The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: crimson on January 03, 2015, 12:30:10 pm
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What months usually are the cheapest for
1)Broken Mouth Sheep- For spring lambing
2Hoggets
3)Store lambs
4)Good breeding ram
Im a novice with sheep
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there might be a bit of regional variation but the answer to your question is no's 1-3 is august when sheep and lambs flood the marts, and no4 is now as tupping finnishes and folk look to get shot of tupps they are not going to use again.
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there might be a bit of regional variation but the answer to your question is no's 1-3 is august when sheep and lambs flood the marts, and no4 is now as tupping finnishes and folk look to get shot of tupps they are not going to use again.
Yes farmers usually go through their sheep after weaning the lambs and sell those broken mouthed. The same for the tups..after tupping time, although tups are often sold because of fertility or age or some other issue, for a good breeding ram it would be more reliable to go to a proper sale, which are around August - October
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Prices are generally cheaper at the early and smaller ram sales.
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same for the tups..after tupping time, although tups are often sold because of fertility or age or some other issue, for a good breeding ram it would be more reliable to go to a proper sale, which are around August - October
Like a lot of small breeders, we move our tup on after two years becasue his daughters are coming into the flock and we only keep one tup. So if our boy wasn't in his first year here, I'd be happy to sell him now.
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Best time for hoggets for replacements?
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Best time for hoggets for replacements?
The sales are often around September onwards, it depends what breed you are after but the sales later on are usually making less money than the first sales
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I would agree with all said above.
However, as a novice, presumably you are only going to get a few sheep, so buying in price of sheep won't be your only consideration.
It's a good idea to go to your local store sales as often as you can to get an idea of prices and also to see what breed of sheep you like and what breeds sell best. If you only have a few sheep you want some that you enjoy keeping not something that was just cheap. A lot of people start with Ryelands because they are relatively inexpensive , nice to look at and easy to handle. You'd maybe get a small hill ewe for a fair bit less but then find you couldn't catch them, or even keep them in.
It's horses for courses, and time spent in reconnaissance is never wasted.
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Is now too soon to buy sheep with lambs at foot?
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Not if you can find some, wont be many about though and likely very expensive
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I try to have two rams for a few years then I sell one of them and buy in another, well that's what I did do till a couple of years back. I just buy in one very good ram now, keep him for two years, sell him and buy in another one. Or alternatively buy in another breed of ram for the rams daughters and sell the offspring. i sold my ram in autumn last year, tell ya what I was surprised how much he fetched, someone must have wanted to buy him badly. :roflanim: