The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Blinkers on April 26, 2011, 02:12:55 pm
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I just answered an advert from somone wanting a home for an orphan lamb - born 2 days ago. It said "Offer". I emailed and said I'd got two mollies this year and so one more wouldn't make much difference. She came back and said it £50 no offers!!!!!!! I declined her kind offer. IS IT ME ?????? ::) ::) ::)
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???
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I was offered £50 each for my little orphan lambs would have snapped there hands off but the new eartags still haven't arrived
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Blimey :o
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£50 ?? ??? I sell my adults for that - clearly I'm in the wrong business - need to cultivate more humbug :o
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Last year the ones we had were £20 each,this year they had gone up to £30.
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They obviously have gold and diamond ear tags! ;D
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Are you talking orphan lambs pre or post all that bottle feeding?
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What is a Molly. Is it a bottle fed lamb?
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Suddenly I feel I have to make some serious comments here. I have heard all your stories about buying orphan lambs and rearing them and now I discover you are paying such ridiculous amounts for them. Someone is laughing all the way to the bank and it isn't you ??? This is clearly something to do with an increase in the number of new smallholders who maybe just don't know that there is a better way to buy in stock. If orphan lambs are genuinely orphaned in that their dam has died, or even if they are a third triplet, they have not had a good or natural start in life - after such a start then at best they need an experienced stockman to care for them. Maybe you are just raising them for meat - but surely you want the healthiest meat to eat, not from an animal which has had antibiotics and been reared on artificial milk replacer and grain? And if you are going to be using these animals in the future as your breeding stock - well, all I can say is that I wouldn't recommend it. When you choose breeding stock you want the best you can buy - from healthy stock, ewes which will lamb without trouble and raise their own lambs, not from a dam which herself could not rear her lamb for whatever (hereditary) reason.
I suspect though that most of you who are buying in orphan lambs are doing so because of the cuddle factor - please just buy a rabbit :bunny:.
And finally - with prices for orphans so high I can see a new trade where the breeder just takes the lambs straight off their dams and sells them on to the gullible.
I know what I have written will not go down well, but I have been very saddened this spring by what I have read on TAS about people's struggles with rearing orphan lambs :( :( :(
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FW.....Sadly I agree, and think you are right......and the welfare issues etc don't bear thinking about. I used to get them free or for a strong bottle lamb £5.....would never pay £20 plus..... :-\
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Have to back up fleecewife on another forum lamb in a dustbin in manchester . last year woman with 3lambs in her bathroom. recently pet shop caught trying to sell lamb
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i am behind fleecewife on this :sheep::does not make sence £50 for a lamb and £5 for a piglet :pig: :sheep::now this is the first mention of the lamb in the dustbin (on here) IT WAS NOT TAGGED so presume borrowed :wave:
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I was horrified at the price but hadn't really thought through the welfare implications. You could just see the unscrupulous seeing a way to make an easy buck.
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Agree, but I'm not sure she's gonna find someone around these parts who is gullible enough to part with 50 quid for a Mollie (Yep Mollie is a bottle fed lamb). This area is all farms and farming. The seller did at least have the good sense to ask for a CPH number.....so hopefully it wont end up in a town flat somewhere :-\ . I had one little ewe rejected by her Shearling Mum who decided one was quite enough to be dealing with......and I was given the other which was a tiddly 3 week old triplet who happened to be the same size - and they are growing at the same rate which is good. The Mollie will however, go in the freezer at the end of the year, but the home bred one is destined to be a cracking flock member. (Superb example of a White Ryeland ;D )
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Yeah my 2 little hand reared lambs are ryeland and cracking little specimens I think that is why I was offered a good sum as the other person was a ryeland breeder. Shame that when they get bigger they aren't worth much more but have cost a lot feeding them 1 will join the flock and the other little ram lamb will probably end up in the freezer as I don't have a need for any more ram lambs
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Yeah my 2 little hand reared lambs are ryeland and cracking little specimens I think that is why I was offered a good sum as the other person was a ryeland breeder. Shame that when they get bigger they aren't worth much more but have cost a lot feeding them 1 will join the flock and the other little ram lamb will probably end up in the freezer as I don't have a need for any more ram lambs
:wave: Love Ryelands. :sheep: :sheep:
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I wholeheartedly agree with Flecewife. If someone is seriously interested in having sheep, buying in orphan lambs is surely the worst way to start! I am always upset if I read the comments/advice people ask for bought-in orphan lambs, even worse if they were bought at a market!
As for charging 50 quid for one, and people actually paying this amount, before any thought has been given to the cost of rearing these lambs, it's maybe just as bad as a puppy for Xmas....
Sorry, had to get that off my chest!
I am not against people selling their spare lambs (if these had a good dose of colostrum etc) at a price that reflects their possible profit after lamlac-ing them, and I have sold mine last year to someone with more goatsmilk to spare than I had at the time. (Sod's law: This year I have gallons of gotasmilk in the freezer, but so far no triplets at all... but a few more ewes to go)
Maybe one of the writers for the likes of Country Smallholding or Smallholder should pick up on this (in time for next lambing season I guess) and discuss this issue!
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Now I've picked my jaw up off the ground...
I am horrified. This year I charged a tenner for orphan lambs because I wanted to be sure that no-one was buying them in order to make a quick buck by selling them on to or through dealers - and now I am again wondering whether any of the orphans I sold will be changing hands again ...
I don't sell lambs at all to people I don't know or who don't come recommended, and only sell them for bottle-rearing once I have got them established on the bottle. If I think they have dubious colostrum status I either don't sell them at all or only sell them to another farmer (or someone who will know what to look for, how to treat it, and who will give the necessary vaccinations when appropriate.)
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I have to say I find it hard to believe that people are paying that amount for them. But maybe this explains why I got my orphan lambs last year from someone on here who lived a distance away rather than from anywhere local!
Surely the cost of the lamb, then the cost of rearing it on lamblac must make those animals prohibitively expensive.
Bteh
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I may get shot down in flames here but.....
I bought my first lambs this Spring, 2 orphans at £25 each. I want to start a small flock and thought that starting with orphans which need bottle feeding would be a good way to getting used to handling them.
I am not new to livestock as I keep pigs, chickens, duck, horses etc - but I have found this whole experience very fulfilling and the lambs are healthy and happy.
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I think to a complete livestock novice bottle lambs would be terrifying should things start to go wrong! I know that from keeping goats I have felt more comfortable with the lambs being here but the lambs we have a co-owned in a sheep club and the co owners have kept sheep for a while so I am totally supported and learning a great deal.
we've had a wobbly lamb but thanks to TAS and some antibiotics he is on the mend.
the lambs are going to be munching their way to our orchard so are here to help us reach our plums come July!
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worzel gummidge - not shooting you down ;) but not all orphan lambs have had no colostrum. If you aren't told then of course assume that they could have had none and treat accordingly, but this farmer for one makes as sure as possible that all lambs get an adequate start whether orphaned, triplet or whatever.
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Yeay......just looked at the website again and low and behold......another advert has appeared.....this time for the Ewe and her TWIN LAMBS!!!! I still don't understand what's going on as she's even offered to shear the ewe (herself) before it goes to a new home....so this is obviously an experienced sheepkeeper ??? ??? The ewe looks like a Suffolk cross and the lambs are black.....so not sure what the sire was but the asking price..............wait for it.................is £200. I wonder what tomorrow's advert will bring ;D ;D
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I think I've lost track of what website and the story, but actually £200 is not out of order (this year) for a young ewe with two lambs. Up here couples and double couples are sold at a 'per life' price - £70 would be cheap for a decent suffolk type with two good lambs.
However, £50 for orphan lambs is totally out of order.
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What's a "double couple"? Sounds a bit kinky :o
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Double couple is a ewe and twins......I know it sounds weird if you think about it! :o
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Yes - double couple - sounds like a foursome
;) :D
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I find that ewes and wethers that have been bottle reared, or had an episode that required close contcat with me for a while, are much more forward in coming for food, but are also much more stroppety when it comes to doing their feet/bum or even shearing!
Best way to start with sheep - get some store lambs in either late winter or even autumn, then learn the routine jobs like foot trimming etc , and if you don't like the sheep after all, they can be sold as breeding ewes/freezer for the wethers the following autumn. Or you breed them yourself.
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"Stropetty" - what a brilliant word!! thank you Anke, that has just become part of the plums vocab, love it!!
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Just catching-up on the posts - not been on the forum for a couple of days ...
Totally agree with Fleecewife et al here - orphan lambs are hard b***dy work (been there & got the T-shirt), which is why most farmers don't want them & to charge £50 :o - someone's really taking advantage >:(
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Okay i will get serious too, i charge £50.00 for my orphans but they are strong, weaned off the bottle, maybe from dams who had no milk or couldn't go on with the lamb and pedigree but... a word of warning, this type of lamb if kept to go on to breed very often don't make good mothers and the rams can be downright dangerous as they are too quiet and have no respect for humankind.I learnt the hard way, an orphan ram headbutted me over a set of hurdles once so please be careful.
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the rams can be downright dangerous as they are too quiet and have no respect for humankind.
very true.
when we had 2 mollie lambs for sale a few years back, we cud have sold 20, yet when i offered the ewe and lamb combo, these people werent interested. the price of milk powder cud easily mean u cud sell a weaned bottle-fed lamb for £50 and not make much profit.
we got molly lambs initially as it seemed the easy way to start with a few for the freezer.
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cheviots sold at the northern marts from 70-110 so that price is not over the top.
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Yep, agree there needs to be a fair price for weaned stock - but looking back at the beginning of this post the lamb was only 2 days old :o
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I'm with Beewyched on this one.
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IF I average £50-£60 for my store lambs in sept /oct i will be pleased, if people are willing to pay £50 or even £30 with all the feed and vet costsplus the odd death good luck to them. Yes hoggs are makeing £70 -£120 but they are a year old and have cost a lot to get there
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Be buggered, interesting lot of posts on here, didnt realise sheep were such hard work :D certainly scrached my idea of keeping some.
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even more so if you have one that thinks its a dog.
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even more so if you have one that thinks its a dog.
Now that one's gotta be worth the fifty quid ;) ;D