The great sheep reset

[betternextyear]

Just had a text from Halls Shrewsbury . Lamb price expected to be 265p tomorrow. Everyone said the sheep job would be on the floor after Brexit, have I missed something? Should I go back into sheep? Been out for 2 years and miss them sometimes.

 

[spin cycle]

prolapse...twin lamb....wet everywhere... the list goes on.....but come on in...'the water's lovely'

 

[hill farmer]

Just had a text from Halls Shrewsbury . Lamb price expected to be 265p tomorrow. Everyone said the sheep job would be on the floor after Brexit, have I missed something? Should I go back into sheep? Been out for 2 years and miss them sometimes.

No, DEFINITELY NOT!!!

 

[gatepost]

Keep out I've heard all about you optimistic types.

 

[Estate fencing.]

Just had a text from Halls Shrewsbury . Lamb price expected to be 265p tomorrow. Everyone said the sheep job would be on the floor after Brexit, have I missed something? Should I go back into sheep? Been out for 2 years and miss them sometimes.

Yeah it’s great. How many arctic loads do you want?

 

[Tarw Coch]

Just had a text from Halls Shrewsbury . Lamb price expected to be 265p tomorrow. Everyone said the sheep job would be on the floor after Brexit, have I missed something? Should I go back into sheep? Been out for 2 years and miss them sometimes.

A lot of things haven’t turned out as expected after Brexit, I ordered fert in November, a deal wasn’t looking certain and was being told if no deal it would go up.
We got a deal yet the price is up by as much as £70.............they certainly weren’t predicting that.

 

[Katarina]

Remember every sheep's goal in life is to find a way to die.

 

[Northern territory]

I am wondering whether it’s a good time to get out. Can’t see these prices lasting long term. Threat of brexit and currency have kept them strong for a few years now.

 

[Werzle]

Just had a text from Halls Shrewsbury . Lamb price expected to be 265p tomorrow. Everyone said the sheep job would be on the floor after Brexit, have I missed something? Should I go back into sheep? Been out for 2 years and miss them sometimes.

I think you have your wires crossed , sheep were expected to collapse if we had a no deal. A deal and numbers being short always pointed to high prices

 

[betternextyear]

I presume for the price to be this good, lorries are not being turned back at Calais. Maybe sheep exporters and abbatoirs are experts in health and export paperwork. (Good on them if they are.) I have exported lots of machinery to Europe and only once did I have to fill out a form. Its going to be fun when i put the next plough in the back of a van.

 

[Boydvalley]

Supply and demand. You increase the supply and demand.......


Get back in when the bubbles burst they’ll be cheaper then.

 

[muleman]

Just had a text from Halls Shrewsbury . Lamb price expected to be 265p tomorrow. Everyone said the sheep job would be on the floor after Brexit, have I missed something? Should I go back into sheep? Been out for 2 years and miss them sometimes.

No, stay out and tell everyone else to aswell, theres no money in them!

 

[Agrivator]

The time to go into an enterprise is when it's on the floor.

The time not to go into an enterprise is when it's booming - the initial cost of acquiring very high value stock is unlikely to be recouped.

 

[delilah]

I see the worry medium term being all these arable farmers who are set on rediscovering sheep in their rotation, if the market will stand the extra numbers then great, but if not.....

 

[Anymulewilldo]

I see the worry medium term being all these arable farmers who are set on rediscovering sheep in their rotation, if the market will stand the extra numbers then great, but if not.....

Good idea! I can sell them plenty of older ewes with lambs at foot. then I'll buy them back when the bubbles burst!!

 

[exmoor dave]

I see the worry medium term being all these arable farmers who are set on rediscovering sheep in their rotation, if the market will stand the extra numbers then great, but if not.....

Yes, it would be alot more useful if they bought store lambs or ewe lambs to run round for re-sale
Rather than setting up breeding flocks

 

[Woolless]

Yes, it would be alot more useful if they bought store lambs or ewe lambs to run round for re-sale
Rather than setting up breeding flocks

I struggle to see most of them swapping a seat in a nice cosy Fendt or a day's shooting for shifting electric fence in the muck and sleet for store lambs, never mind a peasant's occupation like tending to lambing ewes!

 

[Northern territory]

Yes, it would be alot more useful if they bought store lambs or ewe lambs to run round for re-sale
Rather than setting up breeding flocks

There was one such article the other day where a guy had gone onto buying gimmers and selling on for breeding as he couldn’t make the breeding flock pay.

 

[delilah]

To expand on my concern:
1) The ongoing loss of chemical weed control options will mean that sheep in a rotation will have a value beyond what they can be sold for, thus dragging the market price of a finished lamb down.
2) The people currently writing the ELMS rule book are going to skew it so heavily towards the arable farmer, that sheep in an arable system will be subsidized such that they don't have to pay their way solely on the value of stock sold.

 

[Northern territory]

To expand on my concern:
1) The ongoing loss of chemical weed control options will mean that sheep in a rotation will have a value beyond what they can be sold for, thus dragging the market price of a finished lamb down.
2) The people currently writing the ELMS rule book are going to skew it so heavily towards the arable farmer, that sheep in an arable system will be subsidized such that they don't have to pay their way solely on the value of stock sold.

I think the thing you are forgetting with sheep is the infrastructure. Water, fencing, handling on a large scale will take some justifying. Everyone banging on about the golden hoof but anyone running mixed farms for a longtime knows it is no golden ticket.