Night Lamber

cpsf

Member
Good morning everyone. Just a quick question please...what is the going rate per hour for a night lamber this year? Someone that would be experienced in assisting sheep with lambing and not just able to attend to pens. Thanks in advance for any feedback (y)
 

jandl

Member
Good morning everyone. Just a quick question please...what is the going rate per hour for a night lamber this year? Someone that would be experienced in assisting sheep with lambing and not just able to attend to pens. Thanks in advance for any feedback (y)
We only lamb a small percentage of our ewes indoors, and not enough to justify paying for a night lamber, so there will be others who will know better than me. If I was charging though I’d expect no less than £1000 per week (7 days)
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Good morning everyone. Just a quick question please...what is the going rate per hour for a night lamber this year? Someone that would be experienced in assisting sheep with lambing and not just able to attend to pens. Thanks in advance for any feedback (y)

You are opening a can of worms, with farmers moaning the rates are too dear, and contract shepherds moaning that they should be doubled.

I would suggest £12/hr was about right, assuming they won’t be expected to lamb/pen up 150 ewes a night on their own.

Over to you @unlacedgecko 😂
 

unlacedgecko

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Fife
You are opening a can of worms, with farmers moaning the rates are too dear, and contract shepherds moaning that they should be doubled.

I would suggest £12/hr was about right, assuming they won’t be expected to lamb/pen up 150 ewes a night on their own.

Over to you @unlacedgecko 😂
I don't get out of bed for less than £20/hr.

I spend a lot of time in bed talking online about what I would do. Very little time actually doing anything though.
 

copse

Member
Mixed Farmer
Good morning everyone. Just a quick question please...what is the going rate per hour for a night lamber this year? Someone that would be experienced in assisting sheep with lambing and not just able to attend to pens. Thanks in advance for any feedback (y)
Paying £15 an hour here and that’s with them staying here and getting three meals a day
 

Agrivator

Member
The main reason for a night-time lamber is to prevent mix-ups.

And the fewer the ewes in each pen, the fewer the mix-ups. And with the same breed of ewe in each, all in lamb to the same breed of tup, the more the mix-ups.

And how do you guard against the lamber having extended naps? It does happen,
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
And how do you guard against the lamber having extended naps? It does happen,

Isn’t that what lambing cameras are for?🤔

I employ a night lamber for the first week or so lambing my pedigree flock, as we have all the ET lambs born at the beginning as well as the natural mating lot starting. She’s not busy and they’re not a difficult lambing breed, but I need to make sure of who’s lambs are who’s for the pedigrees and ebvs to have any accuracy.
After that, when they’ve slowed down, the camera and regular checks is enough. When we used to have 180-200 Pedigree ewes all due over a week, a night lamber was almost essential.

As to cost, when our (exceptionally good) night lamber got to £14/hr, it was the catalyst to change away from Texel x ewes and onto outdoor lambing. The money’s just not in the job, not that that is the night lamber’s problem of course.
 

DanM

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Country
Isn’t that what lambing cameras are for?🤔

I employ a night lamber for the first week or so lambing my pedigree flock, as we have all the ET lambs born at the beginning as well as the natural mating lot starting. She’s not busy and they’re not a difficult lambing breed, but I need to make sure of who’s lambs are who’s for the pedigrees and ebvs to have any accuracy.
After that, when they’ve slowed down, the camera and regular checks is enough. When we used to have 180-200 Pedigree ewes all due over a week, a night lamber was almost essential.

As to cost, when our (exceptionally good) night lamber got to £14/hr, it was the catalyst to change away from Texel x ewes and onto outdoor lambing. The money’s just not in the job, not that that is the night lamber’s problem of course.
Does Mrs @neilo know that you sit watching your female lambing assistant on cctv…😜
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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