Will there be anybody left lambing?

sea12

The amount of people I know who are getting out of lambing around here is unreal. Allot of adds on done deal suggesting the same around the country. Changing to ewe lambs being kept for the winter to sell as hoggets for breeding. I did it myself last year due to work commitments.

I think hogget prices are going to suffer a but as there seems to be an abundance of them. Everyone buying in ewe lambs will make ewe lambs dear and keep a good floor on lamb prices for the Autumn.

So is anybody here expanding?

Ard_MC

sea12 wrote: »

The amount of people I know who are getting out of lambing around here is unreal. Allot of adds on done deal suggesting the same around the country. Changing to ewe lambs being kept for the winter to sell as hoggets for breeding. I did it myself last year due to work commitments.

I think hogget prices are going to suffer a but as there seems to be an abundance of them. Everyone buying in ewe lambs will make ewe lambs dear and keep a good floor on lamb prices for the Autumn.

So is anybody here expanding?

You can buy right good xbred hoggets for 120 to 135. Wouldn't be over done but a few weeks on grass and they are flying. Are they leavin much if your buyin them for 60 or 70 as lambs?

Western Pomise

Ard_MC wrote: »

You can buy right good xbred hoggets for 120 to 135. Wouldn't be over done but a few weeks on grass and they are flying. Are they leavin much if your buyin them for 60 or 70 as lambs?

Are you talking pounds or euros there?

Hoggett prices are back a bit this week in marts but special sales have not really started yet.

tomwaterford

Ard_MC wrote: »

You can buy right good xbred hoggets for 120 to 135. Wouldn't be over done but a few weeks on grass and they are flying. Are they leavin much if your buyin them for 60 or 70 as lambs?

Tbh anything above that....you'd want to gaurenteed 2 lambs a year to make it back


Lads paying 200+ for hoggets must be serious operators...no way could I make them pay at that price on an average of 1.5 lamb minimum

Ard_MC

Western Pomise wrote: »

Are you talking pounds or euros there?

Hoggett prices are back a bit this week in marts but special sales have not really started yet.

Euros. Ordinary sales. Now they wouldn't be show winners. Just sheep comin off a hard run that's not fed or comin off the best of land. I rather buy that kinda sheep than 1s that are fed to the last..mind you after this yr i will be finally at the stage of havin all my own home bred replacements.

stantheman1979

We bought 200 mule and speckeled ewe lambs in dingle last yr for 45-65 euro. They had good frames but were hungry looking sheep.Dosed them and gave them a vitamin drench, let them out on 80acres of hilly ground we planned on reclaiming this year. Gave them a shake of meal over the winter. lost 3of them.Sheared them in may dosed them and let them off again. They turned inside out made really nice hoggets. Sold them this week for 170 euro!! Not sayin its the thing to do im just sayin

stantheman1979

To answer you're question we plan on halving the sucklers to about 60 and lambing more ewes. We'll lamb 1200 next spring and hopefully 1500 the following year. There is a lot more margin in sheep over sucklers and that's a fact.

Farmer_3650

stantheman1979 wrote: »

To answer you're question we plan on halving the sucklers to about 60 and lambing more ewes. We'll lamb 1200 next spring and hopefully 1500 the following year. There is a lot more margin in sheep over sucklers and that's a fact.

Unless you are having nearly 2 lambs/ Ewe, there is not much out of sheep either. The best way to make money out of sheep is to buy light lambs and sell them off as hoggets like you said in a previous post.

arctictree

Farmer_3650 wrote: »

Unless you are having nearly 2 lambs/ Ewe, there is not much out of sheep either. The best way to make money out of sheep is to buy light lambs and sell them off as hoggets like you said in a previous post.

Surely the worst hoggets to buy for breeding would be the ones that were light lambs the year before?

farawaygrass

Farmer_3650 wrote: »

Unless you are having nearly 2 lambs/ Ewe, there is not much out of sheep either. The best way to make money out of sheep is to buy light lambs and sell them off as hoggets like you said in a previous post.

A good friend of mine lambed last year and according to his teagasc annual report he lost 400e after all his work. Has about 100 ewes and would really look after them in fairness.He was told his concentrates bill was too high, but with that lambing percentage he had to feed them. It really surprised me as I thought there was more money in sheep. I was also thinking of cutting back in sucklers and increasing the sheep numbers

arctictree

farawaygrass wrote: »

A good friend of mine lambed last year and according to his teagasc annual report he lost 400e after all his work. Has about 100 ewes and would really look after them in fairness.He was told his concentrates bill was too high, but with that lambing percentage he had to feed them. It really surprised me as I thought there was more money in sheep. I was also thinking of cutting back in sucklers and increasing the sheep numbers

Sounds like he was overstocked and had to house them for a lengthy period?

stantheman1979

arctictree wrote: »

Surely the worst hoggets to buy for breeding would be the ones that were light lambs the year before?

Of coarse they would but an ounce of breeding Is worth a ton of feeding. If you can get good lambs that just need a bit of TLC they will turn out ok and make you money, the buyer doesnt know they're history. Like i said above if I can get 170euro for hoggets Im not worried about who buys them or how they turn out for him.

farawaygrass

arctictree wrote: »

Sounds like he was overstocked and had to house them for a lengthy period?

Were out on grass and silage all winter. Started feeding them outside nearing lambing alright. Only put them in a week before they were due.

sheepfarmer92

Expanding here too, there is money in lambing ewes.
Number one - you need enough of them
Number two - you need to know your costs inside out, i see a lot of farms and some have serious feed, labour and vet/med costs
Number 3 - you need good flock health to keep everything right to be able to run a lot of ewes per man

stantheman1979

Couldn't agree more!! If you're organised it's as easy to lamb 1000 ewes as 100. You gotta analyse and justify what u spend. Before u spend anything ask yourself will this save me time, money and make you're life easier. You gotta keep on top of flock health and breeding.If you've a problem with a sheep sort it or you'll have an epidemic with large numbers of animals. And finally good fences and a good yard/handling unit are crucial. But there's definitely money in lambing sheep

sea12

Agree there is money in lambing. But if you look st the age profile of most sheep farmers and it doesn't really work with full time job for younger farmers with full time jobs and young family. If ure not around for lambing you wouldn't be long running up losses and eating away with your profit.

Good to hear there are a few expanding. Will sell my hoggets yet!!

charolais0153

There's a hell of a lot less work in cattle in every respect IMO which is far handier whe n your working part time, but the money is far better in sheep so six of one and a half a dozen of another. I know IDF I was to have more land the sheep would be increased before the cattle

Western Pomise

:P

stantheman1979 wrote: »

We bought 200 mule and speckeled ewe lambs in dingle last yr for 45-65 euro. They had good frames but were hungry looking sheep.Dosed them and gave them a vitamin drench, let them out on 80acres of hilly ground we planned on reclaiming this year. Gave them a shake of meal over the winter. lost 3of them.Sheared them in may dosed them and let them off again. They turned inside out made really nice hoggets. Sold them this week for 170 euro!! Not sayin its the thing to do im just sayin

That was a good return on investment but that 'hilly ground' must be good feeding ground.They must have had nice heads etc as I have only seen a few batches of hoggetts make over 160 euro yet this year.It will be interesting to see what price hoggetts are making this time next year.One thing you could see happening is the factories having to pay good rates for hoggetts right through the Summer next year if this 'shortage' of lambs occurs.
The unknowing consumer will be the one eating hoggett for Lamb.

Sheep breeder

stantheman1979 wrote: »

Couldn't agree more!! If you're organised it's as easy to lamb 1000 ewes as 100. You gotta analyse and justify what u spend. Before u spend anything ask yourself will this save me time, money and make you're life easier. You gotta keep on top of flock health and breeding.If you've a problem with a sheep sort it or you'll have an epidemic with large numbers of animals. And finally good fences and a good yard/handling unit are crucial. But there's definitely money in lambing sheep

Agree make life easier and move on each by fixing the previous years problems and realise that sheep are a disease, you either like them or keep a million mile away.

stantheman1979

Western Pomise wrote: »

:P

That was a good return on investment but that 'hilly ground' must be good feeding ground.They must have had nice heads etc as I have only seen a few batches of hoggetts make over 160 euro yet this year.It will be interesting to see what price hoggetts are making this time next year.One thing you could see happening is the factories having to pay good rates for hoggetts right through the Summer next year if this 'shortage' of lambs occurs.
The unknowing consumer will be the one eating hoggett for Lamb.

Its a farm we rented from a man retiring. Its dry but I wouldnt say its good feeding ground. It hasnt seen lime or fertilizer in yrs you woundnt drive a tractor on it without having a serious set of balls on ya:D Like i said they were mules and speckled faced the just needed a bit of looking after.Seen hoggets make 195 at the same sale. Personally I wouldnt think there will be a shortage of lambs next yr. I wouldnt think there is as many giving up lambing as people might think.

charolais0153

IMO opinion there should be a massive drop off in price for a hogget after April so that they're gone sooner and better for spring lamb

farawaygrass

If expanding then facilities need to be adequate. Nothing worse than cursing every time you have the sheep in and looking for twine to tie a gate. As someone said a 1000 ewes is nearly as handy as a 100

Green farmer

charolais0153 wrote: »

IMO opinion there should be a massive drop off in price for a hogget after April so that they're gone sooner and better for spring lamb

don't think hogget supplies hampered Spring prices this year. Factories importing in overseas lamb did.

Ard_MC

Green farmer wrote: »

don't think hogget supplies hampered Spring prices this year. Factories importing in overseas lamb did.

Spring lamb seems to be on the way out..unless there can be different brandin/convenience products developed for the home consumers. any demand for lambs now is the Muslim festivals after that lamb can be spring or hoggets..id say few consumers could really tell the difference in a blind taste test!

uck51js9zml2yt

stantheman1979 wrote: »

We bought 200 mule and speckeled ewe lambs in dingle last yr for 45-65 euro. They had good frames but were hungry looking sheep.Dosed them and gave them a vitamin drench, let them out on 80acres of hilly ground we planned on reclaiming this year. Gave them a shake of meal over the winter. lost 3of them.Sheared them in may dosed them and let them off again. They turned inside out made really nice hoggets. Sold them this week for 170 euro!! Not sayin its the thing to do im just sayin

Non farmer here but a question for you...
What was your profit per animal?

Green farmer

Ard_MC wrote: »

any demand for lambs now is the Muslim festivals

Cannt argue with that. A few weeks ago, big factories were moaning about poor demand and dragging prices down. Think Larry was down at €4.80, now I hear deals up to €5-30 being done. Think last festival in June caught them on hop as well. With the live trade and even local demand created by it, it's definitely creating competition to the big players. Long may it last. !!!

Siamsa Sessions

To answer OP question, we're expanding here and lambing more in 2018.

But could the sheep industry be going the way of beef, where there's lots of store to finish operators and less people getting their hands dirty with lambing/calving?

Are lamb feedlots not far away?

sea12

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

To answer OP question, we're expanding here and lambing more in 2018.

But could the sheep industry be going the way of beef, where there's lots of store to finish operators and less people getting their hands dirty with lambing/calving?

Are lamb feedlots not far away?

That is essentially the question I was posing. But you've articulated it better. I see allot of people moving from lambing ewes to handling stores either as factory lambs or selling as hoggets.

Siamsa Sessions

sea12 wrote: »

That is essentially the question I was posing. But you've articulated it better. I see allot of people moving from lambing ewes to handling stores either as factory lambs or selling as hoggets.

I guess the stores will have to come from someplace but the industry as a whole might become more fragmented with "specialist" areas, like beef (again). Some fellas producing lamb to store and others store to finish.

I'm new to it, but i can see a fair difference between trying to finish Suffolk wethers vs. Llyen wethers.

Dickie10

i could see a big drop in the supply of store lambs available from marginal land in west and south. hill/mountain farmers will get very scarce over the next 10 years. also what happens in the event of brexit? will irish lamb factories still be able to go to Carlisle mart in northern England or Scottish marts and buy lambs for slaughter in Navan and Camolin and other meat plants as they did all last winter from december to May?

Lambman

Will be lambing down close on double the ewes here next year... done ok at it this year and my options were keep on 80 off my own ewe lambs till sell as hoggets next year or sell now and buy 40-50 hoggets till put with the ram in October and that's what I opted for... time will tell I suppose!