[moony]

What do people do with their ram lambs if they are not ready for slaughter at this time of year?
I normally sell them in July/August but after a family bereavement everything else has been put on hold. I don't really want to keep them on over winter so do I just sell as short stores even though the store price is pretty poor now or would people run them over winter and sell them as primes in the spring? The other question is when do ram lambs stop being lambs and then do they have to be sold as cast rams or can they still go in as prime hoggs?
We have only ever kept wethers and rams we intend to use over previous winters and then sold them as prime lambs/hoggs depending when they are ready.

[jaykay]

They're hoggs until next summer, when they would be sheared and become shearlings.

I am having to keep my Shetlands over winter as they're too tiny to send at the moment. The advice I've even given is that they will just 'maintain' overwinter and then start growing again when the spring grass comes though (end of April then here  ).

[CaroleBulmer]

be careful once they have scaled up they wont make the same price

[jaykay]

Scaled up?

[moony]

Thanks for the replies. What do you mean by scaled up?

[SteveHants]

I think she means when the first teeth have erupted.

[ScotsGirl]

I don't agree. I kept a ram lamb from last spring and slaughtered him in September.  I did ask if people minded some said yes but in the end when butchered the butcher said he was as good as the lambs.  Very little fat and no way of telling.  Ok it cost all of £2.50 extra because his teeth were through but feedback from those who had him say it was delicious and they were none the wiser.

This was a Suffolk cross and was HUGE, must've been 32kg deadweight.  As long as not running with girls or killed during tupping season there should be no taint.  Depends also how you sell your meat.  Might not fetch as much at market but should be ok to sell privately.

Those keeping primitives usually keep longer and I doubt they have trouble selling.

[Pedwardine]

Interesting. None of my ram lambs have reached weight this year (little 'Yippees'    from me and OH as we hate that journey for them anyway, so any excuse to love them a bit longer isn't all bad). Ours are primitives so gain weight slower than most anyhow but this last freaky year has seen that weight gain a whole lot slower than ever before. I worried about taint but it makes sense that if they aren't in the middle of the fruity season then that shouldn't be an issue. Reassuring that they still class as lamb. I've heard that hogget is the best but my butcher is dubious that he'd have a market for it, though the amount of people I hear longing for the days of mutton again makes me surprised on the hogget front. It does turn out that the guy who provides him with 'spring' lamb (16 weeks old  ) has retired so there's a gap in the New Year for my boys which I couldn't have planned. Sometimes the chaos has a reason...Mostly it's just chaos though 

[Dougal]

You should be ok to keep the ram lambs into next spring real easy. Prices normally rise in March any way so will probably be worth your while. Even with teeth up you'll still get a good trade.
 

[CaroleBulmer]

Sorry only just got back onto the forum.  When they have their first set of teeth, around here at market they would sell for a lot less than "lambs" irrespective of casteration - although this makes no difference to private slaughter.  The other problem is once they are that bit older, depending on breed, they can be a little bit more stronger / almost muttony in taste.

[jaykay]

Round here it's sold (on the pub menu) as shearling lamb. And whilst that makes no sense whatsoever to shepherds, to the punters it seems, it just sounds a bit special. They've never had any negative comments about it apparently.

So maybe the butchers need to get creative with the names 

I sell mine privately - I think I might called my Shetlands hogget lamb - I am hoping to sell them before they become shearlings - we'll see, it will be my first time with anything older than 6 months.