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Ram lambs vs shearling tups
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<blockquote data-quote="neilo" data-source="post: 3979738" data-attributes="member: 348"><p>Is growing into a 'good' shearling important, if you are looking at producing finished lambs at 40-45kg? They want to be finished lambs themselves at that weight. Unfortunately most bid up purely on the basis of size as a shearling, which is just about irrelevant. IME, lots of those biggest, strongest shearlings were like racehorses at slaughter weight. I remember a guy that set Builth sales alight a few years ago in our breed, with a cracking pen of shearlings. At the same sale a year previously, he'd been moaning about the same sheep (born from bought in semen) being awful ram lambs, lacking any shape even though he was feeding them hard.</p><p></p><p>Most ram lambs, especially at ram sales/competitions, will have to have been fed well to compete with the others on size, and will miss it greatly if not brought down gently (when they will be a different sheep to the one you bought<img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />). Of course, some of the huge shearlings that come out of sales will have been pumped just as hard, but for a lot longer. 200kg as a shearling ram in mid-summer doesn't come from converting forage!</p><p></p><p>I sell shearlings. Most people prefer them as they will serve more ewes, and take less looking after when they've done their job. I'm certainly not chasing after the biggest rams, and anything I carry through has to have been a decent sheep as a ram lamb, or it's not going to produce decent lambs, resulting in a customer not returning.</p><p></p><p>If I am buying, which is usually only either maternal rams or stock rams for the Charollais, I will more often buy ram lambs but will be very careful how they are managed, depending on what IO can glean of their previous management. I would like to buy forage reared ram lambs, but that would limit my choice of genetics drastically, especially if I'm only looking at buying from the top 1%.</p><p></p><p>I would say buyers should do a bit of homework on the breeder as well, even if they are buying at auction. If they are selling ram lambs and shearlings, very often the shearlings will be those that weren't good enough to sell as lambs, then fed well for 12 months. Not always of course, some will be running early and later lambing flocks to satisfy both markets.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="neilo, post: 3979738, member: 348"] Is growing into a 'good' shearling important, if you are looking at producing finished lambs at 40-45kg? They want to be finished lambs themselves at that weight. Unfortunately most bid up purely on the basis of size as a shearling, which is just about irrelevant. IME, lots of those biggest, strongest shearlings were like racehorses at slaughter weight. I remember a guy that set Builth sales alight a few years ago in our breed, with a cracking pen of shearlings. At the same sale a year previously, he'd been moaning about the same sheep (born from bought in semen) being awful ram lambs, lacking any shape even though he was feeding them hard. Most ram lambs, especially at ram sales/competitions, will have to have been fed well to compete with the others on size, and will miss it greatly if not brought down gently (when they will be a different sheep to the one you bought;)). Of course, some of the huge shearlings that come out of sales will have been pumped just as hard, but for a lot longer. 200kg as a shearling ram in mid-summer doesn't come from converting forage! I sell shearlings. Most people prefer them as they will serve more ewes, and take less looking after when they've done their job. I'm certainly not chasing after the biggest rams, and anything I carry through has to have been a decent sheep as a ram lamb, or it's not going to produce decent lambs, resulting in a customer not returning. If I am buying, which is usually only either maternal rams or stock rams for the Charollais, I will more often buy ram lambs but will be very careful how they are managed, depending on what IO can glean of their previous management. I would like to buy forage reared ram lambs, but that would limit my choice of genetics drastically, especially if I'm only looking at buying from the top 1%. I would say buyers should do a bit of homework on the breeder as well, even if they are buying at auction. If they are selling ram lambs and shearlings, very often the shearlings will be those that weren't good enough to sell as lambs, then fed well for 12 months. Not always of course, some will be running early and later lambing flocks to satisfy both markets. [/QUOTE]
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