[princesslayer]

Hi people,

For those with Jacobs, when do you send your lambs for slaughter, especially for personal consumption?  I'm happy that flavour is as good if not better in older lambs/sheep (I'm looking forward to my first taste of hogget and mutton) but what age seems to be best?

Main reason I am asking is that I'm trying to decide whether to ring the boy lambs or leave them entire.  I don't need a load of yobs about the place come next autumn, but if I lamb late march they will only be 6 months at the start of October.  Will they be big enough to eat then?

Thanks!

[SallyintNorth]

No specific knowledge about Jacobs, but whatever they are, personally I'd ring 'em all.

One (or more) might get ill, strucken, or lame, and not be away with the others, so then a management problem come the back end.

By September any entires will be (a) a right nuisance and (b) possibly starting to be tainted as the hormones start flowing around their systems.

[Slimjim]

I ring all my April born Jacob ram lambs since they do not get to slaughter weight until the next year and I don't have the space to keep them and the ewe lambs separately.
I also need the lambs' field for the tup when I start feeding the pregnant ewes and he has to leave them, so that decides when the Jacob lambs are killed. In my case that is the middle of February. If I had a third field I would keep them even longer.
I guess if you ram them full of cake from the start, they might get bigger sooner, but mine just get about 200g per head per day from December .
Hope that helps.

[princesslayer]

Thanks both, think I'll ring them all and save myself the headache, then I can send them off when it suits me, not when I have to.

Thanks!