Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Selling as Store Lambs or Light Fat Lambs  (Read 11567 times)

GeorgieB82

  • Joined Jun 2011
  • Saron, Llandysul, Carms
    • Wthan Online
Selling as Store Lambs or Light Fat Lambs
« on: August 02, 2014, 08:27:05 pm »
Hi all,

We've sorted our lambs out today and I've selected the lambs I'm keeping for going to slaughter for ourselves.

I'm left with 14 lambs that are weighing 20 - 30kg, I think they have some growing room left but they don't seem to be fulfilling their potential on our land.

How do I know if I should put them in the market as light fat lambs or as store lambs?

Does anyone have any tips on kick=starting the growth cycle; I'd rather keep them a while longer if I can get them growing again?
Why not have a look at our smallholding - www.wthanonline.co.uk

twizzel

  • Joined Apr 2012
Re: Selling as Store Lambs or Light Fat Lambs
« Reply #1 on: August 02, 2014, 08:50:01 pm »
Id sell as stores, they are too light for fat lambs IMO.

Remember there is normally a grass growth spurt in September which helps to finish them off too :)

Hillview Farm

  • Joined Dec 2012
  • Surrey
  • Proud owner of sheep and Llamas!
Re: Selling as Store Lambs or Light Fat Lambs
« Reply #2 on: August 02, 2014, 09:09:16 pm »
shearing can give them a little boost!

Me

  • Joined Feb 2014
  • Wild West
Re: Selling as Store Lambs or Light Fat Lambs
« Reply #3 on: August 02, 2014, 10:49:51 pm »
Hi there, you are just down the road from me and would be selling in NCE or Crymych would you? Either way the lads there would sort it out for you and at that weight especially with nearly all fat lambs headed for Dunbia around here circa 40 kg I would imagine they would be sold as stores.

What breed are they?

GeorgieB82

  • Joined Jun 2011
  • Saron, Llandysul, Carms
    • Wthan Online
Re: Selling as Store Lambs or Light Fat Lambs
« Reply #4 on: August 03, 2014, 07:57:30 am »
Hi there, you are just down the road from me and would be selling in NCE or Crymych would you? Either way the lads there would sort it out for you and at that weight especially with nearly all fat lambs headed for Dunbia around here circa 40 kg I would imagine they would be sold as stores.

What breed are they?

Hi Me,

I normally take them to NCE, I read Dai's report from last Thursday and they did have a pen of stores there for the first time this year, they were 20kg and made £32.50 each.

All of my flock are Heinz '57's I have a Vendéen Ram and a White Welsh Mountain Ram and my ewes are a mix of Welsh breed, Beulah's, White's and Black's.

I would rather keep them until they are fat, but they seem to have stopped growing; is there any feed they would thrive on?
Why not have a look at our smallholding - www.wthanonline.co.uk

Tim W

  • Joined Aug 2013
Re: Selling as Store Lambs or Light Fat Lambs
« Reply #5 on: August 03, 2014, 08:55:39 am »
first two causes of slow growth are;

1) Lack of suitable feed
2) Internal parasites

Do they need worming?

GeorgieB82

  • Joined Jun 2011
  • Saron, Llandysul, Carms
    • Wthan Online
Re: Selling as Store Lambs or Light Fat Lambs
« Reply #6 on: August 03, 2014, 09:29:47 am »
Worming is something our friendly farmers have told us not to do as a routine as the flock becomes imune but I will get dad to take a FEC sample to the vets this week.
Why not have a look at our smallholding - www.wthanonline.co.uk

shep53

  • Joined Jan 2011
  • Dumfries & Galloway
Re: Selling as Store Lambs or Light Fat Lambs
« Reply #7 on: August 03, 2014, 08:35:18 pm »
Shortage of some minerals can also  cause lambs to stall

FiB

  • Joined Sep 2011
  • Bala, North Wales
    • Facebook
Re: Selling as Store Lambs or Light Fat Lambs
« Reply #8 on: August 04, 2014, 08:30:30 am »
Shortage of some minerals can also  cause lambs to stall
Is that often/usually sorted out by a red bucket of generic lick..... Or only by soil testing and specific drenches?

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Selling as Store Lambs or Light Fat Lambs
« Reply #9 on: August 04, 2014, 10:14:37 am »
Worming is something our friendly farmers have told us not to do as a routine as the flock becomes imune but I will get dad to take a FEC sample to the vets this week.

If you worm preventatively, they never get exposed and never develop natural immunity.  What our vets like us to do is to let the lambs get some worms and cope with them for a wee while, then worm them.

Your local farmers will be keen to ensure that you don't dose but underdose and cause resistance.  So from their point of view, it's better if you don't dose at all ;)
« Last Edit: August 04, 2014, 10:18:10 am by SallyintNorth »
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

GeorgieB82

  • Joined Jun 2011
  • Saron, Llandysul, Carms
    • Wthan Online
Re: Selling as Store Lambs or Light Fat Lambs
« Reply #10 on: August 04, 2014, 10:29:10 am »
Thank you Sally, that makes sense.

At what age should I start to worm lambs?
Why not have a look at our smallholding - www.wthanonline.co.uk

twizzel

  • Joined Apr 2012
Re: Selling as Store Lambs or Light Fat Lambs
« Reply #11 on: August 04, 2014, 10:46:10 am »
I would just be careful about not worming- ours tend to develop mucky back ends around May time and we do them then, but more for the liver fluke side of things than anything... don't want to send off lambs and then have their livers condemned because of fluke, also they don't 'do' as well with it for obvious reasons.

GeorgieB82

  • Joined Jun 2011
  • Saron, Llandysul, Carms
    • Wthan Online
Re: Selling as Store Lambs or Light Fat Lambs
« Reply #12 on: August 04, 2014, 10:48:25 am »
That's the main reason I haven't wormed as out of 30 lambs only one has had a mucky bum so I didn't worry.
Going to get a FEC done anyway now.
Why not have a look at our smallholding - www.wthanonline.co.uk

twizzel

  • Joined Apr 2012
Re: Selling as Store Lambs or Light Fat Lambs
« Reply #13 on: August 04, 2014, 11:06:46 am »
Depends then if you're in a flukey area. We are, a few years ago OH's sister sent 2 lambs off who were never wormed and they had awful liver fluke, since then we have always wormed ours with combinex in May (same time as we worm/fluke the cows).

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Selling as Store Lambs or Light Fat Lambs
« Reply #14 on: August 04, 2014, 11:51:37 am »
Thank you Sally, that makes sense.

At what age should I start to worm lambs?

It does of course depend on where you are, when you lamb, the year, the weather, all kinds of things.

And keep an eye on the NADIS forecasts, too.

We try to get most of our 'earlies' (born February / early March) away with no treatments at all.  The rest of the flock lamb later in March and through April, and if we haven't needed to worm lambs before, we will worm them when we shear their mums, which for us is end June/early July.

We also get indication as batches go away through our slaughterhouse reports if there is anything amiss - fluke, lungworm, tapeworm, etc.  But if you're not selling batches deadweight, or slaughtering for yourself, you don't get that info.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

 

Forum sponsors

FibreHut Energy Helpline Thomson & Morgan Time for Paws Scottish Smallholder & Grower Festival Ark Farm Livestock Movement Service

© The Accidental Smallholder Ltd 2003-2024. All rights reserved.

Design by Furness Internet

Site developed by Champion IS