Many Questioms! How do you price your lamb chops?

[secuono]

As some of you may know, I've brought in seven new ewes this year. And because of this, I'm bound to have too many rams/wethers that no one wants as pets in the years to come. So I'm starting my research on selling them as dinner lambs.


▪How do you guys price your lambs?
One set price no matter the weight.
Base price plus X-amount per live pound.
X-amount per live pound.
Or something else?

▪Does it matter if they are hair or wool breeds?
What about polled or horned.
Or ram vs wether.

▪Do smaller breeds sell by the same rule or sell as well as the larger breeds?

▪Do 100% pasture raised lamb sell for more in your area?
If so, by how much.
Or is it roughly the same.

▪How do you sell them?
Directly to the buyer live.
Through and auction.
Sell to buyer, but transport to butcher for them to pickup there.

▪Do you deworm these lambs?

▪Do you vaccinate these lambs for anything?
If so, for what.


Thanks everyone!

 

[secuono]

Whoops! Spelling screw up, sorries!
Questions*

 

[Baymule]

I have two wethers that i'll be selling in a few months. Good questions, I'd like to know too!

 

[mysunwolf]

• Weaned lambs are a single price based on breed (ex. our Katahdin lambs are $100-$175 depending on how nice they are, whereas our E. Frieisan crosses are $175-$250 depending on age and lines). Butcher lambs are a single price if they are going live (since we have no scale), otherwise we take deposit, bring them to butcher, then ask for $6/lb hanging weight.

• Wool sheep tend to go for more in my area as far as breeding stock goes. Rams always go for higher than wethers, but most are not qualified to be breeders. Nearly impossible to sell a wether, we can't even find a market for butcher lambs. Instead we pay up front to have them butchered and sell the frozen cuts. People are beginning to ask for Katahdin in butcher lambs, which is unfortunate since we have moved to all wool sheep.

• I have noticed small breeds like Babydolls, Shetlands, etc tend to sell for lower prices than the larger breeds. Don't see them put up as meat sheep too often either.

• A few people are interested in seeing a lamb that can gain well solely on forage and that is why they look for pasture raised, but there are just not many of those people. It is easier for me to sell grass fed lamb cuts rather than live lambs. Some people around here prefer the taste of grain finished lamb to grass fed (honestly I am one of them, I know that's not trendy).

• My neighbors sell to a wholesaler who takes their lambs up to the PA auction. We only have a stable flock of 6-8 breeding ewes (though it will be more this year), so we have no trouble selling live ewe lambs to buyers who want breeders. Harder to sell butcher lambs whole at prices where you can make money. We sell whole and half lambs to a select few customers that give us deposits. Then we transport to butcher, and they pick up their meat, and pay us for the hanging weight that the butcher weighed out.

• Yes of course we deworm them? Multiple times? How else would we keep them from dying in this awful warm humid climate? But we make sure to strictly follow withdrawal times. I will add that we do not use antibiotics on this group as a general rule. If we did have to use antibiotics on a lamb, we would not claim that the meat is antibiotic free. However, we would probably still sell that meat after the appropriate withdrawal time.

• We vaccinate with CDT like we would with all the flock.

Really hope this helps. It has taken us 2 years of raising sheep to come up with these numbers and guidelines to the process, and I'm sure we will continue to learn new things each year!

 

[mysunwolf]

Oh, and as to pricing out frozen cuts, we use a few different methods. First we calculate out total cost per lamb for the operation, roughly. Then we use our local farmers market's prices, plus this market report to make sure we're in the ballpark. After that, if the lamb operation looks like it's in the black, we call it a win (or at least a survive-for-another-year, haha).

 

[Baymule]

How do you find the pdf market report for your state? Start where?

That is a lot of good advice and information, thanks for sharing what you do and thanks for the web site!

 

[mysunwolf]

How do you find the pdf market report for your state? Start where?

That is a lot of good advice and information, thanks for sharing what you do and thanks for the web site!

The market report thing was first sent to me by my farmer's market manager, I am not sure how to find it in different states. I subscribe to their email listserv. We don't have one in VA from what I can tell, but we are so close to the NC border we can just base off of their prices.

While it's not true of all farmers markets, our market has been a real gateway to being able to find the local food scene, connecting us with buyers, with local mills, and with other producers. It's also a great place to scope out retail pricing and just chat with other farmers. Some will give info away in droves, like me!, while others will be more secretive.

Disclaimer: We don't make any sort of living from the sheep, so all the operation attempts to do right now is recover costs. We'll see if a few more years makes any difference.

 

[Roving Jacobs]

1. I usually sell meat lambs by a set price per breed, less for the tiny jacobs, more for the big fat romeldales. I had someone fuss about a sheep looking smaller in person than in the pictures and wanted to haggle so this year I'm doing a price per pound live weight to eliminate that issue. I have a livestock scale. My local livestock auction lists market reports on their webpage and I base my pricing on that, although I usually go a bit higher.

2. I sell privately most often and my customers don't care about breed or sex or horns. My muslim customers prefer intact rams with tails on, but are usually flexible and some are happy to even take older cull ewes. For eid they must be over 6 months though. At auction wool breeds tend to go for more and more "commercial" looking sheep go for more than primitive looking sheep.

3. I have zero problems selling any lambs I produce, from the big fat porkers to the little scrawny dudes. Auctions tend to go for larger, beefier lambs, my private customers like smaller, ~50 lb lambs that are easier to process at home.

4. None of my customers have asked about my feeding practices and I doubt they care.

5. I usually sell direct to buyers live if I'm sure they know how to butcher animals humanely (I always talk to them about it first) or I drop the lamb off at the processor for them after they pay for the lamb and then they pay for the processing directly to the meat locker. I've used the auction once but usually I get better prices for less hassle if I sell direct to customers.

6. Meat lambs get vaccinated for CDT just like all of my other sheep. They get wormed if needed like any of my other sheep. I keep an eye on withdrawal times but I'm not letting a lamb go untreated just because it's going to end up on a plate. None of my customers have ever asked about it.

 

[norseofcourse]

As some of you may know, I've brought in seven new ewes this year. And because of this, I'm bound to have too many rams/wethers that no one wants as pets in the years to come. So I'm starting my research on selling them as dinner lambs.

▪How do you guys price your lambs

I sell my lambs by hanging weight, per whole lamb (I've done by half, but I prefer not to). I deliver the lambs to the processor, and they tell me what their hanging weight is the next day. I tell the buyers, and get payment either before or upon delivery. I haven't bothered with deposits so far, but my flock is small.

Some people will sell by hanging weight at a price which includes all processing fees (that's what I do, and last year charged $7 per pound), some will have a lower price per pound but the buyer pays the processor's fees when they pick them up. This only works if your buyer(s) can get to the processor during their open hours. I've had some buyers pick theirs up, I've delivered a few (you need enough freezer space to do this, in case you need to store their lamb and deliver another day).

I asked some potential customers what they preferred, before deciding how I did things. Some picked theirs up from the butcher, but I also offered free local delivery, and with one out-of-town customer I met him partway. I've had no problem selling my lambs, and with my small flock, word of mouth and happy customers has been enough advertising.

I can't sell individual cuts unless they are processed at a USDA inspected facility. There are two of them within 20 miles of me, so it's possible, but any time someone has asked me about selling individual cuts, they only want lamb chops...

▪Does it matter if they are hair or wool breeds?
What about polled or horned.
Or ram vs wether.

So far no one's asked any of this, so it hasn't mattered. I do wether my ram lambs.

▪Do smaller breeds sell by the same rule or sell as well as the larger breeds?
▪Do 100% pasture raised lamb sell for more in your area?

Icelandics are a smaller sized breed, but last year I got hanging weights of 50 to 60 pound range for a few of them, which the butcher said was a good size for lambs. I've been happy with mine (and so have my buyers) - they are lean and a good flavor, which I think will get me more repeat buyers than size.

Mine are pastured, but they do get some corn and pellets. I don't see enough lamb sales in my area to know what drives prices.

▪How do you sell them?

Sell to buyer, I deliver to the processor. I have sold one to someone who was going to process himself, I talked to him and he had a lot of experience processing his own small livestock on his own farm.

▪Do you deworm these lambs?
▪Do you vaccinate these lambs for anything?
If so, for what.

They are wormed only as needed, and I follow all withdrawl times. I vaccinate for CD-T twice, just as with any lamb I would be keeping. I don't use feed with any added antibiotics or a coccidiostat.

I am fortunate I don't have to depend on my farm to make my living, but I do hope to have the sheep pay for themselves and even make a profit (someday). In addition to selling lambs, I have started selling wool, I get the lamb pelts back and have them tanned to sell as lambskins, and I have started selling sheep's milk soap. Every little bit will help, but it is more work, too.

 

[Roving Jacobs]

That's a great point. I always get pelts back (I even ask the private buyers if I can come by and pick them up if they don't want them) and the skulls from the jacobs because I can sell those too and get three sources of income from each lamb.