Ewe lambs or shearlings

[Ciderman8961]

Looking to up sheep numbers by 300.
Looking at shearlings market this year budget wont buy the mumbers required so undecided as to whether to buy what budget allows or buy ewe lambs and run them dry for 12 month and keep some money back.
What's others thoughts on it?

 

[Highland Mule]

Buy ewe lambs and don’t run them dry? The best ewe lambs should be able to take the tup this year.

Given the market prices, I’d be tempted to find alternative use for the land this year and hold off spending on stock until next year. I have a hunch that things may be cheaper in the spring, perhaps you can pick up in lamb ewes early or (my favourite) cheaper family groups in April/May - pass on the cast ewes in autumn, finish the wedders and keep the ewe lambs.

 

[Ciderman8961]

Buy ewe lambs and don’t run them dry? The best ewe lambs should be able to take the tup this year.

Given the market prices, I’d be tempted to find alternative use for the land this year and hold off spending on stock until next year. I have a hunch that things may be cheaper in the spring, perhaps you can pick up in lamb ewes early or (my favourite) cheaper family groups in April/May - pass on the cast ewes in autumn, finish the wedders and keep the ewe lambs.

Was thinking running lambs rather than tupping lambs and weve plenty grass to clear before spring.

 

[Nithsdale]

IMO you want lambs on the ground asap from this sort of size of investment... don't know how many you run currently, but 300 is a fair jump and you've probably picked the worst year to want to do it!

I'd try and buy a mixture of lambs, gimmers and some aged/draft ewes.

Tup the gimmers and ewes and the biggest/best ewe lambs and then leave the rest to run on

 

[Highland Mule]

you've probably picked the worst year to want to do it!

Do you not think it would be better to get tack in for this year and let some other mug buy at the (probable) top of the market? In any case, agreed about buying soon - the quality will drop as the year goes on, and you don’t want 300 poorer animals.

 

[Greythundercloudys]

Great topic, l think ewe lmbs are a kinda waste as they run till next November yeld and have a single in April the next year, then another 4 months till you sell it, but a gimmer or 2,3 crop ewe will lmb this April. Its very hard to balance it, l keep about 50 homebred and buy 50 mules and also 70 aged ewes, but year ago we ran 170 gimmering lmbs.

 

[Greythundercloudys]

Yes buy a mix of everything, small gimmering lmbs are making around 90 odd£, that to expensive for running yeld for another 13month, eating grass for no return.

 

[Ysgythan]

We buy ewe lambs and run them. They last longer than lambed hoggs or stuffed shearlings.

 

[Jim75]

300 ShetlandS won’t need much investment apart from fences and sanity

 

[cotswoldcs]

Upping sheep numbers by 300 is quite an increase, even for a large flock. What numbers are you running presently? Having a large percentage of young ewes introduced into the flock will cause headaches and will affect vaccine costs per head if you routinely vaccinate for EAE, Toxo, etc. If it were me I'd buy 150 theaves and 150 running ewe lambs, ideally from the same farm. That way you'll not be lambing 300 young ewes next lambing and might actually thank me for the advice (in time!)

 

[Nithsdale]

Do you not think it would be better to get tack in for this year and let some other mug buy at the (probable) top of the market? In any case, agreed about buying soon - the quality will drop as the year goes on, and you don’t want 300 poorer animals.

If you have the land and want to run your own ewes, soon, why heighten the risks of disease coming in by allowing someone else to trot their ewes over it?

But on the other side of that, the income would be nice to help fund the extra sheep needing/wanting bought...
Catch 22 maybe.





My comment re. getting lambs as soon as possible - I actually meant you need to be putting tups out this autumn to at least a % of the flock so that you are getting some return from the outlay as quickly as possible. 300, 2nd or 3rd draw ewe lambs running for 18 months before lambing is a very long time with no return

 

[Greythundercloudys]

Exactly, nithdale.

 

[Ciderman8961]

If you have the land and want to run your own ewes, soon, why heighten the risks of disease coming in by allowing someone else to trot their ewes over it?

But on the other side of that, the income would be nice to help fund the extra sheep needing/wanting bought...
Catch 22 maybe.





My comment re. getting lambs as soon as possible - I actually meant you need to be putting tups out this autumn to at least a % of the flock so that you are getting some return from the outlay as quickly as possible. 300, 2nd or 3rd draw ewe lambs running for 18 months before lambing is a very long time with no return

My thoughts were if I bought shearlings I would need to lay out a lot more money than my budget.
My working out is I could buy the full 300 as ewe lambs and run them dry say 25k invested
Or invest 25k in shearlings and tups yes I'd have a return in first year but still short on numbers so would need to invest any return in additional shearlings to get to where we want to be so in theory no return until year 2 anyway.

 

[Nithsdale]

My thoughts were if I bought shearlings I would need to lay out a lot more money than my budget.
My working out is I could buy the full 300 as ewe lambs and run them dry say 25k invested
Or invest 25k in shearlings and tups yes I'd have a return in first year but still short on numbers so would need to invest any return in additional shearlings to get to where we want to be so in theory no return until year 2 anyway.

You're wanting 300 (extra?) ewes. You have to outlay the money to buy/establish them 1 way or another, there is no getting away from that.


If you buy say 100 gimmers then 100 ewe lambs this year. You will get a return on the £ spent buying those 100 gimmers this time next year - meaning that investment is working for you, quicker. The lambs sold off those gimmers can also reduce how much £ you need to put into the next step of expanding the flock as you reinvest the profit from the first 100 gimmers... its not about making money at this point, its about minimalising your outlay and maximising a quick turnover of the capital invested making the money (sheep) work for its keep.

If you blow your budget on smaller running ewe lambs. You've still just spent your budget but you get 0 return from your investment until Summer/Autumn 2022 - a full year later than those more expensive gimmers. That's fine if you feel you can afford to put out your quoted £25k and don't need to see a return on it for so long...

Only you know your financial situation (keep that to yourself, none of us need to know your personal position) and whether you can afford that outlay.

All I'd say is gimmers look cheap compared to lambs. @Gator posted a sale yesterday 2nd draw lambs are still averaging over £100!

Do what you feel most confident and comfortable with doing. But if it were me, for 300 ewe flock - I'd be buying 80 gimmers, 80-100 ewe lambs and then whatever £ is left from the budget I'd be mopping up any good aged ewes I can get my hands on and I'd tup everything except the ewe lambs (unless they were big enough)

 

[Al R]

@Ciderman8961 how many ewes have you got already? More land come available or upping on existing acreage? Sorry to be nosy but like all the others on here jumping up 300 isn’t easy. On 1300+ ewes I can increase by 200 every year from my own ewes BUT I don’t keep anything from over half of the ewes.

 

[Ciderman8961]

@Ciderman8961 how many ewes have you got already? More land come available or upping on existing acreage? Sorry to be nosy but like all the others on here jumping up 300 isn’t easy. On 1300+ ewes I can increase by 200 every year from my own ewes BUT I don’t keep anything from over half of the ewes.

Currently at 1400 ewes.
More ground come available which could easily carry another 300 ewes.
But sods law ground come available after we sold this years lambs

 

[Al R]

Currently at 1400 ewes.
More ground come available which could easily carry another 300 ewes.
But sods law ground come available after we sold this years lambs

I know that feeling! Not a massive step up then Draft ewes? Their hard enough to find but at least you can put your own rams on, ive done this for 4 years, 1 farm just has draft ewes on and most Ewe lambs kept off them to feed 1 of the other farms.

 

[Jim75]

500 shetlands for that money.............sorry

 

[spin cycle]

Looking to up sheep numbers by 300.
Looking at shearlings market this year budget wont buy the mumbers required so undecided as to whether to buy what budget allows or buy ewe lambs and run them dry for 12 month and keep some money back.
What's others thoughts on it?

if thats your gut feeling then run with it

 

[beardface]

I'd buy some 3/4 crop ewes of good quality and keep the glimmers out of them. Why buy overpriced gimmers/shearling? Sheep trade is well up on the year so everyone will have sheep fever at the sales.