing is though stores are a very good trade this year in comparison to the price in the factory so it may not pay this year to feed and it might next year and so on.
This year we sold all our cross bred lambs in late July early August they were making €2/kg live weight, avg. 30-32kg and hadn't eaten a penny with a slight premium for the ewe lambs €5-€7.
There are other benefits to getting rid early like they can't die/kill themselves on you anymore and your ewes and replacements are in better shape this time of year. Then again if you have the grass its hard to justify selling them, so after rambling on a bit everyone's situation is different and almost every year is too. I for one am not looking forward to next year, I fear a price collapse is on the way.

See in paper today that bord bia are working in conjunction with eblex in uk and another French company in promoting lamb across the EU with an investment of €8m. They hope to raise consumption by 5% over next few years

If they do their job has to be good for prices

Farrell

Just thinking, we're lambing earlier next year (except ewe lambs), this will help with grass for sucklers, some of you intend lambing later to reduce expenses.
This could be a good idea if everyone utilised their system as may take the September glut & hopefully may stop lamb prices dropping in late summer.
Be nice to get a proper price for what we produce

Bleating Lamb

On average when about do people let out ram with ewes that get a bit of hardship and lamb late eg horned ewes.
Would ram not go out till mid November?

Connemara Farmer

Bleating Lamb wrote: »

On average when about do people let out ram with ewes that get a bit of hardship and lamb late eg horned ewes.
Would ram not go out till mid November?

They'd want to be on hard exposed high black hills for that date I reckon.

Plan to lamb later here also, ram will go out the 1st, as opposed to the 22nd October last year.

Ard_MC

Bleating Lamb wrote: »

On average when about do people let out ram with ewes that get a bit of hardship and lamb late eg horned ewes.
Would ram not go out till mid November?

Usually the 10th to the 15th of Nov with me (depending on work!)...and I have seen tupping and lambing them in snow with those dates!!

Also decision is made on expected grass growth with very little fertiliser used.