wrangler wrote: » A lot of rain fell here today, between lamb price being back €10 and the winter being a month earlier, profit will be poor in sheep this year. I wouldn't be surprised if lamb crop is back too with all the rain at mating, I saw it here before after a wet autumn
memorystick wrote: » Is it important that bought in store lambs get the second shot of Heptavac P? Can’t get the fûçkers in.
farawaygrass wrote: » I wouldn’t mind but last spring I thought this was going to be a great year price wise for lambs. Even thought they are bad at the moment, I’m still upping the numbers, and cutting back on sucklers. I know I asked you before but are you still doing profit monitors? What’s the net the last few years?
Birdnuts wrote: » Don't know if Brexit is the cause but the EU market has been hit with a big uptick in the supply of British lamb since the summer - a lot coming south from NI too
Green farmer wrote: » Last spring the prices should have been really strong. They lost the world of lambs across the water with the beast from the east and lambs were scarce. Instead the factories decided to cut production days, instead of giving us any extra money. That for me, was the last straw of believing a normal functioning market was in place. Coupled to that, we saw what side of the fence creed and bord bia sat on during the beef strike. Agree that the market is flooded with lamb from outside the state, but it’s hard to know where it’s all going to end. Sheep could come good again. But with the factories determined to drive us all out of business, it’s anyones guess that will happen. I’m selling ewe lambs atm. This is the first year I’m not keeping any ewe lambs as replacements and sending them to factory instead. Reducing the flock size after years growing it. Not a nice feeling.
wrangler wrote: » In GB they reckon 500 ewes is a part time farmer and that's our competition. You'd be expected to have a job off farm, a neighbour here has 250 ewes and works on the buildings........... another few years and we'll need a job with 1000 ewes
Green farmer wrote: » And you’ll need the job just to subsidise the keeping of 1,000 ewes. Maybe your better off keeping 100 ewes instead of 250, low intensity. No fertiliser, no meal, no spending money. Whatever you make then you’ll stand a chance of keeping hold. Only thing is then all the contractors/ agri merchants/ mills etc, will suffer and rural Ireland get more of a battering then it’s already taking.
wrangler wrote: » He reckons it's a ''I'll show you'' attitude on the part of the processors
Green farmer wrote: » I see the ICSA highlighting in the paper the number of foreign lambs being imported and Bord bia turning a blind eye to how their labeled afterward. Makes it very easy for the factory to depress the market.
wrangler wrote: » That's only speculation, they shouldn't open their mouths until they can prove it.
Green farmer wrote: » They seem to have a very precise figure of 456,452 in 2018. All their asking for is open transparency, including how there labelled afterward. Not sure what’s wrong with that
Green farmer wrote: » https://icsaireland.ie/news/transparency-needed-imports-live-sheep/
RobinBanks wrote: » Noticed lambs scratching up against fence posts and gates an awful lot. Pulling at wool as well. Any ideas what might be going on? I’m new to sheep
wrangler wrote: » The last proper year we did was 2016 and we a had a net profit of €42/ewe, 10 ewes/ha lambing 1.5 lambs/ewe inc ewe lambs. Knocking €10 off the price of the lambs like this year would make a huge difference there if it wasn't to change, We were taking it easy for the last few years and wintering on straw/meal was they easier option but there is option there to reduce wintering costs by €5/ewe with baled silage or more with pit silage, growing forage crops for fattening lambs is way cheaper than meal too. There was loads of improvements could have been made in our system
farawaygrass wrote: » Definitely need to up my game. Looked at last years national farm survey and it was 33e per ewe. Nothing to write home about.
wrangler wrote: » It's a numbers game and keep costs down. If I put up my figures here, ie selling 1.5lambs/ewe at €100/lamb and costs of around €100/ewe, Posters here will argue that it doesn't cost €100/ewe so it's possible to do better. also we had poor prolificacy due to a bunch of rams we used for breeding ewe lambs.......ten years ago we were averaging 2.1 in the mature ewes, 2016 was 1.8 , all these things make a difference..especially with the numbers involved
Young95 wrote: » What breed rams were u using to drop the prolificacy?
Country lad wrote: » 2 cc of ivomec classic and then give another 2 cc a week later should clear it up for you
Dickie10 wrote: » does anyone know of a good mineral dose for ewe lambs that will go through a dosing gun without blocking it, so something without grit in it.
ganmo wrote: » What mineral drenches have you used that have grit in them?
