- Location
- Lincolnshire
Some animals in a batch just won't seem to fatten and remain after all the others have gone.
I tend to send them into the fat ring anyway as it doesn't seem right to sell them as stores and often they make more in the fat ring than as stores, even if less than a reasonable price.
Or is putting them in the store ring acceptable as they might pick up with a change of scenery, different regime?
I am not talking about animals with known disease or illness, just the ones that are " poor doers" for no apparent reason other than maybe genetics or they had a bad start.
Or in other words, is it ethical to put the tailenders in the store ring and how many do end up there? I am often wary of individual beasts in the store ring at say 24 months old. Surely if they haven't finished by then, they never will?
Having said this we have bought very poor store lambs cheaply and made more on them than expensive but well bred stores.
I think it's a bigger risk with older unfinished cattle though. Lose a lamb and it's no big deal. Lose a beast and it's a disaster.
I tend to send them into the fat ring anyway as it doesn't seem right to sell them as stores and often they make more in the fat ring than as stores, even if less than a reasonable price.
Or is putting them in the store ring acceptable as they might pick up with a change of scenery, different regime?
I am not talking about animals with known disease or illness, just the ones that are " poor doers" for no apparent reason other than maybe genetics or they had a bad start.
Or in other words, is it ethical to put the tailenders in the store ring and how many do end up there? I am often wary of individual beasts in the store ring at say 24 months old. Surely if they haven't finished by then, they never will?
Having said this we have bought very poor store lambs cheaply and made more on them than expensive but well bred stores.
I think it's a bigger risk with older unfinished cattle though. Lose a lamb and it's no big deal. Lose a beast and it's a disaster.
