What can I expect from these beltex lambs?

[Guiggs]

So I might be buying a bunch of broken mouthed ewes,
Big strong mainly Texel and Suffolk mules with some odds and sods thrown in.
All in lamb to beltex, an ugly little bugger that God knows how he reached to do the job but he certainly did.
I've very little knowledge of the breed other than they'e slow growing but shapely and I think they'll sell well live!
What can I expect from those lambs?
Weights? Grades? Time to fat?
Are the ewes worth a punt at circa £100 scanned in lamb?

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Most of those questions are unanswerable due to not knowing...
Your land
Your feeding regime
Visually seeing the ewes
Visually seeing the tup

 

[beltextexel]

This won't help but...
Weights - 36kg - 50kg.
Grades - 90% e's.
Time to fat - 14 weeks to 12 months!

We started selling our April born lambs at the end of June this year (light weights/good trade), and then continued all the way through until now. Got 180 left out of approx 2000. Sold a lot as gimmer lambs (Sep) and also some as stores. These were the best of our lambs and wether lambs av. £91.50 in September. Usually send some to a butcher at 46kg - 50kg as well.
Out of those sorts of ewes you'll have no bother lambing them and should get fairly decent lambs to boot.

 

[Al R]

£100 for brokers would be too much unless all guaranteed twins and in a tight lambing timeframe - you don’t want to be lambing a bunch that age over 8-9 weeks as their more likely to miscarry from age/problems etc - we have brokers lambing for 34 days.

What sort of number are you looking at, when are they due to lamb etc..

The last time we bought in lamb ewes 15 years ago it was 50 NCM, 30-35 of them had triplets and not 1 triplet lived with a big chunk of ewes dying :/ thank god we could still bury on farm back then!

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Yes I thought £100 sounded dear. Unless they're huge and worth that to kill.

 

[Guiggs]

So, permanent pasture, ewes will have silage and 18% protein blend, lambed in a straw yard, brought in 2 weeks before lambing, due from the 20th of February and all bar a handful held in first cycle.
As I said big strong ewes, I'd say on the right trade should make most of that money back.

 

[yellowbelly]

Bid him £100 for the twins and £80 for the singles and sell lambs and ewes in Newark - they'll be all reet

We've some Beltex x lambs on grass keep now that were doing 175gms/day last time they were weighed - will be able to tell you more tomorrow.

 

[andybk]

So, permanent pasture, ewes will have silage and 18% protein blend, lambed in a straw yard, brought in 2 weeks before lambing, due from the 20th of February and all bar a handful held in first cycle.
As I said big strong ewes, I'd say on the right trade should make most of that money back.

would have said £85ish was plenty for brokers , you will need to factor in feed after lambing , tight grazing march - april might check lambs @ 4 weeks old , prob safer with mid march born lambs and brokers

 

[neilo]

So, permanent pasture, ewes will have silage and 18% protein blend, lambed in a straw yard, brought in 2 weeks before lambing, due from the 20th of February and all bar a handful held in first cycle.
As I said big strong ewes, I'd say on the right trade should make most of that money back.

Can you get hold of some liquid feed? It's tailor made for ewes in varying stages of toothlessness IME. Feed it ad-lib, in place of the protein blend.

 

[Guiggs]

Can you get hold of some liquid feed? It's tailor made for ewes in varying stages of toothlessness IME. Feed it ad-lib, in place of the protein blend.

I was thinking the same, I'll look into it!

 

[ladycrofter]

Don't discount the lambs, they may look small at first but will rapidly start to fill out after 3-4 weeks, even with mine crossed to Shetland ewes I was getting the same as similar-sized other crosses. IIRC was about £55 but that was a couple of years ago.

 

[Guiggs]

would have said £85ish was plenty for brokers , you will need to factor in feed after lambing , tight grazing march - april might check lambs @ 4 weeks old , prob safer with mid march born lambs and brokers

Should have a fair amount of grass available so as long as spring isn' too late it shouldn't be too bad.....
Got me thinking about the price now though... we're not talking hardly any teeth and knackered or I wouldn't be considering them, they are very fit strong ewes most of which have only lost 1 or 2 teeth.

 

[andybk]

Should have a fair amount of grass available so as long as spring isn' too late it shouldn't be too bad.....
Got me thinking about the price now though... we're not talking hardly any teeth and knackered or I wouldn't be considering them, they are very fit strong ewes most of which have only lost 1 or 2 teeth.

fair enough still think 100 is a bit on the high side for old ewes , neils idea regard liquid good idea , maybe get the lambs on some creep as well just so they dont drag ewes down to much

 

[Guiggs]

fair enough still think 100 is a bit on the high side for old ewes , neils idea regard liquid good idea , maybe get the lambs on some creep as well just so they dont drag ewes down to much

Was thinking about creeping the lambs but if I'm paying top end on the ewes then can I justify the costs in feed? Will it pay for itself? Then there's the extra labour....

 

[andybk]

Was thinking about creeping the lambs but if I'm paying top end on the ewes then can I justify the costs in feed? Will it pay for itself? Then there's the extra labour....

yes i see your point , i know ours is a pure flock but i creep the lambs on the oldest ones but not for long just to lift them off the ewes to get them weaned , soon as the rumens going and eating grass well i stop feeding , can get in and cull ewes then before price drops , usually the uplift in ewe condition will pay for a bag or two of creep (40% creep 60% barley or oats ) and lambs have a good start

 

[Guiggs]

This won't help but...
Weights - 36kg - 50kg.
Grades - 90% e's.
Time to fat - 14 weeks to 12 months!

We started selling our April born lambs at the end of June this year (light weights/good trade), and then continued all the way through until now. Got 180 left out of approx 2000. Sold a lot as gimmer lambs (Sep) and also some as stores. These were the best of our lambs and wether lambs av. £91.50 in September. Usually send some to a butcher at 46kg - 50kg as well.
Out of those sorts of ewes you'll have no bother lambing them and should get fairly decent lambs to boot.

Just to clarify... your fats averaged £91.50 in September? What weights were they?
And what did the stores make on average if you don't mind me asking?

 

[beltextexel]

Just to clarify... your fats averaged £91.50 in September? What weights were they?
And what did the stores make on average if you don't mind me asking?

No they av. £91.50 as stores in September. Was selling them fat the year before between Nov and Feb and av just shy of £100 I believe.

 

[Guiggs]

No they av. £91.50 as stores in September. Was selling them fat the year before between Nov and Feb and av just shy of £100 I believe.

Bloody hell, they must have been good lambs to make that as stores!!

 

[yellowbelly]

I've very little knowledge of the breed other than they'e slow growing but shapely and I think they'll sell well live!
What can I expect from those lambs?

I've had a mixed mob of Beltex x and Texel x lambs through the scales today. They have been on the same hay aftermath that has a reasonably high white clover content for about the last 4 weeks.
Average DLWG......Tex x....181g/day.............Belt x...128g/day

Compared to the previous 4 weeks(Oct) growth rates (the 2 groups were in different fields)
Average DLWG.....Tex x....124g/day.............Belt x...175g/day

Over the two periods the two groups have had roughly the same growth rates. The Beltex crosses will have slowed a bit too as they are reaching killing weight - in fact 20 -25 will probably go this week.

 

[Guiggs]

So the ewes were scanned today,
32 twins
15 single
14 trips
1 quad
1 empty!
He's sold his cleaning up lambs last week at £91.80,
170 lambs to Dunbia 15 r grade, the rest E and U.
No reason to suspect he's yanking my chain so... what's not to like about beltex??