Coronavirus Covid-19 Is it Affecting You and How?

[Ridgetop]

Are you selling through an auction or taking them to a processor to sell? What is the average price - is it per head or lb.? What do they weigh? I have someone coming tomorrow to pic up a small lamb - for Ramadan, I think. It is the Arab friend of an Armenian acquaintance. The acquaintance wants a small lamb the following week.

At first he said his friend wanted a 20-30 lb. lamb for a dinner for 10 men. I explained that there would be no meat on a 20 lb. live weight lamb since it would dress out to 10 lbs. of meat if he was lucky. I have had several middle eastern people ask for 20 lb. lambs. Either the lambs they are buying are very small breeds, or they are ordering a 20 lb. lamb from a butcher and that is the dressed weight. I explained the dress out percentage and he agreed that his friend probably wanted a 20 lb. carcass. They are coming tomorrow to pick up the lamb live. he was happy to hear that it was not castrated yet and had its tail. We are not docking the ram lambs anymore since they are all going for meat. I would like to be able to sell the ram lambs at 2 months old. These March lambs are ranging from 50-60 lbs. at 2 months old. That is more profitable than feeding them out to 100 lbs. at 4-5 months even on forage. Since my ewes will rebreed 3 months or so after lambing, it would suit my operation to sell younger lambs since I can cut my hay costs.

I would like to know what the average price live lambs are bringing at what weight in your area of the country.

 

[Mike CHS]

Are you selling through an auction or taking them to a processor to sell? What is the average price - is it per head or lb.? What do they weigh? I have someone coming tomorrow to pic up a small lamb - for Ramadan, I think. It is the Arab friend of an Armenian acquaintance. The acquaintance wants a small lamb the following week.

At first he said his friend wanted a 20-30 lb. lamb for a dinner for 10 men. I explained that there would be no meat on a 20 lb. live weight lamb since it would dress out to 10 lbs. of meat if he was lucky. I have had several middle eastern people ask for 20 lb. lambs. Either the lambs they are buying are very small breeds, or they are ordering a 20 lb. lamb from a butcher and that is the dressed weight. I explained the dress out percentage and he agreed that his friend probably wanted a 20 lb. carcass. They are coming tomorrow to pick up the lamb live. he was happy to hear that it was not castrated yet and had its tail. We are not docking the ram lambs anymore since they are all going for meat. I would like to be able to sell the ram lambs at 2 months old. These March lambs are ranging from 50-60 lbs. at 2 months old. That is more profitable than feeding them out to 100 lbs. at 4-5 months even on forage. Since my ewes will rebreed 3 months or so after lambing, it would suit my operation to sell younger lambs since I can cut my hay costs.

I would like to know what the average price live lambs are bringing at what weight in your area of the country.

There are no processors available so we are going through the auction in Columbia, TN. Last week we got on average $2.25 a pound live weight for the 16 we took in and a friend of ours that works there says it should be that or higher when we haul a load of 30 some in on Monday. All of this group is in the 40-70 pound range at 2 1/2 months to 3 1/2 months old. The ram lambs are all intact and we were planning on keeping two of them for the freezer but not if I have to dedicate a paddock to them and no processor. We are sending everything to the sale and only keeping the best ewes.

We finished doing fecal runs on all of those from this week on the senior ewes. We had zero eggs on all except one and she had 3 eggs. This has been our base herd and it looks like it will stay that way. Our replacement ewes are exclusively from this same group of ewes so that makes 4 generations of keepers. I have good thoughts about this bunch.

 

[Baymule]

We have not ventured to the sale barns yet, but I think it will be the better way to sell. We just haven't had many lambs, so marketed them as meat, plus our own consumption. I think I'll stop castrating the ram lambs, wean at 2 months, give them a little time to get over missing momma and take to an auction.

 

[promiseacres]

So two of my favorite things are trail riding at state parks and/or camping. The state is slowly opening but these two things are still not allowed until end of the month. Yeah it's just a bit depressing.

 

[drstratton]

So two of my favorite things are trail riding at state parks and/or camping. The state is slowly opening but these two things are still not allowed until end of the month. Yeah it's just a bit depressing.

Because you can't social distance on a trail or at a campground! Makes no sense!

 

[farmerjan]

Makes no sense at all since in the "act " of trail riding you are more than several feet apart 99% of the time. That's really dumb. But our gov is still doing stupid stuff too.

 

[farmerjan]

All the ethnic buyers here want the ram lambs intact and no tail docking either. And the preferred live weight here is in the 40-70 lb size live weight. There is a big call for them for their different holidays. Goats too. Since they kill them themselves, or have a dedicated facility to do them, they are not dependent on the big slaughter houses. Used to be that lambs brought the best prices at 95-110 lbs for what they used to call "blue O's" and they would go directly to slaughter, with "reds" @ 75-90 lbs, going on feed for a few weeks .

 

[farmerjan]

If you are going to take lambs to the sale, don't wean and feed for a few weeks. They will drop weight for the first week, then you will have to feed them for another week to 3 weeks just to get it back on. Wait until you are ready to sell, pull them and go directly to the sale barn. They will be at their best body condition right off the ewes. Yeah, not fun for them, but that is the practicality of it. And trying to time when they are born so that the lambs are at the size wanted for the ethnic holidays. Gotta play the "game" as far as timing goes to get the best return on your investment.

 

[Ridgetop]

If you are going to take lambs to the sale, don't wean and feed for a few weeks. They will drop weight for the first week, then you will have to feed them for another week to 3 weeks just to get it back on. Wait until you are ready to sell, pull them and go directly to the sale barn. They will be at their best body condition right off the ewes. Yeah, not fun for them, but that is the practicality of it. And trying to time when they are born so that the lambs are at the size wanted for the ethnic holidays. Gotta play the "game" as far as timing goes to get the best return on your investment.

Absolutely correct! They look their best and are at best weight right off mom and her rich milk. Do not pull lambs and then keep them around. Loss of time, effort and money. Lambs will scream in the sale barn no matter how long you give them to "get over" weaning. They ;buyers don't care about their emotional health - they plan to eat them. LOL Take several at a time, they will have comfort in being with flock members. The buyers are going to take them home and slaughter them within a few days anyway. No need to waste feed weaning them, or need a separate pen to hold them off away from their moms. Ramadan ends the end of May. This is the perfect time to sell for the Arab market.

Cold turkey drying your ewes off the lambs is easy too. After removing the lambs, withhold feed for 24 hours. I used to withhold water as well, but not any more, especially in summer. Witholding food works great. Since their lambs were already eating forage and hay they were starting to wean naturally anyway. I don't pull ewe lambs off mom unless I am running mom in with a ram. The ewe lambs will wean naturally. Dorpers (and Katahdins?) are genetically bred to utilize poor feed better than other breeds of sheep. They will not suffer by keeping the ewe lambs in with them and breeding them again.

We are also making a management change in selling our lambs this year. I have 3 new Persian and Armenian buyers that want the lambs with the tails on, intact, weighing 50 lbs. if we don't sell them all and need to grow them out more we can still wether the ram lambs at 10 weeks . I would prefer to sell all ram lambs at 50 lbs. They are barely 2 months old at that point and not eating much hay or forage. This saves all my hay money for the ewes and returns my ewes to production sooner. Better to sell younger lambs financially speaking. I am going to call my local cattle auction yard. Once a week they sell other animals. I will check on the prices they are getting for 50 lbs. lambs. I also need to call the local Halal market and check on the price they pay for 50 lb. lambs. If I can run y lambs through the auction at 40-50 lbs. I will do it. It is much easier to drop all lambs off in one go than try to work up a larger customer base.

BAYMULE: Check the processors in mid Texas. You and BJ can visit the grandkids when you make a lamb run to the processor.

 

[Mike CHS]

I would like to know what the average price live lambs are bringing at what weight in your area of the country.

They sell by the pound live weight. Our smallest right now is 44 pounds a few days ago. Leaving the lambs on the dams doesn't work for us since we are breeding back in a couple of weeks and the ewes need time to put some weight on. and fill out after nursing.

HAIR BREEDS - Choice and Prime 2-3 (Per Cwt / Actual Wt)
Head Wt Range Avg Wt Price Range Avg Price Dressing
88 47-49 48 215.00-225.00 222.02 Average
124 51-58 53 200.00-222.50 218.59 Average
118 65-67 66 210.00-230.00 221.58 Average
1 70 70 215.00 215.00 Average
7 81-85 83 210.00-215.00 212.20 Average
11 90-93 91 150.00-200.00 190.90 Average
4 109 109 152.50 152.50 Average
HAIR BREEDS - Good 1-2 (Per Cwt / Actual Wt)
Head Wt Range Avg Wt Price Range Avg Price Dressing
10 47 47 202.50 202.50 Average
1 50 50 210.00 210.00 Average
2 63 63 200.00 200.00 Average