[smee2012]

Is anyone able to give a novice a detailed walk-through of what I must do and what I ought to do as regards slaughtering my meat lambs?

Our boys are pretty much ready, I'm still trying to find a local abattoir that will slaughter sheep! I haven't got any AML1 forms, I presume I get hold of these from the Animal Health Office?

We also don't have a trailer - are we able to borrow one from our dairy farm neighbours across the field? Or aren't sheep allowed to be transported in a cattle trailer?

As you can see, I have no idea about this process and I want to make sure I do it correctly and with as little stress for my woolly boys as possible.

[Bumblebear]

Where in the country are you?  Here's a link to what our abbatoir said they needed.  Good luck!

http://www.jehoward.co.uk/JH/Lamb.html

Aml1 from here:

http://www.defra.gov.uk/forms/files/aml1.pdf

[smee2012]

I'm near Shrewsbury, in Shropshire. We do have a big abattoir in Shrewsbury but they only do cattle. There's another one quite nearby but it's attached to a butcher's shop and I think they only actually do their own animals. I hadn't really wanted to drive the sheep too far, as I don't want them stressed but it looks like we might have to

[shropshire_blue]

I'm in Market Drayton and have to go to Stoke or Crewe.

[smee2012]

I've just discovered that the one near me (A H Griffiths in Leintwardine) - still 25 miles away mind - will do animals other than their own, so that's good. The downside is that they haven't got any spaces until January! I'd assumed  (rashly, it turns out) that the huge abattoir in town did all sorts of animals, so hadn't really looked around for others. This one is a really small one attached to the back of the shop so they get quite busy.

They've given me a price for slaughtering and butchering, but that's based on the weight of the sheep. How do I calculate the weight of a sheep (I'm presuming it's the weight minus the fleece?)? My sheep are friendly, but not to the point they'd be willing to step daintily on the bathroom scales!  They've told me that for a sheep weighing up to 20kgs, they charge £22 in total, which seems a very good price to me!

[suziequeue]

We've just used Griffiths for our pigs and they were fine. Will be booking the lambs in to go in the New Year

[Dogwalker]

I've recently used D&J Thomas at Rhosllanerchagog (that's not spelled right but I can't pronounce it anyway however it's spelled)  near Wrexham.  Small and friendly to a newbie, think it was £15 each kill and cut.

[Blacksheep]

Hi Smee
We are finding it quite a bit harder to get our slaughter lambs booked in at Griffiths this year, was much easier when Daysdrove in Bishops Castle was operating too.  We had to arrange for another butcher to take the carcases to butcher, Griffiths deliver to quite a few butchers in the area, and then Griffiths were able to just  do the slaughter, otherwise we would have been waiting until after Christmas too. Unfortunately now it is getting closer to Christmas you may find it harder to get them booked with a butcher for slaughter, it may be worth considering just sending 2 off initially if they could be taken, and leaving the other 2 until after Christmas. 
At least with Zwartbles you don't have to worry about them going over fat, you can take them up to a much higher weight then many breeds and still have excellent meat. We just collect our meat yesterday, unbelievable we had a couple of carcases over 38kg, they are usually closer to 23kg or so, the butchers said  it must be the breed as they still had excellent meat and just the right amount of fat! We had a lot of happy customers yesterday with some bonus Kgs in their half lamb bags!

We have also had Eurolamb in Craven Arms take some lambs for slaughter for us, unfortunately they won't butcher or deliver and we had to take the carcases to the butcher next door for hanging and then butchery.  It would be worth trying Welshpool if you don't feel it is too far for you to travel, at £15 per lamb they are amazingly good value.  We use a couple of old trailers to provide portable sheltered lamb creep feeders/shelter when the lambs are still on their dams so most of our sheep are quite happy to be in a trailer, so they should be fine travelling!

[smee2012]

Hi Blacksheep (are you black sheep of the Redgate variety?  ) I don't think Welshpool would be too far to travel for us, the road isn't too bad. Where in Welshpool can they be slaughtered?

That one in Rhosllanerchrugog (thanks Dogwalker  ) is also an option - a little further than the Craven Arms one, but along a much better road. I'll give them a ring in the next few days.

We do have a butcher in Condover, so I might give him a ring to find out who his supplier is, and see if they could do the slaughtering and deliver to Bert for butchering.

Hopefully next year I shall be much more organised! 

[Blacksheep]

Hi Blacksheep (are you black sheep of the Redgate variety?  ) I don't think Welshpool would be too far to travel for us, the road isn't too bad. Where in Welshpool can they be slaughtered?

That one in Rhosllanerchrugog (thanks Dogwalker  ) is also an option - a little further than the Craven Arms one, but along a much better road. I'll give them a ring in the next few days.
 

Hi Smee, yes that is us!  Oops I mean't Wrexham as in the one in Rhosllanerchrugog, not Welshpool at all, I don't think there is one in Welshpool!

Yes definitely worth finding out who supplies your local butchers to see if that is a possibility.

Unfortunately with few abattoirs it does seem that you need to plan quite far ahead now. I hope you manage to get some booked in before Christmas, but at least with Zs the lamb does not spoil and you just get more meat if they go to a larger weight.

[Richard Underwood]

Hi Smee,

You might want to give your local DEFRA office a call. They should have a list of all the abbatoirs in your area as they license them.  We are in Wales so it is a Welsh Assembly office that does the same job and they have always been very helpful.

£22 is a reasonable price I think - we pay something very similar for kill & cut. We have had butchery done at the abbatoir and also by a local butcher (when the abbatoir was full). It is a bit more trouble to get a butcher to do it but, for us at least, the cutting was much more professional.

[SallyintNorth]

Just in case you haven't seen it, as it's listed in Pigs ... oaklandspigs maintains a list of abattoirs and feedback from us and other smallholders on other forums.  Here it is

No guarantees that places listed there do other than pigs, but I thought it'd be worth a look.

Our butcher does kill + cut for £24-ish; we take the lambs to the abattoir he uses, then collect the butchered, bagged and labelled lamb from him a week or so later.  Most people say it's a more professional job done by the butcher, we haven't tried the alternative so can't comment firsthand.

[smee2012]

Thanks Sally 

[Tudful Tamworths]

The Food Standards Agency licenses abattoirs and will give you a list. Easier to ring them than navigate your way through their enormous website!  020 7276 8829 (email helpline@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk)

[smee2012]

We've got all four booked in at the butcher's in Rhosllanerchrugog a week on Monday. A bargain price of £15 per lamb, killed, cut and packaged! They were also most helpful on the phone. Now we just need to source a trailer to borrow. Can sheep be transported in a horsebox? Do they need extra partitions?

I'm also still awaiting my replacement tags from Supplies for Smallholders. How long do tags normally take to arrive?