Barn
Member
Ok where to start im basically after some advise and opinions on options for our sheep enterprise from you good people (yes I know this could be a can of worms!)
Having sold the suckler herd just recently as my oldman got badly knocked over by a beast, we need to look at ways to increase the income from the sheep enterprise on the farm. We currently run 450 commercial ewes a mixture of Mules, MulexTex and TexX running a Texel tup with the ewes and a Char with the Thaives and ewe lamb replacements (roughly 80 in total) Lambing all indoors from 2nd week in March, lambs all sold Fat through live auction mart and a small contract to a local quality restaurant for 8 weeks of summer supplying the top early finished lambs. Dad is retirement age but fit for his age and I work part-time off the farm at a school. We are about at capacity for numbers for the lambing indoors during the early march period.
My initial thoughts are to the following options
Look to introduce and early lambing flock Dec/Jan to increase numbers (I work part time at a school so have 4 weeks holidays during Dec)
Go down the pedigree line, again early lambing additional flock to lamb during my December "holiday" possibly Char breed?
Look towards smaller type ewes instead of the Mule which could mean being able to upp numbers during the March lambing period perhaps
Look towards the more "easycare" system and a later lambing however the March lambing works well with my Easter "holiday"
There is also the possibility of being able to obtain some more grass keep from a nearby farmer...
Thoughts and suggestions most appreciated and I will go grab a cup of tea....
Having sold the suckler herd just recently as my oldman got badly knocked over by a beast, we need to look at ways to increase the income from the sheep enterprise on the farm. We currently run 450 commercial ewes a mixture of Mules, MulexTex and TexX running a Texel tup with the ewes and a Char with the Thaives and ewe lamb replacements (roughly 80 in total) Lambing all indoors from 2nd week in March, lambs all sold Fat through live auction mart and a small contract to a local quality restaurant for 8 weeks of summer supplying the top early finished lambs. Dad is retirement age but fit for his age and I work part-time off the farm at a school. We are about at capacity for numbers for the lambing indoors during the early march period.
My initial thoughts are to the following options
Look to introduce and early lambing flock Dec/Jan to increase numbers (I work part time at a school so have 4 weeks holidays during Dec)
Go down the pedigree line, again early lambing additional flock to lamb during my December "holiday" possibly Char breed?
Look towards smaller type ewes instead of the Mule which could mean being able to upp numbers during the March lambing period perhaps
Look towards the more "easycare" system and a later lambing however the March lambing works well with my Easter "holiday"
There is also the possibility of being able to obtain some more grass keep from a nearby farmer...
Thoughts and suggestions most appreciated and I will go grab a cup of tea....