Teresa & Mike CHS - Our journal

[Baymule]

You sure don't want those babies getting stressed and hot!

 

[Mike CHS]

The best prices (per pound) goes for the 30-60 pound lambs but they bring considerably less money because of the low weights. You still make more $ overall with the bigger ones since they weigh so much more even with a lower price per pound since the price difference per pound is minimal. The 85 lb lambs went for $142 each, the 35 lb lambs went for $74 each. Which is why I said we will shoot for at least 3 months old and 80 lbs or more. The 66 lb lambs went for $118 each but they were only 8 weeks old with no input for any of them.

No matter what we would like to shoot for we would still take all of those that we did this time because I don't want to dedicate another paddock to lambs we won't be keeping so it was decided to accept whatever they brought in and get them gone.

Teresa did the math for the last few sales we did off the farm plus the auction sale and our original purchase of the 10 ewes plus Ringo and the spotted registered ewe plus maintenance costs (feed and hay) has paid for itself which is all we are striving for. We never expect to make a lot doing this but we love it and the livestock are footing their own bill.

 

[greybeard]

For any that are interested we got the break out of how the sale went. The two big boys went for $1.67 a pound so we now see that we want the lambs from now on to be at least 3 months old if possible and prime shape since you make more per animal even if the per pound price is higher.

The others varied from $1.93 for the 50 pounder and up to $2.10 but the average per head was $1.82 Considering we didn't creep feed and all gains were on milk and grass it was a decent day for us.

Did you mean 'even if the price per pound is lower?

If you had to creep feed to get to the higher weights would it significantly cut into your margin?

 

[Mike CHS]

I did mean if the price per pound is lower.

We had it set up to creep feed but the lambs don't cooperate. They gain almost a pound a day without or with so it's a matter of they can only eat so much. We had feed available but they never went to it. Last season we went through quite a bit of feed but we had them on a dry lot. We are satisfied that we had optimum growth with the way the lambs were spread out.

 

[greybeard]

No matter what species,it's hard to find that 'sweet spot', that buyers pay the most for/lb, without having more $ inputs in the product you're selling. And that spot sometimes changes month to month, and certainly season to season. Sometimes they all want 3-4wts in calves, others they are looking for 5 weights and pay more per lb for that wt, but heavier ones, sold at a little lower price per lb can make up the difference by mashing the scales down IF it hasn't cost us anything more in $$ to get them to a higher weight.
It also depends which particular order buyers are at the barn that day. Some have orders for 3wts, some for 4 wts, some for 5 wts and if the buyer for your weight class happens to be at a different barn that day, you miss out on the premium.

If you can get to know the order buyers at the local sales a little, they can let you know what they are looking for in advance, especially if your production methods are resulting in great carcasses graded up the scale above the rest of the stock present.

It works both ways. Just as a seller may look for and hope a certain buyer is there that day, buyers also look for and hope a specific seller has his product there that day too.

There are other ways to maximize your margin such as selling on contract direct to the buyers but you will probably have to do some homework on that and increase your stocking rate and production some.

 

[Mike CHS]

We have a decent outlet selling through our butcher if we had more to sell and lambs are going for a flat $200 up to 80 pounds then they go up based on actual live weight. He charges the buyer for his processing fee.

The acreage limitations of our place pretty much dictate when the bulk of the ram lambs have to go since we are leaving the ram lambs intact.

I did read that there was 1085 head of sheep at that last sale.

 

[greybeard]

I was thinking you had about 40-50 acres and the pics I've seen looked like plenty of good forage? No?

 

[Mike CHS]

We have just 19 acres. Our capacity going through winter is no more than 30 head using our own hay and forage and no problem getting their lambs through to weaning but after that they are too hard on the paddocks. We have to get our numbers down by late May in order to get at least one cutting of hay on our big paddock. We are breeding our excess ewes that are in good condition to sell as bred to get those numbers down.

 

[greybeard]

We have to get our numbers down by late May in order to get at least one cutting of hay on our big paddock.

Ah yes. I forgot you had hay fields. That always puts a different picture on available forage.

I used to have hay cut here, but got away from it in 2010 for the same reason your stocking/carrying rate is a bit lower. It's a double edged knife when hay gets high, but it was beginning to get hard to find someone to cut/bale and I didn't want to buy the equipment to do it myself.
Way back when (late 60s-early 90s), we sq baled but made up my mind over a decade ago, that I had handled my last sq bale of hay and have never regretted it, tho there is lots of $$$$$ to be made selling sq bales to small farmers that just need a few bales/week for goats and horses. They're paying $15-17/bale retail for a couple 3 bales/ week because they have no place to store it, when they could have bought it by the lowboy trailer load in the field for $4-$7/bale for the same hay.

 

[Mike CHS]

I have been buying my alfalfa in the field for $4.50 last fall but we only used 20 of the 50 bales we bought. We can graze fairly intensively and rotate every several days and that cuts back on the hay we need to bale. I haven't HAD to cut hay since we started but we are just about a week or two away from a drought from July through August so you almost have to have it on hand. We dry lot some of the ewes that don't maintain the best condition and it's easier to control parasites with them on a dry lot.

I would definitely do things differently if my friend didn't bale the hay for us. It only takes him a couple of hours to cut what we need along with my help. We trade help on quite a few things.