[twizzel]

Is it just me or have they rocketed in price this year? I'm finding adverts on preloved, lamb bank and this forum for lambs under 1 wk old £25, 3 weeks old £50! Nothing special just commercial type lambs a mix of ewe and ram lambs.
Seems extortionate to me? I paid a tenner a head this year and have some cracking Texel x lambs. Thoughts? 

[SallyintNorth]

Dunno about price but BH is hoping someone will start doing a twizzel up here because he hates the amount of time and effort the bottle-fed lambs absorb!  (Whereas I love every minute and can't wait for his annual capitulation that we will, indeed, hand-rear some this year  )

[plumseverywhere]

we get given them for nowt.  Our farmer says its costs him too much to rear them and he knows we have the time and goats milk to rear them and they stay as lawnmowers. Didn't realise they cost lots of money to buy elsewhere   

[sokel]

There was a lot advertised last year at that price and they seemed to sell, I was chatting to one farmer in the feed merchants in the north east that sold his for £30 each and he could have sold them twice over.

[moony]

I have seen those on preloved. We buy them for a tenner in their first week and have in the past bought 4 gimmers at 4wks old for £20 but that was mainly as they were pedigree Lleyn. Anybody that pays £30+, and there are a lot of people that will, really want to have a word with themselves, unless of course they do it just for the enjoyment.

[Azzdodd]

Kids love them as pets that's the only reason I can think off.....orphan lambs never grow the same! And end up costing more too rear than you could buy a lamb at market ready to slaughter haha it's bizzare

[twizzel]

Dunno about price but BH is hoping someone will start doing a twizzel up here because he hates the amount of time and effort the bottle-fed lambs absorb!  (Whereas I love every minute and can't wait for his annual capitulation that we will, indeed, hand-rear some this year  )

Haha I have at times this year questioned my motives, 18 of the bleedy things are drinking me out of house and home! But seeing that 10 1/2 are already spoken for in cut up state I guess it might be worth it in the long term!

[larrylamb]

Hi i have been watching these prices of lambs if you can get £30+ per lamb its not worth fatting them up for the market.

[JulieWall]

Having seen the price of lamlac it doesn't surprise me that they are asking so much for a 3 week old.
Having said that, I was given one free a couple of years ago to foster to a ewe who had hydramnios and a stillborn. It was the tiniest skinny little ewe lamb I ever saw but so lusty and loud that it stood in a box on my passenger seat all the way home shouting constantly. It never lost it's balance once, despite the bends and my rushing home to get it to the ewe. I rolled it in the six foot long river of slime that had come from the ewe and gave it to her and that was that! Grew into a lovely big lamb too
Is it just me or does anyone else get broody when they bottle cade lambs?

[twizzel]

No definitely not, I'm not having babies for a good few years! Ha.

[sabrina]

I love rearing lambs, never paid more than £10.

[Womble]

There was a lot advertised last year at that price and they seemed to sell, I was chatting to one farmer in the feed merchants in the north east that sold his for £30 each and he could have sold them twice over.

Who to though?  Not other farmers presumably, since they'd have their own. Joe public won't be doing it, since they're not exactly pets.  Is it just smallholders who are doing the buying then? 

[Me]

I sell mine for £20 if someone wants them and I think thats fair, it costs to bring them into the world and get them going and honestly the total faff that is dealing with time wasters and photo hunters for less than £20 I would rather keep it. Plus tagging, movement license etc. Not long ago people were criticising Tim W for letting weak lambs die and not selling them as a bad economic decision, now they should be given away?? Its a live well looked after animal, it rightly has a value attached to it.

[SteveHants]

Mine are generally around £20 for commercial types. After all, I have had to keep the bloody things alive/get up and feed them etc.


I'll start lambing on Apr 5th....


Anyone in the area wanting some can shoot me a PM..

[SallyintNorth]

There was a lot advertised last year at that price and they seemed to sell, I was chatting to one farmer in the feed merchants in the north east that sold his for £30 each and he could have sold them twice over.

Who to though?  Not other farmers presumably, since they'd have their own. Joe public won't be doing it, since they're not exactly pets.  Is it just smallholders who are doing the buying then? 

Farmers do buy pet lambs - we sell a few each year to three or four local farmers.  Many farmers put in a shepherdess system to minimise the work of rearing their own orphans, so then they may as well rear some more as well to make the thing pay.  And some farmers have adopters and will happily twin on any extra lambs if they have single-bearers.

It's a fallacy to say there's no money in rearing them - if you get good commercial types, from a farmer who you know will have given them a good start, then you will be looking at £70-£90 for them once they're fat.  If you have the system in place anyway, then there's room for some profit if you're buying them at £15-£20.  Some farmers keep a Jersey or two for the milk for the lambs to reduce the costs of rearing them even further.

Plus at the start of lambing, farmers are often in need of a lamb or two for a bereaved ewe, and haven't yet got a stock of their own.

So no, not just smallholders, Womble!