Ram costs

z.man

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
central scotland
We just buy plenty if they are cheap and just buy enough when they are dear....... had 4 at a sale 3 years ago for £650 gross this year had another 4 £1500 gross none the year in between mix of lambs and shearlings, lambs are grand for a bit of chasing up when the old boys are starting to lag a bit , competition seems to spur them on again 😂
 

egbert

Member
Livestock Farmer
What has everyone spent on a ram? i am on my second Tupping and have heard two schools of thought. You buy cheaper or from the fat ring and run them then sale the ram( if bad) or you buy a more expensive quality breeding accredited tup and keep for few years. What is everyone's opinion on this i am puzzled?
1st lesson, as amply show above....unless you're pretty sure of the background, ne'er buy out of the fat pens.
90% of the time there'll be a good reason he's there.

Otherwise...
depends on your situation.
If you've got a few misc ewes to keep the trash down, that need tupping, talk to a friendly sheepman locally.
Many would keep you back a decent entire for little more than a fat.
(for despite what everyone will wail, that's all a ram is)

You might want to spend more, but you've only an evens chance of doing better than the above in the long term.
It certainly is not a case of 'the more you pay for a tup, the more his lambs are worth'.
I've tried everything from the 'champion' on the day (which are as prone to dropping down deid as anything else), to ferals off unmanaged flocks, with a price tag of a bottle of something warming.
Have a guess which has done me the most good!
If you trust your own judgement, try pushing something you fancy at the tup sales. Sometimes it'll work, sometimes it won't.

You don't say what sort of ground you're on.....
I'm almost indifferent to what the store lambs will look like - few fat lambs are gathered off Mt Egbert.
What concerns me is whether the daughters of a new tup will persist under the conditions they'll subject to.
Maintaining the flock structure is everything.
And explaining how to judge that, or what it costs, is more than a single reply can do.
 

Cmoran

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Galway Ireland
I tend to have bad luck with purebred rams they either get lame and can’t cure or die!! Blue texal I bought as hog last year decided to die in August as did my Milford ram!!all my crossbred Charolais rams seem to last for years bought 3 more blue texal Hogs this year to give them another chance!!
 

Moors Lad

Member
Location
N Yorks
Buying from the fat ring is utter madness UNLESS you know the vendor and trust him to give you a sound reason why you could trust his ram/rams to do the job. You could be buying an infertile one, one that`s prone to foot trouble (or breeds lambs that go lame , or have an even worse fault!). It might be a ram showing very early symptoms of an "iceberg" disease -the list of potential pitfalls goes on......
Try to buy a decent tup from a genuine man with a good reputation - usually you`ll be safest that way . Good luck!:)
PS Usually tups are in the "fat" for a reason...!
 

Estate fencing.

Member
Livestock Farmer
What has everyone spent on a ram? i am on my second Tupping and have heard two schools of thought. You buy cheaper or from the fat ring and run them then sale the ram( if bad) or you buy a more expensive quality breeding accredited tup and keep for few years. What is everyone's opinion on this i am puzzled?
Buy the tup I want not the price (upto £1000). Tups are bloody cheap really, and you will know if you have bought good tups when people keep asking where you get them from when selling lambs.
 

Estate fencing.

Member
Livestock Farmer
Alot of folk won't bid for a tup until it gets to £1000, it seems they can't value them for themselves and don't want to be seen buying one for £200
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!
 

hill shepherd

Member
Livestock Farmer
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!
Me and my mate both liked the same tup at a sale a few years back, he sais he'd take it to £1200, which is what the vendor was expecting, but if I wanted it he'd pick another out of the same pen. I got it for £500, he got his for £80
 

Moors Lad

Member
Location
N Yorks
Me and my mate both liked the same tup at a sale a few years back, he sais he'd take it to £1200, which is what the vendor was expecting, but if I wanted it he'd pick another out of the same pen. I got it for £500, he got his for £80
Good job you were mates and not strangers both at the ringside bidding against one another... :ROFLMAO:
 

Sendhelp

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Scotland
1st lesson, as amply show above....unless you're pretty sure of the background, ne'er buy out of the fat pens.
90% of the time there'll be a good reason he's there.

Otherwise...
depends on your situation.
If you've got a few misc ewes to keep the trash down, that need tupping, talk to a friendly sheepman locally.
Many would keep you back a decent entire for little more than a fat.
(for despite what everyone will wail, that's all a ram is)

You might want to spend more, but you've only an evens chance of doing better than the above in the long term.
It certainly is not a case of 'the more you pay for a tup, the more his lambs are worth'.
I've tried everything from the 'champion' on the day (which are as prone to dropping down deid as anything else), to ferals off unmanaged flocks, with a price tag of a bottle of something warming.
Have a guess which has done me the most good!
If you trust your own judgement, try pushing something you fancy at the tup sales. Sometimes it'll work, sometimes it won't.

You don't say what sort of ground you're on.....
I'm almost indifferent to what the store lambs will look like - few fat lambs are gathered off Mt Egbert.
What concerns me is whether the daughters of a new tup will persist under the conditions they'll subject to.
Maintaining the flock structure is everything.
And explaining how to judge that, or what it costs, is more than a single reply can do.
For a commericial flock of 300. My ground is heavy clay with moss in places good for grass but not the best. Last year i bought a Tup from ram sale at UA, was pondering if a more expensive Tup would be good and not just die on me. you can spend a lot on rubbish rams from what i have seen.
 

egbert

Member
Livestock Farmer
For a commericial flock of 300. My ground is heavy clay with moss in places good for grass but not the best. Last year i bought a Tup from ram sale at UA, was pondering if a more expensive Tup would be good and not just die on me. you can spend a lot on rubbish rams from what i have seen.
300 is a grown up bunch of sheep, so borrowing a lamb/oldie off a mate is hardly you.
(and your business should warrant some attention to detail.)

Commercial suggests non-pedigree/purebred, clay with moss sounds wet?
Are you buying in ewes or keeping your own replacements?

If you're just shopping for rams as you need them, to sire fat/store lambs, then breed is secondary to shape/growth/ease of management.
Sounds like you're in't north/over the border, where seemingly the presumption is that a ram fit for purpose should cost many hundreds if not thousands.
This is evident hooey, as unless you're determined to go for genetic improvement, you would be far better off buying one or two that exactly fit your bill, keep some ewes of suitable stature, and keeping entire sons thereof.
They'll cost you a fat lamb price each, will almost certainly perform as well as something raised and fed by a 'ram breeder', and will quite possibly recoup that when you've used them.
We would (almost) all be better off like that if the truth were known!
(says a man whose boy slipped off to a tup sale this morning with the brief that 'we've probably got enough, but you can spend £200-300 if you fancy summat')
 
300 is a grown up bunch of sheep, so borrowing a lamb/oldie off a mate is hardly you.
(and your business should warrant some attention to detail.)

Commercial suggests non-pedigree/purebred, clay with moss sounds wet?
Are you buying in ewes or keeping your own replacements?

If you're just shopping for rams as you need them, to sire fat/store lambs, then breed is secondary to shape/growth/ease of management.
Sounds like you're in't north/over the border, where seemingly the presumption is that a ram fit for purpose should cost many hundreds if not thousands.
This is evident hooey, as unless you're determined to go for genetic improvement, you would be far better off buying one or two that exactly fit your bill, keep some ewes of suitable stature, and keeping entire sons thereof.
They'll cost you a fat lamb price each, will almost certainly perform as well as something raised and fed by a 'ram breeder', and will quite possibly recoup that when you've used them.
We would (almost) all be better off like that if the truth were known!
(says a man whose boy slipped off to a tup sale this morning with the brief that 'we've probably got enough, but you can spend £200-300 if you fancy summat')
Blackie sale at Tavistock?
 

Nithsdale

Member
Livestock Farmer
I can fully understand it if you’re breeding replacements off them, those genetics influence more than one generation in that case.👍

Spending that sort of money on a ram to ‘just’ produce finished lambs gets more questionable though imo. Plenty round here do it still, but usually as they want their neighbours to see them doing so.🤐


New thread please!!


How much is too much to pay for a ram only to produce prime lambs
tenor.gif
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

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

  • 1,294
  • 1
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/
Top