Store Lambs

Cavanshooter

Hi, I was thinking of buying around 30 store lambs. I have 12 acres well fenced for them. When would be the best time to buy and how much would i be paying. Also what weight and breed would be the best. thank you.

sea12

Cavanshooter wrote: »

Hi, I was thinking of buying around 30 store lambs. I have 12 acres well fenced for them. When would be the best time to buy and how much would i be paying. Also what weight and breed would be the best. thank you.

Store lambs would generally be in plentiful supply from July onwards. Price varies by year depending on factory price. Around 70-80 for 35 kg plus. If you but ewe lambs generally pay a few euro more for them but might get it on the far side aswell., best of luck but don't expect to make a fortune

memorystick

Hi, I know it's early days but I was wondering how light could you buy lambs? I'm hoping to buy around 50 in July and money will be tight. Should I buy numbers at smaller weight or a few less but at heavier weight? I'm way understocked and have fairly good pastures. I wouldn't mind giving them a pinch of meal every day just to keep them quiet. Sound

kk.man

memorystick wrote: »

Hi, I know it's early days but I was wondering how light could you buy lambs? I'm hoping to buy around 50 in July and money will be tight. Should I buy numbers at smaller weight or a few less but at heavier weight? I'm way understocked and have fairly good pastures. I wouldn't mind giving them a pinch of meal every day just to keep them quiet. Sound

The issue about buying them in July is that lamb prices are at their peak for the summer(or should be!)...thus they translate to high price to stores and availability is less...Sept is the best month as lamb supply is at its lowest (again typical year)....I see you need animals for grass...why don't you buy ewes with lambs now and flog both off later in the year?

memorystick

kk.man wrote: »

The issue about buying them in July is that lamb prices are at their peak for the summer(or should be!)...thus they translate to high price to stores and availability is less...Sept is the best month as lamb supply is at its lowest (again typical year)....I see you need animals for grass...why don't you buy ewes with lambs now and flog both off later in the year?

Are they very dear at the moment?

kk.man

memorystick wrote: »

Are they very dear at the moment?

It depends on a few factors...age of ewe...age of lambs......no of lambs per unit....condition of ewe...anything from 140 up to 240. Like everything you get what you pay for.

drive it

Any one got rid of any stores yet ? Was wondering what kind of money they are going. Got a phone call from a lad thar buys them every year but hes about a month early this year

Mountain Mayo

We're just bringing in lambs now from the hills for shearing the sheep. Store lambs for going if anyone wants them, all mayo blackface

_blaaz

What price are 28 to 33 kg stores making.....countries flooded with grass at the min

Country lad

Sold stores today to a local farmer 35kg.for 75 euro

Mountain Mayo

Not bad money, what breed were they? Wouldn't mind selling now but will have to wait another week or so before I can get holidays from work

Mountain Mayo

Heard that all lambs went well in Maam Cross last weekend with buyer from up the country buying most of them

Country lad

The lambs were charlaois.x mixture of weather's and ewe lambs

Mountain Mayo

they should do well on grass anyway and should finish well on after grass without meal. Only thing if there are fellas looking for stores with all the after grass there is going to be a glut of store lambs coming on the stream in the next 2 weeks or so, especially when the bank holiday hits and lads have time to get lambs together

Dickie10

i tend to keep away from the west and north west for buying store as competition is very high with beef men in east and east midlands. kerry is a good option as its almost completly surrounded by expanding dairy country on good lands of north kerry, limerick , tipp, cork . thus you dont have the same level of competition for lambs and a slightly lower price. Maam cross and Dowra are handy runs from midlands and north east compared to south kerry

RobinBanks

Hello all. I reseeded a 4ac field and wanted to get a few store lambs. How many would you start off with for a field of this size. Ideally i would let them graze it, move them to another field and put them back in again to graze 3 weeks later. Would keep doing this until fit to kill. I am not familiar with stocking rates for sheep.

Western Pomise

Depends on what strength of lambs you were to buy and if you hope to finish them solely off grass.
Fact you have reseeded field should help do that but you would need to be buying terminal breed forward stores like Suffolk x or Texel x lambs for example for a short feed at say 35 kg when buying now....they are costing around 75 to 80 euro in Marts at mo.
If buying smaller lambs at lower money you can naturally buy more of them and use nuts if necessary to finish them.
Would imagine you could go with at least 30 of stronger type lambs on 4acres.

RobinBanks

Western Pomise wrote: »

Depends on what strength of lambs you were to buy and if you hope to finish them solely off grass.
Fact you have reseeded field should help do that but you would need to be buying terminal breed forward stores like Suffolk x or Texel x lambs for example for a short feed at say 35 kg when buying now....they are costing around 75 to 80 euro in Marts at mo.
If buying smaller lambs at lower money you can naturally buy more of them and use nuts if necessary to finish them.
Would imagine you could go with at least 30 of stronger type lambs on 4acres.

Thanks allot for reply. I appreciate it. I can get my hands on 20 Llyen ewe lambs but I don't know much about them. All I want is lambs that won't ramble. Are you familiar with Llyen

Green farmer

RobinBanks wrote: »

Thanks allot for reply. I appreciate it. I can get my hands on 20 Llyen ewe lambs but I don't know much about them. All I want is lambs that won't ramble. Are you familiar with Llyen

There are several types of Lleyns.

eorna

Lleyn make a lovely ewe but some type of lleyn can be hard finished in my experience..depends what are they crossed with i suppose.. i heard there is different types of lleyns as well..

Green farmer

eorna wrote: »

Lleyn make a lovely ewe but some type of lleyn can be hard finished in my experience..depends what are they crossed with i suppose.. i heard there is different types of lleyns as well..

I had long narrow type ones that were hard to finish and abit flighty. Also had traditional ones, good sheep , but can get to small, unless your crossing with a bigger sheep. Found best type ( to suit my setup anyway) are the stocky medium sized ones. I suspect there’s some texel blood in there somewhere. Also found them the quietest to work with as well. Having said that it’s a personal thing and someone else might like a different type of Lleyn.
Edit,
Flighty Lleyns, can jump, so I only kept rams that were abit lazy and when cornered didn’t know how to jump. there’s nothing worse then a crop of young Lleyns that know how to clear a fence.

Robson99

Anyone see any mountain ram lambs sold yet say 25 - 30 kg or is it a month too early

MayoAreMagic

Robson99 wrote: »

Anyone see any mountain ram lambs sold yet say 25 - 30 kg or is it a month too early

Seen some moving alright, although not a huge amount. Heard of them making from 40 to 50 depending on the lambs.

Robson99

MayoAreMagic wrote: »

Seen some moving alright, although not a huge amount. Heard of them making from 40 to 50 depending on the lambs.

Ma'am cross??

Albert Johnson

Robson99 wrote: »

Anyone see any mountain ram lambs sold yet say 25 - 30 kg or is it a month too early

Those weight of horned lambs were from €45 to €60 in Drumshanbo Thursday. They were the first of the hill lambs and should be coming out I'm greater numbers weekly from now on.

arctictree

How do you know if you are buying genuine store lambs or just some lads runts?

Albert Johnson

It's always a bit of a mine field when buying stores as your never fully sure of there history but there are a few points to be considered. I'd always watch the address of the seller, for example if it's an address half way up a mountain then it's usually a good indication that there genuine store's. Also I'd try and gauge the age of the lambs and there general condition, a young lamb with soft tight wool is usually discernable from a dried out screw that's failed to thrive all summer. Trying to buy lambs from marts surrounded by good land can be hit and miss regards quality, as mentioned on other threads stores from the North/South West are generally a safer bet. Finally I find that smaller batches often contain the bad doer's and general dodges that are found on every farm, a big bunch of matched lambs are usually genuine imo.

memorystick

MayoAreMagic wrote: »

Seen some moving alright, although not a huge amount. Heard of them making from 40 to 50 depending on the lambs.

Are they a good buy? Would have good land to finish them on.

Country lad

I sell around 100 store lambs every year to a local farmers and keep the remaining fifty myself and put them on average grass and sheep and lamb nuts and hopefully have they all gone to factory by end of november

MayoAreMagic

memorystick wrote: »

Are they a good buy? Would have good land to finish them on.

They can be. It depends on the lambs and also what you are expecting. They arent going to match a crossbred lamb, but there is definitely a return from a good quality gang of them. I think the best idea is if you could source a gang with a decent frame from an area that would be poor as regards land quality, then you could do well enough. It will take a bit longer, but they are also cheaper and that bit hardier also.
Some guys come back buying them every year in the 100s so there is definitely a return there.

MayoAreMagic

Robson99 wrote: »

Ma'am cross??

No just local private sales

Dickie10

my 114 store lamsb arrived tonight, gave them a count in the yard, all 114 there and in great nick, very happy with them straight out of kenmare mart, brilliant service 3 euro dlivered

razor8

Dickie10 wrote: »

my 114 store lamsb arrived tonight, gave them a count in the yard, all 114 there and in great nick, very happy with them straight out of kenmare mart, brilliant service 3 euro dlivered

Any photos?

Dinzee Conlee

Dickie10 wrote: »

my 114 store lamsb arrived tonight, gave them a count in the yard, all 114 there and in great nick, very happy with them straight out of kenmare mart, brilliant service 3 euro dlivered

What’s your routine for them now Dickie - I mean in terms of worms, minerals, fluke?, etc...

If you don’t mind me asking...

Hard Knocks

Dickie10 wrote: »

my 114 store lamsb around tonight, gave them a count in the yard, all 114 there and in great nick, very happy with them straight out of kenmare mart, brilliant service 3 euro dlivered

Good luck with them
Does the fence have to be top notch?

Dickie10

ah yeah decent fencing ya know the usual sheep mesh and strand of barb with strand of electric is what i usually get done , grant spec stuff. if you dont have adequate fencing forget about any type of sheep you will just annoy yourself and cause stress, nobody needs that. i was just going to ask anyone here what there routine is!? anyway first thing i did was not annoy or stress the poor devils for a day or two they were on the lorry at 1.30 tuesday afternoon and didnt get out til 10.45 pm tuesday night. roughly the plan will be worm dose , probably vaccinate 8 in 1, dip , and seperate rams and ewes/weathers. but yesterday and today they spent eating and sleeping in the sun . ill stick up pics soon

Dickie10

im sticking up two pics from my phone there not great quality ill get a few good ones tomorrow, have to go to sleep need to be at dawn meats in slane at 6am .......:(

Dickie10

Here’s a pic

RobinBanks

Brought in lambs today to run through foot bath. Noticed one very lame and when I checked it out her hoof is broken to the point where you can see flesh underneath. Poor thing is in pain. I have little experience with sheep but I don’t know if this is a job for a vet or someone else? I sprayed her with alamycin and gave her an anti inflammatory + antibiotic injection I had for another job. Anyone seen anything like this before.

390kid

Albert Johnson wrote: »

Those weight of horned lambs were from €45 to €60 in Drumshanbo Thursday. They were the first of the hill lambs and should be coming out I'm greater numbers weekly from now on.

Was there many fat lambs in Drumshanbo Albert?

memorystick

Dickie10 wrote: »

ah yeah decent fencing ya know the usual sheep mesh and strand of barb with strand of electric is what i usually get done , grant spec stuff. if you dont have adequate fencing forget about any type of sheep you will just annoy yourself and cause stress, nobody needs that. i was just going to ask anyone here what there routine is!? anyway first thing i did was not annoy or stress the poor devils for a day or two they were on the lorry at 1.30 tuesday afternoon and didnt get out til 10.45 pm tuesday night. roughly the plan will be worm dose , probably vaccinate 8 in 1, dip , and seperate rams and ewes/weathers. but yesterday and today they spent eating and sleeping in the sun . ill stick up pics soon

Are they roaming or just settled into field? Would have ok fences but would give a pinch of meal to keep them quiet. Not buying until October. Super looking stock.

Country lad

RobinBanks wrote: »

Brought in lambs today to run through foot bath. Noticed one very lame and when I checked it out her hoof is broken to the point where you can see flesh underneath. Poor thing is in pain. I have little experience with sheep but I don’t know if this is a job for a vet or someone else? I sprayed her with alamycin and gave her an anti inflammatory + antibiotic injection I had for another job. Anyone seen anything like this before.

She should be grand after treatment as that's the joys of sheep farming no need for vet just spray her foot again if no better in a couple of days

kk.man

RobinBanks wrote: »

Brought in lambs today to run through foot bath. Noticed one very lame and when I checked it out her hoof is broken to the point where you can see flesh underneath. Poor thing is in pain. I have little experience with sheep but I don’t know if this is a job for a vet or someone else? I sprayed her with alamycin and gave her an anti inflammatory + antibiotic injection I had for another job. Anyone seen anything like this before.

+1 With country lad on this.
Make sure it is in a dry area for 20mins after spray as wet grass will take away any good u did by spraying in the 1st place.

Dickie10

no there well settled ill dose next week and seperate rams from ewes

RobinBanks

Country lad wrote: »

She should be grand after treatment as that's the joys of sheep farming no need for vet just spray her foot again if no better in a couple of days

You were right. I went through them this evening and I can’t pick out the lame one. If only cows would heal as quick. Thanks for the advice

RobinBanks

kk.man wrote: »

+1 With country lad on this.
Make sure it is in a dry area for 20mins after spray as wet grass will take away any good u did by spraying in the 1st place.

Thank you for advice kk.man. Learning day by day thanks to the Help from all the members here

Dickie10

those lambs i bought from kenmare ended up €68 in the yard (inc. €3/hd. transport). was about to dip them today but the rain came going to just spray them until i get a half dry day.

Albert Johnson

390kid wrote: »

Albert Johnson wrote: »

Those weight of horned lambs were from €45 to €60 in Drumshanbo Thursday. They were the first of the hill lambs and should be coming out I'm greater numbers weekly from now on.

Was there many fat lambs in Drumshanbo Albert?

Sorry didn't get a notification about your reply and only seen it now. Drumshanbo wouldn't really be a town for fat lambs, be mostly stores and ewes/hogget's. The fat lamb's would usually go to Dowra, Ballymote or Elphin where there's more factory buyer's. Having said that 47kg ewe lambs made €97 (gone for breeding) and the comrade rams 49kg made €93 (Galway type lambs with wooly heads).

Green farmer

Albert Johnson wrote: »

Having said that 47kg ewe lambs made €97 (gone for breeding) and the comrade rams 49kg made €93 (Galway type lambs with wooly heads).

I always feel disappointed when any 49kg lambs fail to make the €100 mark.

Albert Johnson

Green farmer wrote: »

Albert Johnson wrote: »

Having said that 47kg ewe lambs made €97 (gone for breeding) and the comrade rams 49kg made €93 (Galway type lambs with wooly heads).

I always feel disappointed when any 49kg lambs fail to make the €100 mark.

I understand the disappointment but they were pure bred Galway ram lambs and it was near enough the price of them imo. I don't know much about selling dead weight but I do know that anything unusual doesn't usually sell well live. The Galway sheep seem to be a bigger sheep in my limited experience and even though​they were 49kg I don't think they were over fleshed. However I'm skeptical if feeding them for another few weeks and going overweight would be of any great financial advantage either.

390kid

Albert Johnson wrote: »

Sorry didn't get a notification about your reply and only seen it now. Drumshanbo wouldn't really be a town for fat lambs, be mostly stores and ewes/hogget's. The fat lamb's would usually go to Dowra, Ballymote or Elphin where there's more factory buyer's. Having said that 47kg ewe lambs made €97 (gone for breeding) and the comrade rams 49kg made €93 (Galway type lambs with wooly heads).

Ye there seems to be lots going through dowra I wouldn’t have thought there would be many for them there. Have a few nice ewe lambs that would suit breeding just not to sure where to go with them yet