IS YOUR LAMB ‘JOB’ THE RIGHT ONE FOR YOUR FARM?

[The Old Ram-Australia]

The reality is that there are two types of lamb farms. Finished lambs for the slaughter market and the supply of “store lambs” for the feedlot and finishers. Lots of farmers attempt to supply finished lambs for the slaughter market but you often see in livestock report s about the large numbers of secondary types coming through the saleyards which means many of them are failing in their endeavors .The cause could well be the effects of the season, but if your farm continually fails to achieve first grade perhaps your farm is actually not good enough by way of land, water or management.

If you pay attention to the market reports there are excellent opportunities for increasing your profit margins by rearing quality “store lambs”. These are lambs which will perform in either feedlots or on high performance grazing operations. Trying to always turn off first grade lambs can eat up a lot of both your time and profits unless you accept that the land or breeding is not quite up to the job. Time taken in researching this alternative market could be well worth it in the long run, as with demand high and the national flock low by historical records the future for the production of store lambs is really quite good over the longer term.

Feedloters /finishers have definite ideas about what they want in a store lamb so the first step is to find out “what that is” as if you start out wanting to produce what they want, their interest will be aroused as its in their interest to secure long term providers of what is their “raw materials”. They will instruct you as to the age, breed and weight type they are looking for and then it’s up to you to provide it. Perhaps you can even escape the “Circle of Death “type of production and instead move to a totally Grass Fed operation with its low cost and diverse species and low labor inputs actually increase your profit margin? I suspect that a well bred grass animal will outperform most others in a feedlot as it converts the extra feed protein to meat more efficiently than the one which requires a higher protein base in the first place.

But before you dive headlong down this path you must understand that you are on a 5 year journey to perfect all the changes you will have to undertake…...T.O.R.

 

[Baymule]

I am blessed to live in an area where people want good food, want to know where it came from, how it was treated and have the money to pay for it. We bought 4 bred ewes, half Dorper, half Katahdin, bred to a Katahdin. We have 5 lambs, 2 are wethered and my intention is to raise them to slaughter and sell to individuals. The 3 ewe lambs will join the flock. I found a very nice 5 month old Dorper ram, the lady is holding him for me until I get a proper pen built for him. I am aiming for 10-12 ewes, not a large flock, but enough for me. I'll probably wind up with more if sheep math is anything like chicken math......

I don't think I want to raise store lambs, I want to develop customers who want a quality finished product. I am researching better pasture, basically "weeds" whose roots reach deeper than grass and brings up minerals and nutrients from different depths of the soil. I am studying different types of grasses for my area. I am also researching sea minerals which supply trace minerals that aren't readily available on most soils. Healthy soil = healthy grasses = healthy animals, which equal healthy meat for customers. I have a box of books I bought so I can better educate myself to make sure that I don't spin in circles trying to find the "right" way to do what I want to do.

In my area, mono-pastures of Bermuda or Bahia are considered the ultimate pastures for livestock. To be truthful, I always admired such pastures myself and bought hay from such pastures. You just about have to have both of these grasses in my area, to survive the heat. The best analogy I could come up with to explain planting "weeds" to my husband was, What's your favorite food that is good for you?" Let's say it is broccoli. But what if you had broccoli 3 times a day, forever. You would be getting a lot of the vitamins and nutrients you needed, but you would be missing a lot of other vitamins and minerals that you need too. So by mixing chicory, long root radishes, dandelion, burnett, sheep sorrel and plantain in the pastures, my sheep can have a rich and diverse diet.

A 5 year journey? Longer? We've been here a year and have a long way to go. I currently have 3 pastures, briar choked messes. Dead standing trees, brush, some very nice pine, cedar, elm and oak trees. We hacked a path down the north side property line and still have to get it fenced. That will give me a lot more "pasture" I am enjoying my sheep so much!

@soarwitheagles come join in!

 

[Mike CHS]

Half of our place is grass good enough that a neighbor cut it for his horses. The other half is more scrubby with more weeds that grass. Three years of cutting has resulted in a decent variety but I almost blew it and had the COOP spray for the weeds. After thinking about it we decided to leave it alone other than fertilizing and putting out several tons of lime and see what we get after the sheep are on it for awhile.

 

[Baymule]

@Mike CHS I just walk with my sheep and observe what they eat. It is enlightening to watch how quickly they go for the weeds, passing up grass that I think is beautiful. I let them in the yard and while they take a nip of my daylilies, they chow down on the scruffy weeds that are growing in the daylilies. Sheep flower bed weeders! Who knew?

 

[Bossroo]

I would caution as to what weeds / invasive species / ornamental plants that you allow to propagate in or on your pastures or property as there are quite a few that are poisonous and/or cause abortions . Some , such as in the star( can kill a horse through starvation by paralyzing the lower jaw if eated ) and bull thistle family might not be eaten, but will soon take over your pastures to a point that you can't even walk through them within a couple years. Just 5 leaves from an oleander ( an ornamental ) will kill a sheep . Get yourself a good weed /plant ID book to educate yourself then play assassin before they go to seed.

 

[Baymule]

I would caution as to what weeds / invasive species / ornamental plants that you allow to propagate in or on your pastures or property as there are quite a few that are poisonous and/or cause abortions . Some , such as in the star( can kill a horse through starvation by paralyzing the lower jaw if eated ) and bull thistle family might not be eaten, but will soon take over your pastures to a point that you can't even walk through them within a couple years. Just 5 leaves from an oleander ( an ornamental ) will kill a sheep . Get yourself a good weed /plant ID book to educate yourself then play assassin before they go to seed.

Before I plant anything, I check the poison plant list. There are plants and flowers that I admire, but only in other people's yards. I also check my state's invasive plant list. There is no way I want to unleash a monster on my land, nor do I want to let it spread to neighbor's lands. Where I used to live in southeast Texas, the Chinese Tallow (or sometimes called tala) tree is such an invasive that it can take over entire acreages. It spreads by seed and suckers off roots. There is no way I would want to be responsible for planting a "pretty" invasive. I have a tendency to study everything to death before making a move.

 

[The Old Ram-Australia]

Wise words indeed Bossroo,I have found that over time our sheep have learned to discriminate between poisons plants and and good grazing s in the same paddock,to help this learning I leave the young ewes with their mothers right up to joining and when the rams come back out I return the young ewes and leave them right though the next lambing,as normally I join the maidens at about 18 months of age to lamb at almost 2 years of age,I could join earlier ,but its like "babies having babies".Would you suggest your daughter get pregnant at age 13?....T.O.R.

 

[Mike CHS]

My most invasive plant right now is what the locals call Privet Hedge that is toxic from everything I have read. It is a bush-like tree with relatively low growth habit and has a small black berry that even the birds don't like. I have been able to push most of them over with my front end loader. I still have some other things that I'm slowly getting rid of.