Lately Exeter seems to be on the back foot when it comes to sqq. Would it be cos lot of hill breds?
Beef / Lamb & Pig Price Tracker
- Thread starter TFF
- Start date
gone up the hill
Member
- Location
- Devon
Had a text today, feed has gone up another £8t this morn ( and that is after increases every month since the autumn ) straw price is now going thru the roof ( at least £150t EX farm ) fuel/ fert prices are rising daily, spare parts/ machinery have gone up no end since last year and so the list goes on...
So in real terms compared to other years £125 head for a 42 kilo lamb is a waste of time!
Yep agree with that. But it could be worst I guess the cost could be high and lamb 100£
gone up the hill
Member
- Location
- Devon
That is the reason given but hill lambs that are well finished will make as much PPK as lowland lambs!
gone up the hill
Member
- Location
- Devon
If they want a steady supply of lamb/beef then if the end price does not go up they will find before long that there will be very little sheep/beef cattle on farms!
Boydvalley
Member
- Location
- Bath
If you don’t mind me asking what is your concentrate cost to get a lamb to 42kg at this time of year. Never done early lambing would put some context to the £125.
gone up the hill
Member
- Location
- Devon
The lambs will eat 1 kilo + a day now ( Dec lambing ) + extra costs of ewe nuts/ straw etc etc + extra losses outside due to the weather at this time of the year + early fert to get the grass growing to keep the lambs doing/ keep condition on the ewes etc!
Indoor lambs will eat circa over 1.5 kilos head a day now+very costly straw/ silage etc.
gone up the hill
Member
- Location
- Devon
Spring lambs sold from now untill end of April need to be £150 head imo to cover costs and show a sensible profit margin for the farmer.
And May/June/ July they need to be at least £100/120 head in this day and age!
And Aug/ Sept/ Oct they need to be £90/110 head.
My springers averaged £8 a head of creep last year by time I’d killed them all, the first ones only had £2/3 of creep in them but later ones would of been £10-12 of creep in them ...
Then ewe rolls for the ewes would be £3 a head across the lambs from start of lambing too end of feeding so all in my springers last year. We’re at £11 in concentrates... sold them average £92 a head which at the time I was very happy with but If I average that this year I won’t be so happy with the price of feed this year [emoji86]
gone up the hill
Member
- Location
- Devon
Unless your feed company is giving you the feed for nothing then sorry i think your figures are a flight of fancy!
Are you really saying you lambed very early ( ie Dec ) and only feed your ewes 12/15 kilos of cake???....and the only other thing they had was free grass................
- Location
- South Molton
Perhaps he buy in artic loads rather than a bag here and there over the counter.
Can be a huge variation in price between
I never said I lambed December, I lamb mid January ... 2 weeks at 0.1kg per lamb then 2 weeks 0.25kg per lamb pre lambing then what ever works out too the nearest 25kg bag 6 weeks post lambing feeding ...
This year I only started concentrates 2 weeks pre lambing at 0.1kg per lamb and ewes are milking like stink still but are also still inside where last year they were outside straight away near enough so hay and straw is up this year...
- Location
- West Wales
My current lambing twin and triplet ewes (almost finished) had 1lb/head of whole oats for 21 days. Nothing after but grass, started some of my early March lambing triplets on 1lb/head whole oats a few days ago. All March twins and half the triplets are on turnips with no concentrate.. you can flap a bag as much as you want and they’ll just run away
gone up the hill
Member
- Location
- Devon
What type of silage are you feeding them pre/post lambing?
- Location
- Mendips Somerset
Yes i remember when soya was always around £250T, then we had a bad year (about 10 years back) and it went to £350 , thats ok we understand some years its short , but the point is it never goes back down ,
i bet lamb does though ! then what with feed at £300t + ?
No silage just hay, analaysed at 12me...
the twins came in 1 week before lambing and the singles came in 2 days before the due date and I wished I’d left them outside longer with no cake at all Iv been having lambs the size of calves ... run them on good dry ground that keeps them fit all winter and they stay fit all lambing im just feeding a maintenance diet not trying too make them grow because they’ve been paddling round in sh!t all winter and are lean... I did try too cut feed out all together 2 years ago and just put blocks out... they didn’t milk for sh!t and ate them like sweets costing a fortune for no gain at all
beefandsleep
Member
- Location
- Staffordshire
Who the hell that lambs inside waits till February to order feed and straw? £125 nearly all winter is absolutely incredible and sheep folk will be spending money like water before Mr Sunak finds out about it and levy’s a wealth tax.
gone up the hill
Member
- Location
- Devon
Well i guess you are perfect and very lucky in that you bought standing straw and it yielded the same as previous years.........
Thou of course you will be just about the only farmer this side of the very Northern tip of Scotland who was this lucky in 2020.......
Not if you finish them out on grass
beefandsleep
Member
- Location
- Staffordshire
Well i guess you are perfect and very lucky in that you bought standing straw and it yielded the same as previous years.........
Thou of course you will be just about the only farmer this side of the very Northern tip of Scotland who was this lucky in 2020.......
No actually I was 500 quads down on normal from my own crops and saw it coming so bought in June. Still short though so cattle will get dirty. Point being, no one with any common sense would wait until lambing was imminent before picking up the phone and ordering straw so I don’t believe price rises now will affect the economics of the job for many folks. Lamb price is very good, so it should be, we produce an excellent product at great risk and expense. Just enjoy it while it lasts instead of moaning and pleading poverty all the time, it’s like farmers only have one setting sometimes, moan!
It’s the store cattle mans turn next, there’ll be a rush for new loader tractors before the end of March.