[Shire1980]

I've got some lambs due to go to market, the market are after 42/47kg but a couple of mine will be 50kg.

The average price last week was 215.9p a kg.
What kind of price do you get if the lambs are over?

Some people say you get penalised and others just say the kg's over 47 you don't get as much for so basically just get paid for the 47kg is this correct? I can't work it out at all

[Sbom]

If they are over the ideal weight you’ll generally get less per kg so effectively may make the same as a lighter lamb which would be more per kg.
You won’t know until the day unfortunately.

It’s better so send around the 40kg ish  mark because you can keep longer but once to heavy you’ll get the same or less for them which is abit of a waste of time.

Obviously a good condition 40 ish! No point taking anything if it’s not fit enough

[bj_cardiff]

It not so much about the weight as their condition.. A pen full of lean 40kg lambs won't get the same price as a pen full of 40kg lambs with a good cover of fat.

My ideal time to send lambs off is when they have a decent cover of fat and are around 40-42kg. I do struggle to get fat on the ram lambs over the winter months though, even when feeding them, so sometimes they can be 42kg, but a bit lean, feed them up and they get to 45kg but still lean, so they end up as being 50kg with a decent layer of fat.

[Buttermilk]

I took some to mart this year and got told that one could have done with being 10kg heavier as it did not have enough fat.  The pen averaged 43.5kg and that lamb was 42kg on the scales at home.

I think breed may play a lot in weight/condition though.

[twizzel]

Your market report should outline the top and average price per kilo for lambs in certain weight ranges. If not, AHDB have market prices on their website if you find the market you want to sell at it should show you what they made last week. It also gives you averages for farm assured and non assured stock. Be warned though lamb prices have slumped in the last 10 days 

[harmony]

The price on the day is the price on the day. As said prices have just gone down generally. And as said carcass shape is also a consideration in relation to weight. The current view is prices will remain down and may slip again so I wouldn't worry and get them in asap.


I have seen 50kg sheep make the same as 45kg sheep per kg. And good butchers lambs at 40kg make more per kilo than a 45kg lamb.


I'm not farm assured and haven't found it make a difference.


Hope you have a good sale.

[SallyintNorth]

I'm not farm assured and haven't found it make a difference.

You may not have seen a difference, but several schemes pay 15ppk extra (deadweight) for FA, some won’t buy non-FA.  Buyers know all this, and some will be fulfilling quotas for those schemes, so it will affect the price.

It’s absolutely not worth it for small producers, though.  It’s well over £100 pa - probably £150pa by now - to be in the scheme, to pay for the admin and inspections.  So you need to be selling over two tonnes (liveweight) of lambs (50+ lambs) to get the money back, and that’s without any compensation for the aggro.  And of course you don’t get the whole 15ppk unless you sell direct - and you probably need to be able to supply several loads of 20 lambs a time, each year, to get into that.

[Shire1980]

Thanks for all your replies.
i think by the time they've emptied out they should probably just be high 40's but have a good layer of fat on them and are well filled out. I tried a texel tup over my suffolk ewes this year and think the lambs have finished better than the pure suffolks i did a couple of years ago.

[harmony]

I'm not farm assured and haven't found it make a difference.

You may not have seen a difference, but several schemes pay 15ppk extra (deadweight) for FA, some won’t buy non-FA.  Buyers know all this, and some will be fulfilling quotas for those schemes, so it will affect the price.

It’s absolutely not worth it for small producers, though.  It’s well over £100 pa - probably £150pa by now - to be in the scheme, to pay for the admin and inspections.  So you need to be selling over two tonnes (liveweight) of lambs (50+ lambs) to get the money back, and that’s without any compensation for the aggro.  And of course you don’t get the whole 15ppk unless you sell direct - and you probably need to be able to supply several loads of 20 lambs a time, each year, to get into that.

I don't sell deadweight and through the ring I have sometimes had better prices than FA'd.


The FA scheme is more than £150 now. I can't remember just what my friend paid recently and now you need a vets visit (possibly if you haven't had one in a certain time period) and so that is something else she has to pay for on top of the price of the scheme.

[twizzel]

I'm not farm assured and haven't found it make a difference.

You may not have seen a difference, but several schemes pay 15ppk extra (deadweight) for FA, some won’t buy non-FA.  Buyers know all this, and some will be fulfilling quotas for those schemes, so it will affect the price.

It’s absolutely not worth it for small producers, though.  It’s well over £100 pa - probably £150pa by now - to be in the scheme, to pay for the admin and inspections.  So you need to be selling over two tonnes (liveweight) of lambs (50+ lambs) to get the money back, and that’s without any compensation for the aggro.  And of course you don’t get the whole 15ppk unless you sell direct - and you probably need to be able to supply several loads of 20 lambs a time, each year, to get into that.

I don't sell deadweight and through the ring I have sometimes had better prices than FA'd.


The FA scheme is more than £150 now. I can't remember just what my friend paid recently and now you need a vets visit (possibly if you haven't had one in a certain time period) and so that is something else she has to pay for on top of the price of the scheme.

It's not so much a vet visit- but your vet needs to complete an antibiotic review and health and performance review. You used to be able to do the health and performance review yourself but now the vet needs to complete it with/for you.


We are farm assured but only because our grain has to be assured to be sold. So whilst the inspector is here auditing for the grain, she does the beef and lamb too. It's a lot of work though 

[harmony]

I'm not farm assured and haven't found it make a difference.

You may not have seen a difference, but several schemes pay 15ppk extra (deadweight) for FA, some won’t buy non-FA.  Buyers know all this, and some will be fulfilling quotas for those schemes, so it will affect the price.

It’s absolutely not worth it for small producers, though.  It’s well over £100 pa - probably £150pa by now - to be in the scheme, to pay for the admin and inspections.  So you need to be selling over two tonnes (liveweight) of lambs (50+ lambs) to get the money back, and that’s without any compensation for the aggro.  And of course you don’t get the whole 15ppk unless you sell direct - and you probably need to be able to supply several loads of 20 lambs a time, each year, to get into that.

I don't sell deadweight and through the ring I have sometimes had better prices than FA'd.


The FA scheme is more than £150 now. I can't remember just what my friend paid recently and now you need a vets visit (possibly if you haven't had one in a certain time period) and so that is something else she has to pay for on top of the price of the scheme.

It's not so much a vet visit- but your vet needs to complete an antibiotic review and health and performance review. You used to be able to do the health and performance review yourself but now the vet needs to complete it with/for you.


We are farm assured but only because our grain has to be assured to be sold. So whilst the inspector is here auditing for the grain, she does the beef and lamb too. It's a lot of work though 

Thank you twizzel. My friend took the audit into the vet and was told they need to go to her so effectively a vets visit. Maybe she should check it they actually have to come out.

[twizzel]

Ours came out to us just after lambing. It meant we could talk though any issues and work out how to rectify them.

[SallyintNorth]

I would expect most vets to be happy to do the necessary when they are on the holding for whatever reason, and so save the callout fee.  And they do now have to see your livestock once a year if you want them to be able to prescribe antibiotics for you to collect, whether you’re FA or not.

[shep53]

Do not get hung up on lamb weight , if you are selling dead weight then weight is important and shape or coat not so, as they are mainly selling carcasses  for export so have a limited weight range and penalise big lambs but in the live ring there are buyers at all weights eg light lambs 32 -37 kg  for export to spain /Italy  export lambs  38- 44kg  for France /Germany / Holland  and heavy lambs for uk  ready meals / butchers /catering , the condition and look is much more important and in the live ring they need to be fatter  with tight coats  and good shape .   Some lambs can loose 4kg from weighing at home until killing maybe 48hrs later

[harmony]

Ours came out to us just after lambing. It meant we could talk though any issues and work out how to rectify them.
[/quote

I would expect most vets to be happy to do the necessary when they are on the holding for whatever reason, and so save the callout fee.  And they do now have to see your livestock once a year if you want them to be able to prescribe antibiotics for you to collect, whether you’re FA or not.

You have 28 days from the FA'd inspectors visit to get the reviews done so if you don't need the vet in that period you will have to get them out just for the review.