Ram costs

[andybk]

And after all that... we finally get there

and thats why you dont buy the fat wobblers at mart , off chancers ,or at least pay 1 years use , after 40 years selling , my rams from home they are lasting average 6 years with my customers (selling 70+ a year ) , looking at rotations from my selling book (a lot of customers go back 25- 30 years ) , and some , im told are sold on for further use . im sure many private sellers have a similar story , one of my rivals who treats his sheep just as commercially i know has figures very similar .Basically if your buying from builth / kelso tread v carefully , a 100kg ram lamb has only got there one way !

 

[egbert]

A good days shopping then. What was trade like in general?

update...pretty slack. Topped at £620 i think I heard, lot of good sheep traded at £250

 

[Hooby Farmer]

Sold two rams last week that were easily 8 years old. They were key in producing the majority of my flocks breeding. Got £178 for one a £167 for the other, I nearly fell off the chair. I thought if I got 50 quid for them I'd be doing particularly well.

 

[ShooTa]

sold a nice lleyn trip ... had some great lineage.. £80.. less than happy but cant take him into winter - ill be moving any ram sales direct and via online rather than the mart now.

 

[Estate fencing.]

sold a nice lleyn trip ... had some great lineage.. £80.. less than happy but cant take him into winter - ill be moving any ram sales direct and via online rather than the mart now.

Lleyns never do well at market do they. Iv got two that no wouldn’t be £100 in market (I paid £700 for them) that have produced 500 really good ewe lambs.

 

[Jerry]

Lleyns never do well at market do they. Iv got two that no wouldn’t be £100 in market (I paid £700 for them) that have produced 500 really good ewe lambs.

I’m now selling 30 plus Lleyn rams a season…..they don’t see the inside of a ring.

 

[Estate fencing.]

I’m now selling 30 plus Lleyn rams a season…..they don’t see the inside of a ring.

That’s what I meant, better sold at home. Mine have been great tups really, iv never seen either of them work, I even put a raddle on one last year and he never marked one, I reckon that why the keep there condition because they tup a ewe then rest not like my suffolks that tup the same ewe 20 time and burn out after a week.

 

[NZDan]

That’s a common one with gimmer lambs as well. People don’t start bidding until it hits £100. Many people don’t follow there own judgement. I bought a tup I wanted for £370 the other week, I would have happy paid £700 for him because he was right for my job. Next one in the ring (not as good) made £550!

I went to buy a tup privately a year or two back, I had a budget of $4k, I picked the tup I liked out of a group of 80 odd, I though he was worth $3k to me, I asked the vendor how much he wanted for him.......$650..... we were both happy.

 

[Ysgythan]

There’s 364 days a year when you’d rank tups according to all sorts of criteria, and then on AI day events mean all the cards are thrown in the air…

 

[muleman]

Nobody ever regretted buying a tup that was too good.

Cant buy em too dear!

 

[unlacedgecko]

A maternal ram will have direct daughters in the flock for up to 10 years. I’ve never shied away from spending big (relatively speaking) on maternal rams.

If finishing lambs yourself, there’s a crossover of increased income from better grades and increased income from extra live lambs.

One of my customers runs a large flock single handed. Between lambing ease and increased value from ewe lamb sales he’s dispensed with terminals entirely. Everything goes to maternal tups.

 

[SteveHants]

I still think the sheep industry is missing a trick with heterosis and its much easier to gain (almost) max HV with a three way cross and much easier to manage on one farm breeding replacements if you use a crossbred male (or so I found). I know people seem to think that there's too much variation in lambs, but I've never found this using a SufTex, however, I'm sure there's a niche for two more similar looking terminals crossed....
Maybe Char X Roussin or, dare I say Tex X Beltex......

Edited to add: Yes, I realise that a mule x terminal is a three way cross, but there's an inbuilt lack of control of the female breeding stock in that system.

 

[unlacedgecko]

I still think the sheep industry is missing a trick with heterosis and its much easier to gain (almost) max HV with a three way cross and much easier to manage on one farm breeding replacements if you use a crossbred male (or so I found). I know people seem to think that there's too much variation in lambs, but I've never found this using a SufTex, however, I'm sure there's a niche for two more similar looking terminals crossed....
Maybe Char X Roussin or, dare I say Tex X Beltex......

Edited to add: Yes, I realise that a mule x terminal is a three way cross, but there's an inbuilt lack of control of the female breeding stock in that system.

would you want a production female bred from the bottom half of someone else’s flock?

 

[SteveHants]

would you want a production female bred from the bottom half of someone else’s flock?

Well no, I would want a first cross terminal to put to a pure maternal to have maternal and individual HV at 100%

 

[neilo]

I still think the sheep industry is missing a trick with heterosis and its much easier to gain (almost) max HV with a three way cross and much easier to manage on one farm breeding replacements if you use a crossbred male (or so I found). I know people seem to think that there's too much variation in lambs, but I've never found this using a SufTex, however, I'm sure there's a niche for two more similar looking terminals crossed....
Maybe Char X Roussin or, dare I say Tex X Beltex......

Edited to add: Yes, I realise that a mule x terminal is a three way cross, but there's an inbuilt lack of control of the female breeding stock in that system.

How very dare you! It would be a pee poor Charollais that resembled a Roussin, let alone if it had similar performance!

 

[SteveHants]

How very dare you! It would be a pee poor Charollais that resembled a Roussin, let alone if it had similar performance!

*insert other continental terminal that looks like a char here*

Meatlinc?

But the point is, the maternal heterosis would be worth having, even more so if it came from two recorded animals.

 

[neilo]

*insert other continental terminal that looks like a char here*

Meatlinc?

Crikey! What Charollais have you been looking at?

 

[SteveHants]

Crikey! What Charollais have you been looking at?

Wooly heads was the best I could do at this time of night....

Either way, they look more similar than a Suffolk and a Texel...

 

[Ysgythan]

I still think the sheep industry is missing a trick with heterosis and its much easier to gain (almost) max HV with a three way cross and much easier to manage on one farm breeding replacements if you use a crossbred male (or so I found). I know people seem to think that there's too much variation in lambs, but I've never found this using a SufTex, however, I'm sure there's a niche for two more similar looking terminals crossed....
Maybe Char X Roussin or, dare I say Tex X Beltex......

Edited to add: Yes, I realise that a mule x terminal is a three way cross, but there's an inbuilt lack of control of the female breeding stock in that system.

Three way Heterosis is practically standard here and in NZ, just they use crossbred tups and we use crossbred ewes.

 

[Ysgythan]

Cant buy em too dear!

It’s always the dear ones who’ve paid best here.