The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Daisys Mum on October 12, 2016, 08:46:10 am
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Due to 2 unfortunate incidents I have a) 2 lambs who were born in June. b)1 who wasn't properly ringed, I think the sensible thing would be to put them in my freezer but not sure when to do it. I have had lots of grass this year so to my eye they look well grown and reasonably fat.
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I'm no expert in this, but what a knowledgeable friend told me that it's best to try to sell them straight off the ewe "before they shoot up in the air too much". That definitely happened to ours last year - we left them too long, and they started gaining height and not weight.
If they're going in *your* freezer though, you don't need to worry about what the market wants, so personally I'd keep them on good grass until I felt they were in danger of that, and would then send them.
I'd be interested to know what others do though, particularly if they castrate, and what their feeding regime is......
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What a lamb looks like and what it feels like are 2 very different things. Have a feel of his back, loin and top of his tail, Eblex have very useful guides on how to judge if lambs are fit to kill. You can't really judge it on what they look like. If they are both male and can be kept separate from ewes then have a feel and if they need a bit more time you could keep them till after Christmas, or start creep feeding now and kill in a month or so. If they are running with their mothers and can't be separated I'd be tempted to kill them now.
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:wave: Hi. My Zwartbles tup lambs go straight off their mothers at about 14 to 16 weeks and can easily be around 50kg then (entires). They get a little creep feed (Feb born this year). They do tend to stretch and grow frame after that and to be honest could probably go earlier but I worry about mastitis if weaning earlier.
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Just sent off 7 ram lambs (entire) at 7months old. Will let you know how the meat looks next week. We tend to keep ewe lambs over the winter and kill in March/April for big really meaty carcasses.
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I had a pure Zwartbles ram lamb (entire) done for the freezer earlier this year - he was 6 months old and the meat is wonderful :) Last year we ran a part bred castrated ram lamb on for longer (until 8-9 months) and that meat was also very good. Trick I've found with mine is to feel over the ribs, shoulders and haunches to judge fat rather than spine and tail as those tend to always feel bonier than the meatier breeds out there.