[oor wullie]

Yes it is Hogget I am doing.  Winter comes early here so I would struggle to finish lambs as lambs without buying in quite a lot of hard feed.  Keeping them through the winter doesn't cost much,  6 or 8 get put in 5 acres of woods and they more or less get left to their own devices.

I would think my 8 would require less hours of my labour over 18 months than a bottle fed lamb would get over 18 days!

[TheSmilingSheep]

We keep all our lambs until 18 months - it is hogget, but as Sally says it has an amazing flavour, and you can cook it like lamb (ie pink if you want).  Obviously it ties up the pasture but it's also rather lovely that the sheep get more of a sheepy life.... we sell at £12-£15 a kilo.  Unashamedly.  Comparable to Waitrose lamb, but hogget should be pricier since it is rarer and tastier (I think...).  Also we don't sell much, since we've a modest smallholding, and I can't imagine the sheep every covering their costs!

[EP90]

I see that no one has any grazing costs at all  no rent /mortgage/ sprays/ fertilizer / topping etc.

Nor any labour costs  .


"What did you do at the weekend?" people ask. "Oh, mainly scrubbing sh*t off lamb b0ll0cks" I reply. "It's a nasty job, but at least I make a ton of money from it!"  .

Womble you really should be on the telly, you’re talents  wasted on scrubbing.  Loads of money there....

[Buttermilk]

Do you not mean Womble scrubbing the lambs on telly?

[pharnorth]

IT would make for a more realistic Countryfile. ' and later Womble will be washing bums....'

[farmers wife]

Over 7 years ago We always sold hogget - better sized joints.  A mix of lleyn/wiltshires.  Half a lamb was £65 and whole £120. I struggled to sell it then so I would be hard pressed to sell it now for a considerable amount more.

[farmers wife]

Good to see pricing too.  Far too many smallholders and farmers havent a clue on overheads.


One of the issues of orphan lambs is the milk costs and time.  It was only this year I really noted the price and it makes is non viable to take on orphans even though I did put them on Jersey milk for a while.  I also had some rubbish lambs that required extra TLC vits and mineral drenchs. Saying that I think there was a serious mineral/cobalt problems in our flock.


It makes taking on orphans financially unviable and know plenty of farmers who wont bother with orphans for this reason.


For this reason you cant price them up based on the milk.  Sadly this is what you have to take the hit on.

[zwartbles]

We sell our zwartbles as 1/2 lamb @ £9 kilo. Jointed and vacuum packed. The butcher even puts labels on with what would be their shop price. It shows customers what a good saving they make by buying half a lamb in one go.

[BenBhoy]

I sell half lamb boxed & cut £75

[JedM]

I sell half lamb boxed & cut £75

Same here 

[pharnorth]

Year one we did two orphan lambs, a Suffolk and a Charollais.  Last year we finished two Ryelands lambs having bought three in lamb ewes the year before, the other lambs kept for the flock.  This year we again have finished two Ryeland lambs and have kept or sold the other lambs as breeding stock.

This year's lambs yield 16Kg and 14Kg I kept one half and the rest sold at £10 a kilo. It was presented as joints, chops and 500g of mince each per half lamb. They haven't had much feed along the way so the half lamb I have kept represents the profit.

Next year I will be doing more exact costs as by then we should be on a regular routine and have covered our start up costs in years one and two (hay racks, water troughs, some fencing etc) and should have a clarity over routine costs (feed, medical, pasture care, butchery). Everyone seems to be working costs on a per lamb basis but shouldn't part of the overhead of keeping the sheep be taken on e.g where do you account for keeping the ram and ewe involved?

We did the orphan lambs in year one for experience and I think a good way to start as we had all the lamb to abbatior experience first, then got the in lamb ewes so got that range of experience, then finally got a ram and did the tupping last year. But I think it was fortunate we chose bigger breeds for the orphan lambs as it would cost pretty much the same to rear a smaller one on milk.

[Marches Farmer]

Suffolks, being a half-Down breed, should finish well on grass alone.  Depending on the quality of grazing their growth sometimes seems to stall at some point during the Sumer but they pick up after that.  Getting good quality  orphans that have had colostrum in the first 6 hours, from ewes that had a booster jab four weeks before lambing, is key to avoiding vet bills. 

[Paul and Caroline]

Hi

Just thought. We would add an update to this thread. We sent our 5 lambs away last week and the carcass weights ranged between 24.3 kg for the lightest Ewe and 32.7 kg for the entire ram. We have absolutely no idea how fat they are yet. They are hanging at the abattoir until Tuesday when they get delivered back to our butcher. We have an awful feeling that those weights are indicative of  VERY fat lambs! Our strategy was based on time rather than weight and it was a conscious decision to send away at around 7 months. We had arrangements with a local farmer who was going to take our lambs with his at the end of October but he let us down at the last minute and we couldn't get across to Lockerbie ourselves until last week, so we had them for about 4 weeks longer than we had intended. The condition of the carcasses will inform us of what changes we will need to make with our next batch of orphan lambs in the Spring.

What us it they say? You live and learn!!

[SallyintNorth]

If they're 8 month old Texel and Suffolk types and have been on good grass and not much or any cake, they shouldn't be too fat, and those weights are not necessarily out of order.  The ram maybe a little, but ex-BH's Texel type commercials would be killing out at 28-29kgs by now, and not excessively fat.  Suffolks tend to be a bit heavier than Texels anyway, I think - some of which is bone, I assume.

[Paul and Caroline]

That's the trouble Sally on the advice of my sheep farmer neighbour they were on more or less adlib cake, probably eating 750g per day and the grass was very lush......