Author Topic: Abattoir report (Read 3154 times)

DartmoorLiz · « **on:** December 04, 2016, 11:44:33 am »

How do they work it out?

I sent 17 lambs to the abattoir. One (P3L) was paid at £2.80 per kg, another (P3L) £2.85. In the same batch they paid £3.55 for O and R3L, they have also paid £3.50 for O3L and R3H, £3.45 for R3L, £3.40 for R3H and £3.20 for R4L.

At the extremes I kind of get it: they don't like Ps and they'd rather not have 4s. Its the in betweens that baffle me - do they use a random number generator to work out the rate they pay?

shep53 · « **Reply #1 on:** December 04, 2016, 01:17:19 pm »

Normally different prices for weight , your abattoir should have a complete price specification

DartmoorLiz · « **Reply #2 on:** December 05, 2016, 10:22:37 am »

Thank you Shep, sometimes I don't see the obvious. I've done a graph of payment against weight and it proves that in spite of EBLEX's propaganda, weight pays.

Talana · « **Reply #3 on:** December 05, 2016, 10:37:51 am »

They want E /U / R . 123 L for supermarket specification O and P bad so pay worse price also H is bad as well ,4 H worse, means too fat.They want as close to 21 kg deadweight as possible over 23kg deadweight you get penalised. So it's roughly 40-45kg liveweight. The Europ grading system is usually standard across slaughterhouses( and meant to be across europe).
If you have local butcher buying them they have there own preference such as they often prefer fatter carcases so may like a 4H. The price can go up and down from week to week.

farmershort · « **Reply #4 on:** December 05, 2016, 02:53:50 pm »

It's been a while since I paid attention to this stuff, but I remember brecknock hill cheviot farmers being obsessed with getting E3L carcasses... the 21KG dw thing rings a bell too. Having said that, I remember at some point, perhaps during the crash, that a roaring trade with italk picked up, and all the small scotty lambs were being sent to italy... apparently they like a small lamb. Things like that probably through the E3L thing out of whack a little. The post-brexit exchange rate may be doing the same thing now.

Marches Farmer · « **Reply #5 on:** December 05, 2016, 06:03:58 pm »

I was speaking to a large scale commercial sheep farmer who takes his lambs to Harrison & Hetheringtons and said he had to feed them as the buyer's spec. was so tight. I had to wonder how the maths stacked up - I may lose a little on the price by taking lambs in November but I don't have the expense or bother of feeding them.

DartmoorLiz · « **Reply #6 on:** December 06, 2016, 02:22:36 pm »

I'm just thinking "aloud" here, sorry for blathering on:

I have 20 more lambs to send at some point. I want to be paid at least £45 each so the smallest lamb needs to weigh 30kg. This means the smallest need to gain 10kg before they go. I will not have good grass until after March when they are no longer lambs when the abattoir pays half the rate. Wiki says sheep convert good forage at a rate of 5 or 6. I suppose that means 6kg good hay = 1kg weight gain. I therefore need to feed 60kg good hay to make the weight. That's about 3 bales @ £5 each so even assuming I could give exactly the right ration to the right sheep the best I can hope for is to break even.

The only other factor is that in March I can expect the abattoir to pay approximately 40% more than in November. If I do nothing, there is probably enough grass around to keep them alive but that's it. This means a lamb that in November was worth £30 will be worth £42 in March.

Its very finely balanced. There's also the capacity of the stock trailer to consider. If I have any barren ewes to go then I'll need to do an extra trip as I can't take more than 20 at a time. Therefore, right now I should take any that are over 30kg and in March I'll take any barren ewes together with the rest of the lambs.

harmony · « **Reply #7 on:** December 06, 2016, 05:15:50 pm »

Anyone I know who is paid on live or dead weight weighs their lambs before they take them. They also check which is paying better before they commit. They also allow for some weight loss during transport or whether they will be standing around at auction for a long time. One of my neighbours knows what weight his lambs will lose from home to every different market he goes to.

How can you know they are worth 40% more in March next year?

Talana · « **Reply #8 on:** December 06, 2016, 05:50:49 pm »

What breed of lambs are they? Smaller breeds may not meet the spec. anyway. One option could be to sell through market as stores so can go to someone who has winter forage, grass/ swedes kale forage rape etc. may work out cheaper than buying in feed. To help them finish quicker you can give them lamb finisher pellets but expensive, or buy in swedes/ carrots /hay if not much grass left.

Tim W · « **Reply #9 on:** December 06, 2016, 06:22:49 pm »

every abattoir will have slightly different specs for lamb payment
Looking at your graph I would say that most of them are too light to get the full £/kg rate (16kg is usually the bottom cut off)
AHDB will advise you that too many lambs are grown on too far and then penalised at the abattoir for being over weight/over fat ...... many lambs sold in market end up in the abattoir for supermarket shelves and are too fat /large, this costs the buyer 15p/kg which is why they prefer to buy direct

My lambs are killing out at about 48% at the moment but many would be much lower than that (due to wool etc)
If I send a 36kg live wt lamb I would expect a 17kg carcase return (loose some wt in transit etc)

If you want to make money and you properly account for everything in your calculations the most important factor is days to slaughter...the quickest finishing lamb makes the most money

DartmoorLiz · « **Reply #10 on:** December 07, 2016, 09:51:49 am »

Harmony, you are right, I don't know what they'll be worth but in 2013 I found 10 years of lamb prices and did a graph of the average price change. Having looked at it closely the 40% increase is in May which presumably corresponds to new season lambs. In March they are much more likely to be only 20% more.

DartmoorLiz · « **Reply #11 on:** December 07, 2016, 10:17:32 am »

Thank you Talana, I have resisted selling live because you cannot guarantee how the buyer will treat them, however thinking of lambs feasting on sweed, kale and carrots makes live selling more attractive. They're mainly Scottish Blackface so they'll never grow super fast or butch.

Tim, thank you for that nugget, finishing the twins quickly is going to be my main focus for next year.

Talana · « **Reply #12 on:** December 07, 2016, 02:27:28 pm »

You are not going to get top grades anyway with blackies. Traditionally blackie lambs from the uplands are being sold stores to lowland farms now to feed on their grass /swedes /kale/ forage rape over the winter. Fattening new year/spring or going on as hogget. If not selling as stores and you are in a position to feed them over the winter give them time to grow on forage and can give lamb finisher later if required. Future years to get them away quicker you can offer lamb creep early on also using a terminal sire on blackie ewes would help lambs finish quicker.
Early lambing is not so good anymore as a lot of later born april /may lambs and hill lambs /hoggs on market when early jan born coming on market in spring on expensive feed.