How many Store lambs

[Kazak]

How many store lambs could you run in 35 acres? What average profit could you get x head?
Good ground. Old pp. good fencing (mostly)
Lambing 100 ewes and run 20 empty replacements and wondering if i would b better off finishing stores..
I see it as more of a money gamble but less labour than keeping ewes all year around.Could b wrong though.

 

[livestock 1]

How many store lambs could you run in 35 acres? What average profit could you get x head?
Good ground. Old pp. good fencing (mostly)
Lambing 100 ewes and run 20 empty replacements and wondering if i would b better off finishing stores..

If you are finishing stores prepare to spread your profits over 4/5 years. You really can’t compare one year to another as usually there’s a good year in every four. You might make money every year but you will get years where there isn’t much in it. At least the experience I have had. It’s really a numbers game too

 

[Anymulewilldo]

I'd stick too lambing sheep. Our store lambs supplement our own lamb numbers. I think it's too much risk to just feed stores. The input/output fluctuates that much. Some years 3000 lambs make a damn good winter wage up, others I think I'd have been as well just finishing the home bred lambs and shelf stacking in Tesco all winter.
Plus the trend at the moment seems to be against lambing sheep, so any form of sheep enterprise that doesn't involve lambing ewes has a lot more interest therefore more competition in the sale ring.
You would probably keep 200 lambs on the 35 acre BUT you would have too be pretty handy with the corn bag after the first 6 weeks or so too keep them growing.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

How many paddocks have you got on 35 acres, this makes a big difference to stocking rate and performance

 

[Kazak]

How many paddocks have you got on 35 acres, this makes a big difference to stocking rate and performance

6 permanent paddocks.
I use electric fence atm to split them again when I need to leaving me 10 paddocks.
If electric fence would work that handy for stores as for my own sheep or not its a different story.

 

[unlacedgecko]

6 permanent paddocks.
I use electric fence atm to split them again when I need to leaving me 10 paddocks.
If electric fence would work that handy for stores as for my own sheep or not its a different story.

Don't Starve them and keep the power up you'll be fine.

I've got 1700 stores behind wire at the moment. Non had seen a fence before they came to me. They move paddock every 2 days and are behaving well.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

6 permanent paddocks.
I use electric fence atm to split them again when I need to leaving me 10 paddocks.
If electric fence would work that handy for stores as for my own sheep or not its a different story.

That's a good start, one thing I have learnt about permanent pasture is that it produces SFA if it isn't subdivided well - or at least SFA that sheep want by late summer!
Well, for what it's worth, back in the 80's/90's the sheep farmer here ran 480 ewes on our 105 acres.
He didn't keep replacements but bought them in, which means a few more ewes and a few more lambs out the gate?
That was all-grass too, no forage crops, wee bit of hay over winter, probably avgd 700 lambs a year?

This would equate to maybe 450 ewes today, as ewes are generally bigger because the lamb spec is bigger too = more grass required for lamb finishing?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Don't Starve them and keep the power up you'll be fine.

I've got 1700 stores behind wire at the moment. Non had seen a fence before they came to me. They move paddock every 2 days and are behaving well.

Sheep going hungry this round = sheep going hungry next round too, grass grows grass

 

[Green farmer]

. Some years 3000 lambs make a damn good winter wage up, others I think I'd have been as well just finishing the home bred lambs and shelf stacking in Tesco all winter.

I came to that conclusion from working with sheep. Full stop. So cutting numbers back by at least 50% and going to take a handy part time job off farm instead.