How high is too high

[Coximus]

Depends how bad it is fencing is out but npk and ph / hedge cutting is doable

Hence using that ground to run on ewes after weaning is the only thing its useful for.
Sadly most land lords these days dont understand the land -
As for me
Ive averaged 12-20% increases in kg/lamb sold/Ha for the last 3 years by improving grass usage and improving the ground, at less than the cost of one lamb for each ha over the past 4 years..... But i have neighbours laughing at me for having shedding and black sheep..... and giving my stick for not creeping, flushing or feeding cake...... but they moan theirs no money in farming.

 

[digger64]

It’s certainly doable (that’s what I inherited here) but if it’s had bugger all put in and hay/silage taken off each year, it will likely have been drained of P&K. To correct pH and P&K on that sort of ground takes more inputs than it produces for several years, hence my comment about having be very cheap if only for 5 years.

An fbt arable farmer would feed his crops to yield grass can be similar not ideal but thats the way it is , very commonly done put inputs on sort of hand to mouth then mine it in year 5 , grass with inputs will finish/ carry much more stock than being in an enviromental straight jacket , if you do nothing it just gets worse and nature wins

 

[Kiwi Pete]

No it's more a case of limited amount of customers willing to buy direct. We can all sell twenty lambs to friends and family but try selling another twenty and you'd struggle IME.

Wow, really?
I sell lamb to sheep farming families, and could have kept going but ran out of crappy little late lambs eventually. Easily 10 or 15 per month, not heaps but a good wee sideline all the same.
Hoggets are a damn good idea, if you can keep them cheaply, beats those little toothbrush sized chops in the supermarket

 

[Macsky]

I’d imagine it would be easier to finish hogget off grass alone (cheapest source of feed), and could open the door to the grass-fed trend (consumers equating it to more healthy and higher welfare) that has swept the States, adding some further appeal and hopefully value to the product.

 

[digger64]

Wow, really?
I sell lamb to sheep farming families, and could have kept going but ran out of crappy little late lambs eventually. Easily 10 or 15 per month, not heaps but a good wee sideline all the same.
Hoggets are a damn good idea, if you can keep them cheaply, beats those little toothbrush sized chops in the supermarket

Do you have large supermarkets within 20 mins drive in all directions ? We have a small farm shop with very low overheads (beef etc is ok ) lamb just doesn't sell in any quantity its to dear unless we subsidize it ,not many want to buy a 1/2 or whole one , the slaughter /cutting charge seems high though but breaking it up and vac packing doesn't help

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Do you have large supermarkets within 20 mins drive in all directions ? We have a small farm shop with very low overheads (beef etc is ok ) lamb just doesn't sell in any quantity its to dear unless we subsidize it ,not many want to buy a 1/2 or whole one , the slaughter /cutting charge seems high though but breaking it up and vac packing doesn't help

Depends how large is large? Supermarket every 20 minutes up the road one way, but a long way around the coast to find one

I just sell per lamb, cut up to customers spec, unless they want to split one, I can't be faffed with little packets tbh.
$10/kilo, seems fair to me

 

[Lovegoodstock]

I genuinely don't know, people speak of ebvs for eating quality etc, ive said on another thread here before I believe the main thing is treatment of animal pre slaughter. I normally do a few for myself and friends via a friend/farmer/ butcher a mile down the road. Stunned killed on his farm. Done this way obviously cant charge they have it for free and buy me 150 quid of gifts/ beer. But he supplies restaurants with his lambs that have travelled to abattoir and come back and they keep fresh for 3 weeks. A few he did for me I forgot about and he reminded me a month or so later and I asked if they were still ok and he said as stress free they will be ok for 6 weeks. I used to supply friends with 10 month old heavy fat lambs to get the taste, I had one lamb that would have been a 17 kilo dw r2 break its leg, loading to kill as kill lambs off of hogs young to sell mothers fit as shearlings, decided whether to put it in freezer or just get rid, it ate and tasted as good as mature hogget, convinced its travelling distance and stress why meat doesn't taste, so many abattoirs shut in last2 decades, animals travel up and down country, stood on lorry travelling must tense muscles, they so hate change so stress, sure we are chasing up wrong tree in spending on research to eating quality, few friends ate a leg of that bog standard r2 charolais on nc mule and genuinely thought it was superb, after I had tried other leg first to see, they then paid for likewise lamb but a bit heavier 160 quid, absolutely sure whilst impossible a return to small local abattoirs would increase demand and sales for uk meat

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Interesting you should mention the stress factor David, because UK supermarkets suggested that we should not use dogs in the yards at work - so they don't anymore.
It used to sound like boarding kennels, enough dogs to move 12000 lambs per day, and now tame sheep are used (like I do at home) to lead the pens of lamb.
I find it quite odd that our big processors just love to lap up those type of changes to suit buyers' requests if it doesn't make a difference to eating quality - so I think there is your proof that it does!
I have often toyed with having a special herb area especially for finishing our homekill lamb - thyme and borage and rosemary etc, to see how detectable it is in the meat..

 

[Ysgythan]

Lamb is selling really well now great news but is it? I was told last week in ruthin that a big dutch buyer wasnt coming because the lambs were too expensive for them at current exchange rate. Didnt matter they still sold well but it got me thinking.
How high can lamb go before people in shops buying packs of meat cant afford it anymore?
What happens then? Lamb consumption is already in decline. If lamb prices go too high for too long the cost will eventually be passed on to the end consumer and then they will buy less. What happens then lamb prices drop due to lack of demand and people start eating lamb again. We will always have peaks and troughs in the trade and i dont see that ever changing but whats a fair price for everyone? So people can still afford to buy lamb and eat it regularly and we can stand a chance of making a living off the job. Tough question.

Any other industry, go on find me another industry that has sellers guilt...

 

[GTB]

Wow, really?
I sell lamb to sheep farming families, and could have kept going but ran out of crappy little late lambs eventually. Easily 10 or 15 per month, not heaps but a good wee sideline all the same.
Hoggets are a damn good idea, if you can keep them cheaply, beats those little toothbrush sized chops in the supermarket

Bear in mind that every farm for miles around keep sheep here and nearly everyone sells a few lambs to friends and family...

 

[Tim W]

Don't worry about a spot price being high at one time of year ----worry that you can produce lamb at the average price you sell at across the year and still make a living
Then reduce that price by 20% and see if you can still weather the storm
Then your business will be in good shape

 

[digger64]

[QUOTE="Lovegoodstock, post: 4828588, membconsequently I genuinely don't know, people speak of ebvs for eating quality etc, ive said on another thread here before I believe the main thing is treatment of animal pre slaughter. I normally do a few for myself and friends via a friend/farmer/ butcher a mile down the road. Stunned killed on his farm. Done this way obviously cant charge they have it for free and buy me 150 quid of gifts/ beer. But he supplies restaurants with his lambs that have travelled to abattoir and come back and they keep fresh for 3 weeks. A few he did for me I forgot about and he reminded me a month or so later and I asked if they were still ok and he said as stress free they will be ok for 6 weeks. I used to supply friends with 10 month old heavy fat lambs to get the taste, I had one lamb that would have been a 17 kilo dw r2 break its leg, loading to kill as kill lambs off of hogs young to sell mothers fit as shearlings, decided whether to put it in freezer or just get rid, it ate and tasted as good as mature hogget, convinced its travelling distance and stress why meat doesrn't taste, so many abattoirs shut in last2 decades, animals travel up and down country, stood on lorry travelling must tense muscles, they so hate change so stress, sure we are chasing up wrong tree in spending on research to eating quality, few friends ate a leg of that bog standard r2 charolais on nc mule and genuinely thought it was superb, after I had tried other leg first to see, they then paid for likewise lamb but a bit heavier 160 quid, absolutely sure whilst impossible a return to small local abattoirs would increase demand and sales for uk meat[/QUOTE]


Re an ebv for eating quality and probably consequently stress surely this must be worth a look , surely some stress is inevitable however hard you try to reduce it, wouldn't it be better to have an animal that could cope better than tred on egg shells constantly and apply medicines , I can remember what happened with pig wasting disease , that had costs /effects far beyond eating quality due to disregard to practical traits on an industry wide basis

 

[hendrebc]

Any other industry, go on find me another industry that has sellers guilt...

No guilt at all. Just see what others think the market will stand before we lose even more market share to other cheaper meats

 

[Top Tip.]

If we could get the marketing right and make lamb a must have product price would be irrelevant. You could charge what you liked.

 

[Greythundercloudys]

Lambs /hoggs are never to dear when your selling them, every penny is needed, you never hear folk saying beefs to dear, l said for years cake/ fertilizer is to dear but have to buy it.

 

[digger64]

Can't TE="Top Tip., post: 4828812, member: 1078"]If we could get the marketing right and make lamb a must have product price would be irrelevant. You could charge what you liked.[/QUOTE]
Cant see that one some how , unless you could form an international cartel , I expect if your cake or straw etc is to dear you start exploring alternatives or question your system and react if you can .

 

[digger64]

No guilt at all. Just see what others think the market will stand before we lose even more market share to other cheaper meats

Perhaps the answer is a bigger leaner dopey easycare type sheep ?

 

[hendrebc]

Perhaps the answer is a bigger leaner dopey easycare type sheep ?

Maybe. I.dont know what the answer is tbh
Not even sure i know what the question really is either

 

[foobar]

If we could get the marketing right and make lamb a must have product price would be irrelevant. You could charge what you liked.

Totally agree with this - compare it to stuff like iphones/ipads that cost a packet but every man and his dog and his kids must have the very latest model as soon as they come out. They can afford that, but think they can't afford a good joint of lamb. It's nothing to do with price its all to do with marketing.

 

[Gulli]

Totally agree with this - compare it to stuff like iphones/ipads that cost a packet but every man and his dog and his kids must have the very latest model as soon as they come out. They can afford that, but think they can't afford a good joint of lamb. It's nothing to do with price its all to do with marketing.

Not comparing like for like there really. Name a food that sells in volume and charges what it wants?