HENthusiastic Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Hello all, We have decided we may look into getting a couple of lambs as we seem to have a lot of grass in our field. We have friends with sheep and we initially thought we would borrow some but then started to think about getting our own. Our plan would be to buy them, fatten them up, then send them off for chops eak...scary! Anyway, does anyone know if this is a good time to buy lambs?....I think I may have left it too late. Approx how much do they cost and when would they be sent off to the chop factory?? Thanks for any advice!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwing Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Good plan, we love our lambs This isnt the very best time to buy meat lambs, farmers will decide to either fatten them themselves or sell them on as store lambs to be fattened by someone else but if they sell it doesnt tend to be till a bit later in the year You may be able to buy a couple of weaned lambs at market I guess, I dont know what the price would be it could be very little but up to £70 each for pedigrees I guess You may find that someone will sell you a couple off the farm - make sure you get the right paperwork with regards to the move though! Not sure if you have a holding and flock registration for the Alpacas but you'll need it for the lambs Some pedigree meat is in more demand than commercial breeds but pedigrees are usually slower growing and yield less meat Our one commercial lamb is already looking pretty chunky, he will go off in September/October and the others (Shetlands) will stay till they are ready with the first probably going in November You can speed things up to some extent if you are prepared to feed concentrates Our sheep have cost us a very small amount to overwinter, they ate very little hay last winter so we are in no hurry to send our lambs off, in fact sending one every now and again will mean we dont have to find freezer space for it all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Fat lambs were around £84 at last week's stock market in Stratford - prices are good at the moment. We had ours in March and will keep them on until next Spring as hoggets. If you start asking around then you will find out who may let you have cade lambs next Spring, you'll need to be ready with a couple of bottles, some lamb replacer milk and a safe area with a heat lamp as with cades you suddenly receive a phone call and you don't want to be hunting down milk etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
