Drawing lambs - Overnight weight loss

[Jerry]

To get a decent slot in Exeter of a Monday for NSL you need to be at the gate soon after 6am as the queues can be an hour as numbers build.

I’ve always like to draw lambs fresh of the ewes and take them straight in. That means now I need to have sheep in by 4:30am.

Lambs are weighed on arrival in market.

How much will lambs loose if drawn evening before and put inside with creep?

 

[Skintagain]

To get a decent slot in Exeter of a Monday for NSL you need to be at the gate soon after 6am as the queues can be an hour as numbers build.

I’ve always like to draw lambs fresh of the ewes and take them straight in. That means now I need to have sheep in by 4:30am.

Lambs are weighed on arrival in market.

How much will lambs loose if drawn evening before and put inside with creep?

Just rock up at 9.

 

[pauld]

3kg at a guess

 

[z.man]

To get a decent slot in Exeter of a Monday for NSL you need to be at the gate soon after 6am as the queues can be an hour as numbers build.

I’ve always like to draw lambs fresh of the ewes and take them straight in. That means now I need to have sheep in by 4:30am.

Lambs are weighed on arrival in market.

How much will lambs loose if drawn evening before and put inside with creep?

3kg, if on creep maybe a little less, depending on how full of grass they are, they probably won’t eat much if straight off their mothers....will be to busy bleating

 

[Jerry]

Just rock up at 9.

do that and you’d be lucky to unload by 10 and be at the end of sale currently

 

[Sheepfog]

Another option is to mark the fat ones a few days before. Then on the morning of sale draft them out and away you go. Means getting them in twice, but less time pressure on market day.

 

[Al R]

3kg usually in urine and poo. I don’t know why people load straight into lorries though, I’ve got some going in the next hour, they were in by 6.30, tagged and marked 7-8 days ago, won’t be long and I’ll be marking 12-14 days in advance. Just went through a bunch now and every lamb hasn’t put on a single KG in 7 days, they have been stood in for 2.5 hours in the pens with their mothers though but this wet weather has hit them!

 

[Jerry]

Another option is to mark the fat ones a few days before. Then on the morning of sale draft them out and away you go. Means getting them in twice, but less time pressure on market day.

yes. I already do that. Weigh on Thursday normally

 

[Sheepfog]

yes. I already do that. Weigh on Thursday normally

For NSL I wouldn't take them off their mums overnight. They will lose a lot of weight and look worse.

 

[JSmith]

I was worried about this but I’ve been drawing them the night before an putting on a fresh paddock by the yard with creep an haven’t found them to loose a lot of weight at all, they’ve been on a desert though and are probably happy to eat fresh green half the night!! They do call an wander a bit but they’ve eaten the creep every time, I draw them in the afternoon so it’s only an overnight job!! Not done it before due to the concerns mentioned above but it’s worked well so far

 

[Agrivator]

Almost every seller is in the same boat. But lambs used to creep or still with their mothers when you wean and load them will lose about 1kg less than lambs standing without feed from the evening before.

But regular sellers will probably have regular buyers who will buy on reputation - how your lambs kill out and sometimes on how much luck you might leave!!!!

 

[exmoor dave]

To get a decent slot in Exeter of a Monday for NSL you need to be at the gate soon after 6am as the queues can be an hour as numbers build.

I’ve always like to draw lambs fresh of the ewes and take them straight in. That means now I need to have sheep in by 4:30am.

Lambs are weighed on arrival in market.

How much will lambs loose if drawn evening before and put inside with creep?

IMO stick to what you are doing..... the current prices at least make it all worth while big time.


We do the same for lambs going pre- weaning.
In at very first light and sort quickly as we can

 

[cattleman123]

What i would do is pull a few known mothers with them if really want to go down that road...they will settle better

 

[MJT]

I’d say they’d lose an extra KG at least from being in the night before . Running around bleating for their mother’s will make them lose weight fast. We weigh and Mark on the Wednesday or Thursday for Monday market and then when splitting on Monday morning weigh the marked ones again to check, take no extra time as the scales is halfway up the race. Gives piece of mind what they should roughly be when go over market scales then, sometimes get odd one that’s lost a couple of Kg in those few days for whatever reason.

 

[Agrivator]

I’d say they’d lose an extra KG at least from being in the night before . Running around bleating for their mother’s will make them lose weight fast. We weigh and Mark on the Wednesday or Thursday for Monday market and then when splitting on Monday morning weigh the marked ones again to check, take no extra time as the scales is halfway up the race. Gives piece of mind what they should roughly be when go over market scales then, sometimes get odd one that’s lost a couple of Kg in those few days for whatever reason.

that depends on the relative accuracy of your scales versus the market scales.

 

[Fendt516profi]

that depends on the relative accuracy of your scales versus the market scales.

My scales are accurate, the auction mart on the other hand

 

[Jerry]

My scales are accurate, the auction mart on the other hand

I switched to digital scales 3 years ago and made sure the auctioneer knew.

We’ve agreed to ever since...

It helps that can weigh and have a load in within an hour even with queuing as the market is only 4 miles away.

 

[tr250]

yes. I already do that. Weigh on Thursday normally

What’s wrong with being at the end of the sale? I find they usually make more. I think the market should draw rows of pens at random then there is no need to be first or last un loading

 

[Fendt516profi]

What’s wrong with being at the end of the sale? I find they usually make more. I think the market should draw rows of pens at random then there is no need to be first or last un loading

Don't they draw a ballet?

 

[tr250]

Don't they draw a ballet?

They don’t draw at our local mart