CopperBeech
Member
- Location
- A Welsh man lost in England
Out of interest, does anyone know their tonnage of ewes kept on farm last breeding cycle and tonnage of lambs weaned and sold?
Tonnage of lamb to tonnage of ewes kept.
- Thread starter CopperBeech
- Start date
ThatsSomeSheep
Member
Interesting question, will be interesting to hear answers.
Most of those who measure seem to measure kg/ha.
Personally I haven't gone down either route yet. I just strive to have as many away pre weaning as possible, then as many away off grass.
TSS
irish dom
Member
Nice production from 65kg ewes. What breed of ewe do you run. Moving to lleyn ewes here. Cant see a big mountain of a mule ewe beating them for efficency and they are a joy to lamb. Great mothers and dont walk off from one lamb. Some of my mules this year seem hell bent on only taking one lamb. One batch bought from " good" breeder. Wont be dealing again. Nothing would pee you off worse
MJT
Member
Our ewes are Aberdales, basically a Texel ram with prolificy put to any hill breed, in our case Lairg type Cheviots.
Majority are put back to Texel ram, with ewe lambs going to Beltex.
Moved away from mules in last 6 or 7 years, the amount of feed ewes eat throughout year has dropped dramatically ! Aswell as the problems !
dolf_lundgren
Member
Just being a bit thick, how do you work out the kg/ha if you have beef and sheep. Is it as simple as it sounds? KG sold divided by the total Ha? Or do you have to weight it differently? Also if there is cerals grown for home use is that included in the ha?
Seems stupid questions but just wanting to be clear.
Seems stupid questions but just wanting to be clear.
- Location
- West Wales
I'm thinking of trying a different breed instead of the TexX (80-85kg average) and muleX (65-75kg average) they both rear twins say but I may be able to keep more muleX on the area the TexX is taking up. The only reason we're holding back on the decision to change from TexX is their mated with Charolais so fatten 2-3 weeks earlier than the muleX sired with Texel's. this 2-3 week period in end of June/early July means the TexX lambs can be worth that much more than the muleX that it pays to have them. Just moved back into the business and been out of sheep for a long time so going to try and calculate all of these figures when the lambs are going. Will we be better off having lower weight ewes but taking the hit price wise on the fat lambs or stay as we are?
MJT
Member
Can you not stick with Tex X ewes but have them smaller ? Silly question I know but if those are the sort of ewes you like and feel they click well with the Charollais why not aim at either buying smaller or breeding smaller more functional Texel X ewes
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
Like most 'measures of efficiency', I would suggest the OP's would tell you very little, apart from maybe on the same farm between years, IF the system didn't change at all.
For instance, I have sheep run on a forage only system, lambing outside in April and finishing the majority off forage before the winter. I sell them at 40-42kg generally. I also have an arable enterprise, and grow forage crops to winter the ewes cheaply. If I chose to grow more forage crops, or housed some on home grown feed, then sold the lambs at 50kg, would I be necessarily be more 'efficient' or less?
MJT
Member
Yes the lambs look the part and kill out well, the ewes aren't overly texely as the aberdale Rams are bred for maternal traits aswell as confirmation. I'd say they are similar to a lleyn in looks but with a touch more Texel in there. They lamb very well back to the Texel, key is using Texel Rams with smaller shoulders and big arses not the other way round !
- Location
- West Wales
Usually our ewe lambs are 40-50kg at tupping, by lambing they've gained 5-10kg. This year their averaging 65-70kg and are bigger physically than some of our muleX. We are trying to get them smaller when fully grown by breeding from them as it stunts their growth but this year with so much good quality grass around all winter they haven't stopped growing. Lambing as we speak and their taking some stopping!
MJT
Member
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
- Location
- West Wales
Their all staying on and even wet adopting onto the single ewe lambs where there's a problem elsewhere etc.. had 20 lamb in last 3 daysDifficult to be hard on them down there I reckon.
On the flip side, I'd have no qualms leaving a 65-70kg ewe lamb to rear twins.
I need to speak to you @MJT about beltex on ewe lambs and growth rates etc when I've got some time..
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
Their all staying on and even wet adopting onto the single ewe lambs where there's a problem elsewhere etc.. had 20 lamb in last 3 days
Surely, if you have grass that grows ewe lambs to 70kg over winter, they could rear 'proper' lambs instead?
I understand the idea of using a Beltie to get a small lamb born, that then draws less reserves from the teg with lower growth rates, but surely your ewe lambs could be rearing gingiemongs on the same system, selling more kgs of lamb/head? Unless of course, you can access some of these £20/hd Beltex premiums we hear about......
MJT
Member
Surely, if you have grass that grows ewe lambs to 70kg over winter, they could rear 'proper' lambs instead?
I understand the idea of using a Beltie to get a small lamb born, that then draws less reserves from the teg with lower growth rates, but surely your ewe lambs could be rearing gingiemongs on the same system, selling more kgs of lamb/head? Unless of course, you can access some of these £20/hd Beltex premiums we hear about......
Bugger off
- Location
- Montgomeryshire