# Economics of Breeding Ewe Lambs



## SheepGirl (May 29, 2013)

As some of you may know, I have two (now) yearling ewes born last year out of an accidental twin sibling mating. They grew at roughly the same rate, however Lady Gaga was always a bit behind (5-10 lbs). I attributed that to being set back by her little flystrike ordeal, where her whole tail was eaten off and maggots were buried deep in her rear end.

Anyway, these two ewes turned one year old four days ago (May 25). Lady Gaga remained open, whereas Katy Perry has a 14 day old ram lamb at her side (10 days old when they turned a year old).

So I weighed them and calculated their market value. (Note: I used lamb prices rather than cull ewe prices for my two yearling ewes because they still have their lamb teeth and so they would be considered lambs when passed through an auction.) I used current market prices based on the New Holland livestock auction report and the prices for the 2012 MD wool pool. Because there was no weight range for the ram lamb, I just used the lowest weight's value available.

So, here are the results:

*LADY GAGA*





Weight: 82.0 lbs - $135.30
Fleece: 3.2 lbs - $3.20
_Total Value: $138.50_

*KATY PERRY*




Weight: 84.0 lbs - $138.60
Fleece: 3.6 lbs - $3.60
Lamb: 15.6 lbs (0.58 lb ADG) - $28.59
_Total Value: $170.79_

Katy Perry, at 365 days old, is worth $32.29 *more* than Lady Gaga. Since October (before then they ate the same amount of feed), Katy Perry has received 21.25 lbs more feed than Lady Gaga (as of May 25) to sustain her pregnancy and her additional growth as a lamb. (Valued at $5.91--even with the additional feed, Katy Perry still comes out ahead.) When her lamb is weaned, the value is expected to go up because I can just keep the lamb on pasture and essentially feed him for free and I can take him to auction in the fall. Economically, breeding ewe lambs is advantageous (for me anyway).

So even though Katy Perry was bred at 211 days of age and lambed at 355 days of age, she is still 2 lbs heavier than Lady Gaga and she sheared a 0.4 lb heavier fleece. In this observation of my two inbred ewe lambs--who really should perform the same--breeding at the first heat did not stunt growth; they are both the same height. In fact the ewe lamb that bred is still heavier and produced more fleece than the ewe lamb that remained open.

Again this is just a simple observation I made with just two ewe lambs...not an entire sample size. However they are as genetically similar you can get when breeding.

Please share your thoughts and experiences when breeding ewe lambs


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