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Author Topic: Starting with wethers  (Read 3787 times)

BrimwoodFarm

  • Joined May 2016
    • Brimwood Farm
    • Facebook
Starting with wethers
« on: February 28, 2017, 03:14:41 pm »
Hi all  :wave:

So I want to kick my 'farming' up a notch this year, and I'm currently looking around for some land to graze wethers on. My plan is this; buy wethers for £50ish each in April/May, grow on through the summer and autumn and then sell for meat before Christmas.

Is this plan doable?

I'm currently researching costs because I also need this to balance the books at least, though some infrastructure costs I won't necessarily include as it's long term - electric fencing and a basic sheep maintenance/medical kit, for example.

Other than grass and hay (and water), will the wethers need anything other than a mineral lick, do you think? Is my time estimate for growing on reasonable?

In addition, I have NO idea about costs for meat. If I take wethers to the abbatoir and have them butchered, do you get all the meat back to sell privately (or stock in the freezer), or will they give you a basic price to keep the meat and sell on themselves? It's all well and good saying 'I'm just going to grow some wethers and sell the meat', but I might not have the market to sell it all privately. And, if you DO take it back to sell, do butches put on the sellby etc, or is that something I'd have to consider in addition to storing, taking a food hygiene course etc.

Oh, and how many wethers to an acre do you think?

I know - a lot of questions, but I'm trying to be prepared!

twizzel

  • Joined Apr 2012
Re: Starting with wethers
« Reply #1 on: February 28, 2017, 06:52:05 pm »
If you're buying this year's lambs then you're more likely to find some in June-August which is when most farmers wean their lambs. Price wise it fluctuates every year. I bought some texel x store lambs a few years ago now for £55/head in August and killed them in early November. Best quality store lambs at my local market last week were making up to £68.50. Obviously you can pick up cheaper poorer sorts too. Depending on what they have had before you buy them, they may need worming and will most definitely need fly strike prevention at least once over the summer. Whether they need any extra cake depends on your grass quantity, quality and the weather. We normally start giving a small amount of cake to lambs in October to have them gone about 6wks later. You can opt to send to the abattoir as private kill and have a butcher cut the meat for you either for your own consumption or to sell, or you can sell direct to abattoir (but then you are under strict criteria of what grade/weights they want).

bj_cardiff

  • Joined Feb 2017
  • Carmarthenshire
Re: Starting with wethers
« Reply #2 on: March 01, 2017, 08:57:32 am »
I'm not sure what sort of scale your thinking of, but my imidiate thoughts were that its probably not worth it. If you brought in april/may it would be at weaning and fine to keep through the summer/autumn but you'll be selling at a time when the price is rock bottom because everyone is doing the same. Its difficult to find a market for them too as I found that friends and family aren't willing to pay the extra, killing and cutting will add an extra £25 to the costs, so you'll be at £75 before you sell anything.

Why not buy some pedigree ewe lambs at weaning and keep them over the winter and sell the following summer/Autumn? Maybe a mix of the 2 which would keep your options open?


BrimwoodFarm

  • Joined May 2016
    • Brimwood Farm
    • Facebook
Re: Starting with wethers
« Reply #3 on: March 01, 2017, 02:03:30 pm »
If you're buying this year's lambs then you're more likely to find some in June-August which is when most farmers wean their lambs. Price wise it fluctuates every year. I bought some texel x store lambs a few years ago now for £55/head in August and killed them in early November. Best quality store lambs at my local market last week were making up to £68.50. Obviously you can pick up cheaper poorer sorts too. Depending on what they have had before you buy them, they may need worming and will most definitely need fly strike prevention at least once over the summer. Whether they need any extra cake depends on your grass quantity, quality and the weather. We normally start giving a small amount of cake to lambs in October to have them gone about 6wks later. You can opt to send to the abattoir as private kill and have a butcher cut the meat for you either for your own consumption or to sell, or you can sell direct to abattoir (but then you are under strict criteria of what grade/weights they want).

Thanks for that, Twizzel. I guess for a newbie, the strict abattoir criteria might be a little hard to meet. I may have to look into private sales and the process of fulfilling red tape in storing meat before it's sold.

BrimwoodFarm

  • Joined May 2016
    • Brimwood Farm
    • Facebook
Re: Starting with wethers
« Reply #4 on: March 01, 2017, 02:06:37 pm »
I'm not sure what sort of scale your thinking of, but my imidiate thoughts were that its probably not worth it. If you brought in april/may it would be at weaning and fine to keep through the summer/autumn but you'll be selling at a time when the price is rock bottom because everyone is doing the same. Its difficult to find a market for them too as I found that friends and family aren't willing to pay the extra, killing and cutting will add an extra £25 to the costs, so you'll be at £75 before you sell anything.

Why not buy some pedigree ewe lambs at weaning and keep them over the winter and sell the following summer/Autumn? Maybe a mix of the 2 which would keep your options open?

Oh, this is could be a good idea. Thanks [member=168790]bj_cardiff[/member]. I'd considered wethers only really as a way to avoid lambing - I want to get experience with sheep/paperwork etc first. But pedigree ewe lambs could work well too...so I would sell them the following year just before their first lambing? Could be a great way to start....and as you mentioned, I could do some wethers too just for my own meat requirements this year.

bj_cardiff

  • Joined Feb 2017
  • Carmarthenshire
Re: Starting with wethers
« Reply #5 on: March 01, 2017, 02:15:40 pm »
You'll probably find that in a years time you'll of gained experience and might want to breed them yourself. Sheep keeping is all about keeping your options open ;) good luck with them

BrimwoodFarm

  • Joined May 2016
    • Brimwood Farm
    • Facebook
Re: Starting with wethers
« Reply #6 on: March 01, 2017, 02:24:53 pm »
You'll probably find that in a years time you'll of gained experience and might want to breed them yourself. Sheep keeping is all about keeping your options open ;) good luck with them

You know, [member=168790]bj_cardiff[/member] , as I was writing that I was thinking 'there's not a cat in hell's chance that, after having pure breed ewes for 14/18 months, I'm not going to want to keep them and get a tup in.'  ;) Still, if I have this plan in place, I still have an 'out' if needed.

Marches Farmer

  • Joined Dec 2012
  • Herefordshire
Re: Starting with wethers
« Reply #7 on: March 01, 2017, 06:01:28 pm »
But pedigree ewe lambs could work well too...so I would sell them the following year just before their first lambing? Could be a great way to start....and as you mentioned, I could do some wethers too just for my own meat requirements this year.
Ewe lambs are generally put to the tup the Autumn after the year of their birth, so they lamb when two years old.  Some farmers put ewe lambs in lamb in their first Autumn but the breed, grazing, how early in the year the lambs were born and the feed through pregnancy are a combination that requires skill and experience for a reasonable chance of success.

BrimwoodFarm

  • Joined May 2016
    • Brimwood Farm
    • Facebook
Re: Starting with wethers
« Reply #8 on: March 01, 2017, 06:35:05 pm »
But pedigree ewe lambs could work well too...so I would sell them the following year just before their first lambing? Could be a great way to start....and as you mentioned, I could do some wethers too just for my own meat requirements this year.
Ewe lambs are generally put to the tup the Autumn after the year of their birth, so they lamb when two years old.  Some farmers put ewe lambs in lamb in their first Autumn but the breed, grazing, how early in the year the lambs were born and the feed through pregnancy are a combination that requires skill and experience for a reasonable chance of success.

Thanks for that. Sounds ideal....and I guess pedigree one year ewes might sell for a nice sum. Though I'd probably have fallen for them by then.  :eyelashes:

twizzel

  • Joined Apr 2012
Re: Starting with wethers
« Reply #9 on: March 01, 2017, 08:56:02 pm »
Pedigree ewe lambs would command a higher price though so it's all relative. You would want to sell in the summer as shearlings just before they are due to go to the ram but are competing with other pedigree breeders and I'm not sure you would make much profit to be honest... there's a lot of breeding ewes for sale over the summer as farmers replenish their flocks before tupping. Personally I would buy a few (3 or 4) weaned lambs and kill in the winter before venturing into pedigree stock- be aware there are good examples of every breed and bad- pick the bad due to lack of knowledge and they would not sell well the following year.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Starting with wethers
« Reply #10 on: March 01, 2017, 09:18:59 pm »
I think you'll struggle to make money with pedigrees.  People buy pedigree sheep from pedigree breeders with a track record.  As a new entrant selling on animals you bought in...  You may be lucky, but frankly I'd predict quite a large loss.

If you do the wether to meat thing, I'd suggest selling them as lamb boxes - one lamb in one box.  They seem to sell quite well through social media.  Folks on here will tell you the pricing they are using, and there's room for a bit of profit in that equation.

EX-BH used to reckon £10 costs for stores bought in and sold fat.  That's for wormer, flystrike prevention, minerals.  He didn't count the costs for grass.  As others have said, butchery will be around £25/head.

You could consider rare breed wethers.  People like the meat, like the idea they are supporting native breeds, and the wethers usually cost less to buy.  However make sure you pick a breed that will fatten in one year; the smaller primitives mostly need two springs.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

 

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