The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Loopylamb on April 25, 2013, 08:03:47 pm
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Hi
This is my first post but I have been browsing for a while! :wave:
I have a small flock of Shetlands and I've just about finished my third lambing.
I have kept 11 of last years lambs over winter for the first time (am I right in calling them hoggets?)
I just wondered when I could 'book them in' for their final journey? Some are still quite small and I'll probably keep them for mutton but how do I tell if the others are big enough?
we are in the South East so the grass has been growing for a few weeks now - thank goodness.
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where in the south east are you? we are in kent and also have shetlands and shetland crosses.
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Not sure about Shetlands but we have hebrideans ( also small breed) and have been told slaughter weight at 16 months old. 35kg???
J xxxx
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We are West Sussex - not too far, I haven't tried crossing them yet but may be one day when I feel like I know what I'm doing! We have a lovely friendly ram called Rodney who runs with them all year!
Thanks JMB, how do you know what their slaughter weight is without weighting them, can you use a weight tape like with pigs?
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Well, we have been known to stand on scales before with a lamb, but generally it's a guess. I just looked online at our breed and it tells you roughly the age for going to slaughter and what the average weight will be.
Nothing scientific, sorry
J xxxxx
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Thanks, not sure I could lift mine now!
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I send my Shetlands at about 15 months so that sounds about right. Mmm tasty...
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So about July then?
They'll be shawn by then so I'll have more idea how big they are!
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So about July then?
They'll be shawn by then so I'll have more idea how big they are!
In which case they will all put on Spanx to try and make themselves look skinny :excited:
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We send our Hebs and Shetlands off at 16 months - we are in southern Scotland. That takes us into early August and gives a couple of weeks before the next lot of males are weaned. It means that the hoggets have had the maximum amount of spring and summer grass to put on condition and to get that grassfed taste.
We have tried all sorts of different slaughter times over many years, and 16 months has emerged as the best time - max weight before there's any chance of tupping time taint (although I've only noticed taint in older tups, and many people don't taste it at all).
We don't weigh the hoggets although we do check their condition score - which actually isn't all that helpful in primitives as they tend to store their fat internally. We send them off in August anyway, then get the dead weight tickets from the slaughterhouse via butcher. From the dead weight you get a rough idea of liveweight - our Hebs are usually somewhere between 17 and 23 kgs dead weight at 16 months. The weight you get back from the butcher is less than that as bones and scraps have been trimmed off.
As slaughter charges are the same no matter what the weight of the animal, you might as well keep them until they are the max weight they will reach that year, and let them grow on the abundant grass of summer which you might not be using for anything else. You will already have noticed that primitives don't put on any weight or condition over the winter, so they will be playing catch-up just now. Were you to slaughter them now you almost might as well have sent them off in December and saved overwintering costs - but they would be about 9 - 12 kgs deadweight.
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You would be better off selling them sooner that later as at the moment they may still be able to be sold as hoggets 'old lambs' - once they get their new teeth they will be classed as mutton which costs alot more to process as the spinal cord and brains have to be removed - which is not the case for lamb (or hoggets)
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Thank you for all the advice, very helpful!
Roughly when do their teeth come through?
I guess I need to check how much ore it costs to process against how much more weight they'll put on.
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Our slaughterhouse charges the same whether they have to be split or not :thumbsup: . At 16 months, some have started getting their first big teeth, but some haven't.
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Ok, I think it's going to be August!
I just phoned the Abbatoir and it's 50p more if their teeth are through so worth waiting for a few extra kg I think!
Can Shetlands get too fat in the summer though?
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We sent our Shetlands off to the seaside last year at sixteen months. Terrific tasting, obviously small carcases but nice and meaty. I have hebs this year, only slightly bigger but not so prone to escaping (although a bit less friendly than the shetlands).