Indoor lambing set up costs

[Andy84]

I know it’s a pretty expansive question but how many lambs do you think you save lambing a cheviot flock inside v outside. Trying to work out how long it would take to pay off the extra costs for lambing inside (eg gates, hurdles, feeders etc)

 

[sheepwise]

I know it’s a pretty expansive question but how many lambs do you think you save lambing a cheviot flock inside v outside. Trying to work out how long it would take to pay off the extra costs for lambing inside (eg gates, hurdles, feeders etc)

Depends if £150/lamb is the new normal or if £50 be nearer the mark as the pro Europeans believe.

 

[Kentishfarmer]

I think it could be argued you're looking at it the wrong way, some would say you should be changing your sheep to suit your system not changing your system to suit your sheep. It would certainly be cheaper that way!

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

Building a set up to lamb inside with all the extra work and increased levels of disease make it completely uneconomical unless you are going for early lambing.
Mind you tonight on the Marsh was not very pleasant but as someone already said get the right sheep it will be far cheaper!

 

[Stewartry hill]

Extra Labour would be the biggest cost was a thread about a night lambers pay

 

[HarryB97]

As above change the breed not the setup. Indoors is generally a waste of time even if you are lambing early as most years the price is no where as good as this year. All the bedding, cake, silage, pens, labour, disease, penning sheep up & trailering them all back outside again.

 

[Nithsdale]

I know it’s a pretty expansive question but how many lambs do you think you save lambing a cheviot flock inside v outside. Trying to work out how long it would take to pay off the extra costs for lambing inside (eg gates, hurdles, feeders etc)

How many more do you think you could possibly save?

You'll save the odd hung lamb or one still in the bag - if you're there as it happens... but there will still be the odd lamb born dead.


You'll not (shouldn't) lose any to bad weather.. but chevs should can handle bad weather - depending on what the lambs are, ofcourse


It could be argued that what you'd save to the weather inside, you could more than lose to bacterial diseases like Watery Mouth if you get into a problem

 

[gwi1890]

I think with the correct system or breed you could get less losses outside than inside

 

[Northern territory]

As above change the breed not the setup. Indoors is generally a waste of time even if you are lambing early as most years the price is no where as good as this year. All the bedding, cake, silage, pens, labour, disease, penning sheep up & trailering them all back outside again.

Nobody ever factors in the effect if everyone went to this outdoor easycare system and all the lambs came into the market at the same time. Some of us are on wet, late grass farms where outdoor lambing doesn’t work that well. I think you can manipulate stocking rates in your favour slightly with indoor lambing on smaller farms. but it obviously comes with costs.

 

[Mc115reed]

Iv nothing too hide so I’ll post all my costs exactly...

270 ewes too lamb.. inside from the 14th of jan and lambing started 24th jan all lambed and turned out by 20th of March
Scanned 162%
18 Triplets ate £103 of corn
126 singles ate £325 of corn
126 twins ate £1086 of corn
I used 24 120x90x7ft bales of hay I’d imagine they’ll be £60 a piece but not had the bill yet so £1560
15 120x90x8ft bales of hay again not had the bill yet but probably £60 a bale so £900
A girl helped me for 3 weeks 8hours a day 4 days a week and cost £1400
The value of my hurdles is £1400
The value of my walk through feeders is £560
£70 on hydrated lime
Shed rent was £1000 for 2 months start to finish
Cost me £300 get somebody come with a bob cat muck it out at the end
I spent £600 on drugs treating bad feed and bad lambings ect...
spent £150 on water pipe fittings, and pipes and a few second hand troughs
Can’t find anything else Iv wrote down as costs so that must be it So in total it cost me too lamb inside this year (I already had hurdles and walkthrough troughs but includes there value for if I had too go out and buy them fresh)

£9450 all in [emoji15] but... it was nearly a foot of snow for the whole first week of lambing, and I doubt nc mules and suffolk crosses would lamb outside that early without plenty of pain... also my land is scattered all over the place...

 

[spin cycle]

i should think there's nothing finer than lambing outdoors in lovely weather but nothing worse when weathers shite

 

[johnb5555]

Would depend what is causing your losses outside, weather, hard lambings, bad mothering

 

[S J H]

Nobody ever factors in the effect if everyone went to this outdoor easycare system and all the lambs came into the market at the same time. Some of us are on wet, late grass farms where outdoor lambing doesn’t work that well. I think you can manipulate stocking rates in your favour slightly with indoor lambing on smaller farms. but it obviously comes with costs.

We’d just have more hoggs to sell for a longer season.

 

[Northern territory]

We’d just have more hoggs to sell for a longer season.

I thought the idea was to get everything off grass as soon as possible to keep costs to a minimum.

 

[CopperBeech]

If same sheep run in each system 5 year average same num number lambs I bet. Better to work on maternal traits, scanning % or look at lambing date ?

 

[Northeastfarmer]

All very well lambing outside when it’s hay making weather....lambs wouldn’t last 5 minutes with the bitter cold winds we have had of late.
you can’t beat the option of having both

 

[Dave6170]

i should think there's nothing finer than lambing outdoors in lovely weather but nothing worse when weathers shite

Worst week we can remember here lambing outside

 

[Hillfarmer18]

Our cheviot twins started off lambing inside here due to the cold/wet weather... I’m sure we still would’ve lost fewer if they’d been outside

 

[Optimus]

Glad mine are inside.-5 here this morning and it was snowing last night.hope anything lambing outside during the night.was on its feet quick an suckling.

 

[aled1590]

Supppse it also depends what else you have going on. We lamb inside here and also calve our sucklers mid March onwards. Being able to pop in on a cow mid calving whilst doing jobs in lambing shed is handy. If I was lambing outside I could be 15-20 minutes away sorting problems out in the field. Also our fields would be a complete mud bath if it had to carry ewes on before lambing unless I would bring them in before lambing and back out again just before starting.