What will live weight in Lamb equate to deadweight

[garfield89]

I'm going to take 20 easycare wethers to an abattoir in a couple of weeks time, hopefully before it gets too busy with Eid.

They're either bang on a year to 14months old, I should of taken them in much earlier, but thats for another post.

Avg is currently 70kg however weights range from 45 to 90kg.

I'm selling them as half or full meat boxes, what can expect them to weigh prior to trimmings and fat taken off, is there a ratio to give a rough estimate?

Thanks

 

[sticky]

@pgk

 

[sherg]

If they've got a decent level of finish on them work on roughly 45%, some will do more some less

 

[Agrivator]

It all depends on the accuracy of your liveweight figures.

But as sherg says, 45% would be about right. It used to be for breeds with poorer confirmation, that the carcase weight in Lb was the same as liveweight in Kg.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

A 90kg easycare...

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

I have a feeling these may be a little on the fat side and may not be as saleable as you would wish!

Nothing worse than chops that are more than half fat and shoulders that are horribly slimy.

 

[michael N123]

Why have you fed them up to them weights ?

 

[Woolless]

A 90kg easycare...

I had a 95 kg tup Hogg away to St Boswells last year, second top price on the day at £107. Hopeless per kilo but top was a 95kg Texel at £117, which puts it in to perspective. Both were mine and both scaled over 100kg at home.

How do you like them apples???

 

[Green farmer]

I had a 95 kg tup Hogg away to St Boswells last year, second top price on the day at £107. Hopeless per kilo but top was a 95kg Texel at £117, which puts it in to perspective. Both were mine and both scaled over 100kg at home.

How do you like them apples???

Maybe slightly off topic, but what size of easycares are ye running ? I bought my first easycare ram last year off a lad. I picked one of the smaller ones he had, but some of the sheep looked massive strong sheep. Seeing as they were also abit lively, I didnt want anything too strong to handle. Are easycare meant to be medium or large type sheep ?

 

[Muddyroads]

If you’re selling in boxes, does weight matter?

 

[unlacedgecko]

Maybe slightly off topic, but what size of easycares are ye running ? I bought my first easycare ram last year off a lad. I picked one of the smaller ones he had, but some of the sheep looked massive strong sheep. Seeing as they were also abit lively, I didnt want anything too strong to handle. Are easycare meant to be medium or large type sheep ?

Easycare is a broad church and can be whatever you want.

I've seen them bred up from mules and bred up from north Welsh mountain. Base breed will affect final size etc.

 

[Woolless]

Maybe slightly off topic, but what size of easycares are ye running ? I bought my first easycare ram last year off a lad. I picked one of the smaller ones he had, but some of the sheep looked massive strong sheep. Seeing as they were also abit lively, I didnt want anything too strong to handle. Are easycare meant to be medium or large type sheep ?

My ewes were 64kg average at tupping. That tup Hogg was a bit of an outlier, over 7kg at birth and needed a pull and so didn't make it in to the sale tup pen. He would have some Texel in him too. Dad kept quizzing me why I wasn't selling a big strong sheep like that for breeding! He had sore feet too and so missed the bus a couple of times and I ended up running him right through the winter with the tups. Nearly achieved my ambition of topping the mart with an Easycare, topped it with a 7/8 Texel that came as a lamb for setting on!

I would say that Easycares are by and large a medium-sized sheep but as @unlacedgecko says, they can be whatever you want/need them to be.

 

[NZDan]

I have a feeling these may be a little on the fat side and may not be as saleable as you would wish!

Nothing worse than chops that are more than half fat and shoulders that are horribly slimy.

That's the sort of chop we love here. Cant be doing dry lean lamb, good fat levels are where it's at.

 

[pgk]

Our 45kg lambs over the scale come back between 17 and 23, base was lleyn although few with anything more than an eight now. If they are half texel consistently 50 to 52% killing out.

 

[GrannyAching]

I'm going to take 20 easycare wethers to an abattoir in a couple of weeks time, hopefully before it gets too busy with Eid.

They're either bang on a year to 14months old, I should of taken them in much earlier, but thats for another post.

Avg is currently 70kg however weights range from 45 to 90kg.

I'm selling them as half or full meat boxes, what can expect them to weigh prior to trimmings and fat taken off, is there a ratio to give a rough estimate?

Thanks

Are you having them hung before selling? I always do that with the older animals. My clients understand the need to cook different age animals differently and they like the hung meat. I too, would be worried about the fat cover. I'd talk to your butcher about options. I do burgers, sausages and faggots off mine but my heaviest, mature animals wouldn't be more than 60kg liveweight and would be grass fed.

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

That's the sort of chop we love here. Cant be doing dry lean lamb, good fat levels are where it's at.

I would completely agree with you, but there is a sensible level of fat. Too much fat on a sheep tends to decrease the amount of meat and puts a lot of customers off.
Better to have more native breeds that have marbling which improves eating quality without losing the quantity of meat.

 

[landslave the 2nd]

Was once told that on cattle.....saleable meat is 36 % of liveweight ( after trimming )
Would sheep be more or less % ?

 

[NZDan]

I would completely agree with you, but there is a sensible level of fat. Too much fat on a sheep tends to decrease the amount of meat and puts a lot of customers off.
Better to have more native breeds that have marbling which improves eating quality without losing the quantity of meat.

Yes I agree, but easier (though expensive) to trim fat off than glue it on. I would be interested to see marbling levels in some of the more primative breeds, that appear lean but are not. We all ready know that breeds like the Finn and the Romanov are heavily marbled, are breeds like the shetland, Soay, Herdwick etc the same?

 

[unlacedgecko]

Yes I agree, but easier (though expensive) to trim fat off than glue it on. I would be interested to see marbling levels in some of the more primative breeds, that appear lean but are not. We all ready know that breeds like the Finn and the Romanov are heavily marbled, are breeds like the shetland, Soay, Herdwick etc the same?

Chops from a full mouth Shetland ewe. 16.5kg O3L carcass.

 

[Gulli]

It all depends on the accuracy of your liveweight figures.

But as sherg says, 45% would be about right. It used to be for breeds with poorer confirmation, that the carcase weight in Lb was the same as liveweight in Kg.

That's about right.

Mine are killing at about 50% at the moment but generally between 45-55