Author Topic: Shetland lambs rams for sale - Fife. (Read 4862 times)

Croftgary · « **on:** January 17, 2012, 08:37:41 pm »

Shetland ram lambs for sale, again I am trying to downsize, if you are wanted them butchered I could drop them off and you could pick them up from butcher..
However if you were looking for lawnmowers or for next years breeding, they are a variety of colours, not registered.
I have 14 for sale, looking for £30 each.
Thanks for looking.

Dougal · « **Reply #1 on:** January 19, 2012, 05:27:23 pm »

The Trade in store lamb is really very strong just now. 34kg lambs (live weight) are regularly making over £70. On your 14 lambs selling them at £30 quid you are going to lose at least £280-£360 notes in lost revenue!! You are either very rich or mad to do that me thinks! Phone your local auctioneers and see what they say? Fat lambs are still making over £4.20 a kilo so if they are over 37-38kg then they are better on hooks and take the pennies for your self.

lachlanandmarcus · « **Reply #2 on:** January 19, 2012, 06:50:24 pm »

isnt there a bit of difference between commercial lambs at £70 and an unreg Shetland. I say this as the owner of a flock of unreg shetlands! I love them very much but there isnt half the meat on them as on a commercial lamb and I would think thats whats making the £70. When mine go off at up to 18 months old they arent remotely near the weights you mention?

I think his prices are fairly spot on TBH. I have bought in lamb shetland ewes for £35, gimmers for £30 and have sold ewe and wether lambs for similar amounts.

robert waddell · « **Reply #3 on:** January 19, 2012, 06:55:40 pm »

my first venture into sheep were with Shetlands and when sold were not near half the value of fleshy sheep the lambs were eaten and were crosses and nothing like the volume of meat on a Hampshire tup lamb and we have been eating him since Nov

lachlanandmarcus · « **Reply #4 on:** January 19, 2012, 11:21:39 pm »

mind you the commercials cant touch the Shetland for taste, especially a hoggett wether. Dark almost gamey meat, impossible to overcook, a tagine made with that....mmmmmmm <wanders off in a reverie>.......

Croftgary · « **Reply #5 on:** January 19, 2012, 11:28:16 pm »

Your right you can't beat the taste, they are not very big boys and no where near the size of commercial lambs, am certainly not rich but may be mad...

Dougal · « **Reply #6 on:** January 20, 2012, 04:21:47 pm »

I still think that you are nder valuing them. At £4.45 a kilo dead weight (this weeks price in Woodheads, Turiff) a lamb with a 10 kilo carcass (19-21 kilos liveweight) is worth £44.50. That is still a long way from £30 quid! on 14 lambs it's over £200! I know that shetlands are a fair bit smaller than many breeds but no smaller than most mountain lambs and they are coming to some real money just now. There is also a shortage of lambs in the country, worldwide in general, so the price is only going to get better as the winter progresses.

lachlanandmarcus · « **Reply #7 on:** January 20, 2012, 05:46:42 pm »

does that take account of the costs of getting them to the abbatoir, slaughter, inspection and removal of specified material? ie do the people buying pay for all that and then pay you that amount deadweight or do they only pay that amount deadweight once you have 'dead-ed' them :-))?

eg my shetlands cost a packet to get to the abbatoir as there isnt one nearby, nearest is an hour away, then once there nigh on £20 slaughter once the fees are taken into account.

just want to check as it makes up a big percentage of the cost of producing the lamb.

Im happy with the price I sell mine at, event tho it might be undervalue on a strict commercial basis, as the inputs are extremely low, cheap to buy, no hard feed except a little pre lambing. We make the hay here and they keep the grass down and in good nick. In 40 odd lambings Ive never had to intervene, and normally dont even catch them lambing.

Bramblecot · « **Reply #8 on:** January 22, 2012, 01:12:54 pm »

We only keep a few sheep. The lambs were sent on early Dec at 9 months old weighing 26kg (pure Shetlands) and I kept back any under this weight. They seemed small to me but is this the weight I should expect at that age please? The Shetlands cross 1/4 Ryeland weighed 35 -40Kg at the same age. Loads to learn!

lachlanandmarcus · « **Reply #9 on:** January 22, 2012, 01:17:53 pm »

Looks about right to me for liveweight. Deadweight ours average from memory about 17kg odd. Adding any proportion of continental crossing really ups the weight.

Bramblecot · « **Reply #10 on:** January 22, 2012, 01:44:38 pm »

Thanks. 2 years ago I bought in some Shetland x Ryeland store lambs. The 4 smallest ewes I kept on until Spring then had a horrible feeling they were in-lamb. Not ideal at all, but I am glad I kept them as they have been great mums and the lambs from them make a much better weight than the pure breds. I now put them to a Shetland ram. Moral: don't trust an experienced person who assures you he has done the deed and all the tups are wethers...