Early Lambers

Dickie10

Anyone at early lambing? Hows it going for people? how are the economics of the system for people working out?

Sheep breeder

Lambing at the moment and getting through with a few little problems, but happy out with the hard work put in last August now coming through in the lambing. First chance to draw breath this morning and two more days and then 14 days of a break and then the repeats for 5 days.

orm0nd

found early lambing too expensive & labour demanding to justify, done it for years

factories prefer to import hoggets than pay premium for spring lamb

Dickie10

yes i noticed that. i lamb in first week of februaury and buy in stores to finish off grass over winter although they get a lot of meal too. hogget prices are going to be good again this spring but i hear they are getting scarce. went with 30 there last week to navan

wrangler

orm0nd wrote: »

found early lambing too expensive & labour demanding to justify, done it for years

factories prefer to import hoggets than pay premium for spring lamb

They might as well import them, supermarkets would only buy hogget meat anyway, cheaper meat. They don't care where it comes from.
Week before Easter is the only time new season lamb gets a premium, then it's hogget price until hoggets run out

orm0nd

wrangler wrote: »

They might as well import them, supermarkets would only buy hogget meat anyway, cheaper meat. They don't care where it comes from.
Week before Easter is the only time new season lamb gets a premium, then it's hogget price until hoggets run out

Think Easter isn't that relevant any more, not for any large numbers anyhow,it may be different this year 'cos it's early. we're hoping to move the majority of lambs early May this year, hopefully hoggets will be drying up & demand for Ramadan

charolais0153

orm0nd wrote: »

Think Easter isn't that relevant any more, not for any large numbers anyhow,it may be different this year 'cos it's early. we're hoping to move the majority of lambs early May this year, hopefully hoggets will be drying up & demand for Ramadan

When are you lambing?

Hard Knocks

orm0nd wrote: »

Think Easter isn't that relevant any more, not for any large numbers anyhow,it may be different this year 'cos it's early. we're hoping to move the majority of lambs early May this year, hopefully hoggets will be drying up & demand for Ramadan

Ramadan should bring good demand for spring ram lambs

orm0nd

charolais0153 wrote: »

When are you lambing?

diary is in the jeep but I think 22th Jan on. looking at them this morning I reckon some will go before that , triplets no doubt :rolleyes:

main batch 8th Feb. on and ewe lambs mid march

early_riser

Always lamb 50 or 60 this time of the year, first lamb dropped this morning. Profit from these lambs might not be much some years maybe but reason i stick at it is it improves cash flow through out the year and i have lambs to sell when the meal bill is highest after the march lambing. Also it means between carrying a few hoggets into the new year to sell this time of the year and into February, and having ewes that scan not in lamb to sell in feb and march after a bit of feeding, then early lambs and then main crop of lambs i have money coming in nearly every month of the year.

early_riser

With the weather we are getting at the moment you would start to question your sanity for having early lambs alright!!

sea12

Saw a few out today and they were all hunched up under the ditches.,

charolais0153

sea12 wrote: »

Saw a few out today and they were all hunched up under the ditches.,

They could be the same way in april

wrangler

charolais0153 wrote: »

They could be the same way in april

Granted, but it's three mths from now to may whereas lambing in April is only a couple of weeks,
It's a long time to have to look after them, land is heavy here and when it gets wet It's a misery to walk/work on.....even my pedigrees when I had them I used to leave them in till mid march from lambing in december....... there'd be nothing for the mid season lambers if I didn't do that

Inchilad

wrangler wrote:

Granted, but it's three mths from now to may whereas lambing in April is only a couple of weeks, It's a long time to have to look after them, land is heavy here and when it gets wet It's a misery to walk/work on.....even my pedigrees when I had them I used to leave them in till mid march from lambing in december....... there'd be nothing for the mid season lambers if I didn't do that

Can i ask how you fared out with the pedigree lambs having them housed for nearly 4 months? Did they thrive well?were you doing the usual straw and ration feed combination or were they getting hay/silage.the lambs i mean.curious as i find myself in similiar position now with the ground the way it is .

wrangler

Inchilad wrote: »

Can i ask how you fared out with the pedigree lambs having them housed for nearly 4 months? Did they thrive well?were you doing the usual straw and ration feed combination or were they getting hay/silage.the lambs i mean.curious as i find myself in similiar position now with the ground the way it is .

Same feed, fed about 1.6 kilos/day of 18% ration per day in three feeds with the straw. we also gave them some extra soya to build the ration up to 21%P for the first three to four weeks, I'll look it up tomorrow as to how much soya. They were vendeens so they were well able to eat meal, they'd eat the farm if they got out on grass that time of the year.
A year like this there's no doubt but they'd thrive and milk better indoors.
Pedigrees were a hobby here so I won't even try to defend the cost of leaving them in
gave the lambs creep from 10 days old and they eat the straw as well

Inchilad

wrangler wrote:

Same feed, fed about 1.6 kilos/day of 18% ration per day in three feeds with the straw. we also gave them some extra soya to build the ration up to 21%P for the first three to four weeks, I'll look it up tomorrow as to how much soya. They were vendeens so they were well able to eat meal, they'd eat the farm if they got out on grass that time of the year. A year like this there's no doubt but they'd thrive and milk better indoors. Pedigrees were a hobby here so I won't even try to defend the cost of leaving them in gave the lambs creep from 10 days old and they eat the straw as well

I know well.an expensive hobby!ive hampshires and theyd also eat some amount of meal if you gave it to em.thanks for that.straw is poor quality here this year so they can be picking away at hayledge instead.thanks for that.

wrangler

Inchilad wrote: »

I know well.an expensive hobby!ive hampshires and theyd also eat some amount of meal if you gave it to em.thanks for that.straw is poor quality here this year so they can be picking away at hayledge instead.thanks for that.

18%P ration is probably good enough so, there would be more protein in the haylage than the straw