[SallyintNorth]

So, today the butcher called to say the 4 Castlemilk Moorit wethers had been butchered.

They were 3 summers old, we bought them as shearlings and they needed a good season under their belts to put on condition.

By the end of the summer, they looked very well, very agile, very very happy, never had any ailments or any foot treatments.  Three of them weighed around 35kgs, the one that had always been weaker a few kilos less.

Total weight of the 8 sides before butchering (they had their big teeth, so brain and spinal cord had been removed at the abattoir) was just short of 55kgs.  So a killout % of around 40% - not bad, I think, for primitives.

I posted the pic of all the meat on our kitchen table in 'What are you doing today' but here it is again.

For those who like facts and figures, there are:

• 31 packs of 3 loin chops - 2 is a nice portion
• 7 packs of leg chops, each will feed two comfortably
• 7 packs of end of neck (I love navarin!  ), ave. c. 1lb
• 8 x 1lb packs of diced lamb (afelia, shish kebabs...  )
• 8 whole legs, c 2kgs /ea
• 4 x rolled shoulder, ave. 1.8kgs
• 5 x half shoulder, ave. 1.4kgs
• 3 x rolled breast, ave. 1.1kgs
• 5 kidneys

I cooked 3 little chops for supper, just grilled them to see how they turned out.  They turned out just fine      Very tender, very succulent, very very tasty.  Not quite like any lamb or any mutton I've ever had.  A bit gamey, like people say it is.  We are both very pleased.

Because I had to buy in the wethers, my costs have been higher than they'll be going forward.  And I am happy to pay my local butcher to do a complete butchering, bagging and labelling service - for one thing, he buys a lot of lamb off us! 

That said, my total costs of producing that 55kgs meat has been around £300.  Still cheaper than buying lamb or hogget of good quality from a local butcher - and sooooo much nicer and waaaayyyy more fun!   

[bloomer]

that is a lovely pile of lamb!!!


its not bad at under £6 per kilo


enjoy...

[Mammyshaz]

Well done Sally.
That's a display to be proud of   

One day..... One day    hopefully I'll try to follow in your footsteps, expect many a call for advice 

[SallyintNorth]

Well done Sally.
That's a display to be proud of   

Why, thank you ma'am.     And thanks for your comments, too, bloomer.    

One day..... One day    hopefully I'll try to follow in your footsteps, expect many a call for advice 

I hope so, I hope so! 

[Dogwalker]

Very useful info, thank you.  I've got two going off next Monday.

Why is lamb more expensive than pork,  the two wethers have just eaten grass all summer, the pigs have needed bagged feed.  Both cost about the same to buy in,  pigs cost more to kill and cut.??

[lachlanandmarcus]

Lamb is expensive in the shops mostly because of global factors. Most cheap lamb was from Nz/Oz but demand from the Far East has rocketed so it makes more sense for it to head there (nearer too!). Added to that a lot of (in some cases all) of the subsidies were removed from sheep farming down under which means not only has the national flock size reduced by 0000000s, but also real costs are now being reflected in the price.
 

[tizaala]

Well done Sally, looks good. Our local abatoir charges £22 each for killing , I can butcher it myself so it saves a lot of cash.

[Bionic]

I don't have anything to compare it with but it certainly looks good to me 
Sally

[Rosemary]

Lovely  My seven go away on Monday - all sold except one. So if anyone wants half a Ryeland lamb, PM me.

[SallyintNorth]

Well done Sally, looks good. Our local abatoir charges £22 each for killing , I can butcher it myself so it saves a lot of cash.

Thanks for that, tiz; that makes my butcher look really good value - I paid £100 to have the 4 slaughtered, butchered, bagged and labelled.  I just had to take them to the abattoir and collect the meat from the butcher.

[SallyintNorth]

Very useful info, thank you.  I've got two going off next Monday.

I'm glad it's of use    What type are yours?

Why is lamb more expensive than pork,  the two wethers have just eaten grass all summer, the pigs have needed bagged feed.  Both cost about the same to buy in,  pigs cost more to kill and cut.??

Charges differ across the country, I think, but my butcher's charges work out roughly the same per kilo of meat for both sheep and pigs.

And that's the other difference - a store lamb will put on what, something like 15kgs of meat from purchase to slaughter?  And a pig probably somewhere around three times that, or more.

Other differences include that commercially, pigs are kept in buildings so use very little land and relatively little manpower, whereas sheep require a great deal of land and quite a bit of intervention.  And we import an enormous amount of pork and bacon, and now import less lamb and export quite a lot.

[twizzel]

Well done Sally, looks good. Our local abatoir charges £22 each for killing , I can butcher it myself so it saves a lot of cash.

Thanks for that, tiz; that makes my butcher look really good value - I paid £100 to have the 4 slaughtered, butchered, bagged and labelled.  I just had to take them to the abattoir and collect the meat from the butcher.

We had our 6 lambs killed a couple of weeks ago, and paid £25/head for kill and cut. That was home kill by a mobile slaughter man who also cut up but the price for abattoir and the mobile slaughter man to cut was the same (obviously with transport costs on top). Your lamb looks lovely, we were really chuffed with ours and also had some chops under the grill on the first night we got them back, tasted so so good.

[Dogwalker]

Castlemilk moorits but younger than yours.  17months-ish.
Got them from Brookfieldfarm on here, they've happily munched grass and caused no problems all summer, just need to get through the hurdle of loading them and getting them to Wrexham next week.

First experience of keeping sheep, these have been easy, sure the next ones won't.

[SallyintNorth]

Oh, well I'll be very interested in how yours compare, Dogwalker.  I think two summers is a better target for wethers, really.  But ours aren't at all tough or fatty; I'm very pleased with them.

And, for all we were very apprehensive about the breed being flighty etc, once they'd settled in, these have been delightful.  And the new ones are silly tame.

[SteveHants]

And that's the other difference - a store lamb will put on what, something like 15kgs of meat from purchase to slaughter?  And a pig probably somewhere around three times that, or more.

Other differences include that commercially, pigs are kept in buildings so use very little land and relatively little manpower, whereas sheep require a great deal of land and quite a bit of intervention.  And we import an enormous amount of pork and bacon, and now import less lamb and export quite a lot.

Its the export market that keeps the lamb prices buoyant - the domestic buyers know they will have to outbid the exporters. Thus, the price of lamb is intrinsically linked to the euro, so if the bailouts fail and the euro collapses, expect to see fat labs at 20 quid as the domestic market floods.