Ewe Hogget prices

kk.man

Now that the breeding sales are about to start in full flow just woundering any prices throughout the country (I haven't been to a sale recently) ?

Mad about baa baas

https://boards.ie/discussion/2058199744/ewe-hogget-prices

Cant help you with your query but I have a question for you.. I have some hoggets to sell this year that would normally be sold privately but am aiming to go to kilkenny mart this year..in your experience when is best time to go..I think they are good quality without being top class fancy ones with all identical heads etc..thanks

I have third week in August but correct me if that's too early or late please

I

kk.man

If I was you I would go to tullow or somewhere else cause the dealers will bring them there eventually. If u ring tullow they will post out forms to you. Its 30e entry fee.

I have nothing to do with Tullow Mart for the record it's just you have a better spread of buyers in specialist breeding sales.

Mad about baa baas

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117637243#Comment_117637243

Thanks for that..never been to tullow I would have thought you needed fancier lots there and mine get lost ..might chance it though..

orm0nd

I haven't been to any sales and don't think we'll bother , watching online hoggetts generally 180-250 , the types I'd be buying ( as far as I could make out on the screen) were 210 to 230/240

we bought 20 nice lengthy large framed ewe lambs carrying no extra baggage , average weight 44kgs for 138 each. if we get another 25/30 along with our own we will have enough ,

Maybe a few el more than we'd like , but we have always bred ewe lambs and have no worries whatsoever about managing them or their performance in later years.

if we spare €3,500 +/- by buying el instead of hoggetts it's an no brainier (imo)

kk.man

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117638293#Comment_117638293

Did you go to Tullow today?

Mad about baa baas

No.. work mental at the minute no chance of time off..also waiting on a neighbour to look through them and pick out a few..will likely be closer to the end of the month

How did the sale go do you know?

kk.man

I'd say the real talking point of the trade was the ewe lambs. Any decent type for breeding or keeping for the hogget job was easily making 140 to 145e and plenty of customers.

The decent ewe hogget ranged from 230 ~ 250e while I was there very few made in excess of 270e.

Mad about baa baas

Would they be all borris type hoggets or would there be a variety of breeds

Mine would consist of suffolk and then a few texel cross..

Dinzee Conlee

Saw this on FB last night - Macroom wouldnt be so far away from me...

https://www.facebook.com/Cork-Co-Op-Marts-1212389055550159/photos/pcb.4063482790440757/4063481823774187

I thought stores were a better trade, but that kinda suits me if they arent as hot any more (sorry, I know it depends on what side of the ring you're on there) ;)

I know its only a few prices... hogs made 197, cull ewes made 130

200 for hoggets doesnt seem a rob...

kk.man

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117709774#Comment_117709774

The blackish suffocks would be discounted but they would be a few lots any other breed than the Tullow/Borris types would not attract the same attention. People come from all over for this breed.

Bleating Lamb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117709243#Comment_117709243

say those ewe lambs for keeping for breeding…..what kind of weights would they be?……40kg + or lighter?…..

I was in Dowra on Friday and best Suffolk x hoggetts in it made around 190 euro I heard after but weren’t that strong of sheep.Saw a pen of lovely lengthy Borrris type ewe lambs make 156e they were 45kg.

kk.man

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117731499#Comment_117731499

Yes those types I mentioned was sub 40kgs.

That's a great price for Borris ewe lambs outside their normal breeding ground.

Bleating Lamb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117733432#Comment_117733432

Would say they will be put to a ram to lamb in April....to try and cheapen them a bit.

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117735764#Comment_117735764

they'd be well fit to be bred this year but it's very expensive. I was begrudging having to keep my own ewe lambs, their comrades were making 125 -130 to hang up

Bleating Lamb

Good quality lowland cull ewes with a cover of flesh on them made €125+ in Manorhamilton Mart on Wednesday ……so it’s one reason ewe lambs are a good trade as replacers in flocks……Wasn’t there but heard the good Suffolk x ewe lambs were back at least a tenner in price in Dowra yday compared to last week……but any brocket type ewe lambs were mad dear….from €115 to almost €160 a head!……

imo you would be better with a good hoggett once you go over €140 buying a ewe lamb.

kk.man

Today in Borris broke records 425e for 1st prize winners and excellent prices for a great yard of sheep.

Bleating Lamb

Must be hobby farmers buying those first prize winners as would be very hard to see all of them ever earning their cost back ……everything would have to go ok with them,all to go in lamb,over half of them to have twins the first year (no guarantee of that),all lambs to live etc,no lambs lost at lambing (unlikely)…..no prolapses etc.

The man selling them was probably in shock,like the man who got 44k for Suffolk tam lately!…..he openly admitted he was never expecting anything like what he got.

kk.man

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117761424#Comment_117761424

I would disagree... Huge amount of sheep went north of the boarder..

They were the finest pen of hoggets I ever saw. All were dipped and vaccinated for everything. At the same time I'm not debating the economics of the purchase. They are people live the JALEX flock that want the best because they sell the best too.

I would say the mart took in 370k plus on my estimation. This is happening for almost 60 years so people must be getting value.

wrangler

Very poor prices for ewe lambs in Carrick on Shannon tonight, did anyone see the hoggets selling. a lot of ewe lambs going home

J.O. Farmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117782736#Comment_117782736

I think that was a special sale of ewe lambs. I don't think there was any hoggets in it.

They've doubled the numbers in the last 2 years. Maybe the quality isn't quite there with some pens.

There was a breeding sale in Elphin 15 minutes up the road might have taken away a few buyers too.

kk.man

What breed are they generally?

J.O. Farmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117786763#Comment_117786763

Crosses of most of the common breeds.

Mules, Suffolk, Texel, Belclare, Lleyn, Aber, Sufftex, Charbex, Cheviot.

I heard some were more blocky factory type lambs than nice breeders.

Albert Johnson

Am I alone in thinking that hoggets aren't €1 dearer than any other year atm? Granted the local shows and sales are yet to take place which usually is the height of the trade but still. I've watched a power of good hoggets of all breeds sold lately at €150-180, the sort of sheep that would fit in with most lads flocks.

There's an odd real fancy pen making €200-€250 (€287 for monsters of Suffolks is the tops so far) but there very much in the minority. For every pen that crosses €200 another fails to reach €150, there's a good proportion of them would have been worth more to kill last May. When you see lad's repeatedly giving €100-€130 for ewe lambs I can't help but thinking there in for an awaking when it comes to selling hoggets atm. I saw a bundle of nice Texel hoggets bought by a real sheep man last week, when I enquired as to the price I was told €177. They'd have cost that any year I remarked and I was told that he gave €170 to €190 for similar ones last year.

I don't know how lad's do it tbh. They'll soon be giving as much for the ewe lambs as there taking for the hoggets and running them for 12 months and all that comes with it for free. I watched a man sorting 150 hoggets for sale the other day. Between picking them into 10s and 12s of matched types, taking care marking them etc and listening to everyone telling him that he should have done it a different way you'd want patience. I'd say he'd struggled to average €180 for fair type sheep and what will it take to buy in ewe lambs to replace them. You could have landed the whole lot of them into the mart last May and sold them in batches of the first 30 that ran in and I'd say you'd hit a bad day before they'd fail to clear €180. There'd be no talk of this one having the wrong head or being loose in the wool either.

kk.man

I agree with you on many points.

I think the stylish ewe lamb this year has jumped more than the stylish ewe hogget and the job is going to be difficult to replace.

I have been to sales outside the big ones where the hogget are not making any more than last year. However if you go to the big named ones they have super hoggets commanding huge money. Now I know you will say are these types worth the money.... I honestly can't answer that but they are ppl prepared to go to 280e plus for top middle range hoggets and these are repeat customers.

I also see your point Re sorting them out but ppl like me who are time poor to lamb ewes it works. Now I don't mind sorting ewes out than being up at 4am on a cold winters night or at work hoping nothing going wrong in the lambing shed when I get home already after taking 3 weeks off work.

It might turn out to be a pyramid scheme for us.. Who knows. But a wise man said when you are in that game you have to stay in it. My lambs cost 114e avy last year. I got to keep good ones or I'm at nothing. Haven't bought anything yet but I'm looking at 140e.

Albert Johnson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117804245#Comment_117804245

The stylish ewe lamb locally is making the price of an average hogget atm with us atm. I think €170 odd was the tops today but €150 was common enough, you'd buy fair hoggets other weeks at it. As for the special sales it takes awhile to get established and draw in those repeat customers. What would the €280 hogget cost as a ewe lamb? The renowned hogget producer's locally regularly gave €140 for top drawer ewe lambs in ordinary year's and €250 would have been considered a serious price for them as hoggets the following autumn.

I'm not trying to run down anyone's system and if it works for you then that's all that matters. However if I were to pull in around the ring today and buy an average type ewe lamb at let's say €120 and show similar hoggets next week I'd think you'd do well to clear €180. When you'd have all fixed up in the office I couldn't see there being much change due to you.

As for the sorting it's not the work that would bother me but the lack of remuneration. Any man with average type hoggets so far would have been better paid to have killed them all last May imo. Granted what would you have stocked the land with all summer but those sort of sheep haven't earned €1 since and could just as easily loose money. It is a kind of pyramid scheme imo. Every year there's less men to buy breeding hoggets and more customers for ewe lambs from what I see.

brownswiss

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117782736#Comment_117782736

Lambs brought home unsold at €105 made €130 in the factory

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117804365#Comment_117804365

As the father at home would say....theres a pile of people getting into sheep,but v.few of em are going/interested in lambing

The pedigree breeders will likely keep a floor under good quality hoggot prices aswell though tbf

orm0nd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117804599#Comment_117804599

Was at a show sale a couple of weeks ago, factory agent buying any fleshy lambs up to 130. Very little farmer interest in lambs for breeding this year. I bought 2 pens on nice suff x texel for 120.

Bought 3 pens of hoggetts subject. 177 for 1 and 195 for 2.

Went in to pay and the 2 at 195 was no sale.

Mad about baa baas

I think there is value in picking up ewe lambs in the 35kg bracket to keep on for hoggets.. I know there is more risk involved in that they might not grow into what you would like.. but a bunch with nice heads that have length in them ..maybe coming off average ground. Bring them home and dose them give them minerals and plenty grass..

I bought 2 pens in cahir week before last..35.5 kg at 90 and 37.5 at 101..24 in total that I think have the makings of lovely hoggets.. thriving well already. Mostly speckled faced.. by March I can cull a few that wont make the grade.

Probably 10 euro more than last year but potentially nicer stock..

kk.man

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117805445#Comment_117805445

Yes I agree with you but I found the majority of them don't grow into big hoggets. Some are off hoggets themselves. I did that the 1st few years of this game and found when prices hit the floor despite good face markings I suffer price wise.

Niwi don't intend to go after prize winning ewe lambs but I will go for length as you say but abit of weight helps achieve a decent price at the following year's hogget sales.

kk.man

The big problem I'm having this year is my hoggets are every bit as good as the prize winners but I am not feeding hoggets 2 months out from the ewe breeders sale. I give them meal during the hunger months of Jan to mid march but that's all.

I'd be peed off if I brought home expensive hoggets only to follow me around the field for a few days looking for meal. That's my take anyway. I do everything right, footbath, shear on time and very good quality grass but I can't get mine to look like elefants.

Dinzee Conlee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117807997#Comment_117807997

I don’t get why you say this is a problem KK?

What are you hoping to get for your hog this year?

kk.man

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117808179#Comment_117808179

The problem is I'm competing with the prize winners exact same sheep as mine 3 months ago. I have averaged 275e but theirs are 300e plus. They are meal fed prior to breeding sales mine are not. Maybe I should feed them up😀

Mad about baa baas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117808369#Comment_117808369

Re feeding them up.. I always remember I was with my father at a mart one day having got out of school..probably 10 or 11 at the time..

Anyway I was admiring a pen of huge hoggets and said what do you think of them dad..he said they are grand if you want to give london for them and watch them walk around the field for the next month like something with a slow puncture. ..the flesh will melt off them if you dont keep feeding them

Like in most things I think he was right..that's 30 plus years ago now

razor8

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117808369#Comment_117808369

What the problem. The extra €25 is probably gone on meal. It’s still probably the same profit for both of ye?

it’s the buyer that’s paid for the meal not the seller??

J.O. Farmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117809638#Comment_117809638

Some people look at the mart cheque rather than the profit or just want to be seen producing prize winners.

Don't forget the hoggets didn't nip down to the co-op once a week and then give themselves a portion everyday either.

The seller had to do that and while it's probably not a lot of work you wouldn't find the hours clocking up over a month or so.

Bleating Lamb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117809638#Comment_117809638

Would totally agree with this sentiment….the proper way to buy hoggetts is to buy sheep that are in good shape and healthy looking on day of purchase…..but that they have a bit of room left for a thrive in them as you ‘flush them’ for the ram.

a lot of the overdone prizewinning hoggetts have a very poor return of lambs from first crop as their plane of nutrition is actually decreasing rather than increasing by time they go to ram….and plenty of ‘elephants’ of hoggetts end up dry the first year and sold then for killing the next Spring.