The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Hillview Farm on September 04, 2016, 02:41:06 pm
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Can anyone give me an idea of how Wiltshire horn shearling wethers would kill out? Are they fatty? Not sure how they would compare to a commercial lamb?
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We took 10 to the abattoir in June. They were last years' lambs so just over a year and all were either wethers and ewe lambs although we had one entire ram who was surplus to requirements. We got approx 21/22kg deadweight but about 30kg for the ram. Carcasses were good (on the lean side) and smaller than the previous year owing to poorer Spring grass. I sold most and kept the ram for us and have had nothing but positive feedback. We are going to experiement not castrating next year and sending off earlier in the Autumn as we suspect that because of the Spring grass situation we would have been better off to send as lambs as opposed to hoggets.
Helen
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i ve got a 14 month charallais whether to go to slaughter in the next 3 weeks .
In terms of cooking can it be treat just as my 6 month old lambs would be?
Any thoughts welcome
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I prefer the taste of hogget and don't find any difference in terms of cooking it. I have even cooked various mutton joints quickly and had some very tasty mutton chops recently out of a 4 year old ewe. I think that you just need to treat it with a bit more respect in the cooking process (as we did with a 10 year old cow).
Helen
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thanks Helen
I was hoping for that kind of encouragement.
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I would say go for it, always worth a try and if you don't find it satisfactory then you could always do something else next year. :)