markets

[Janet McNally]

For anyone who has not looked lately, the price of lighter weight lambs is crumbling. No surprise really, due to the price of corn and fuel, people don't want to put the extra money into growing a lamb.

there is now very little difference between the price of an 80 lb lamb and a 130 lb lamb, so clearly, the heavier one can make the lamb, the more money you will make so long as there is a margin over costs.

I am curious how many intend to feed their lambs to heavier weights because of this?

Janet

[Bill Fosher]

I'll probably market a few in each weight category, but the majority in the 100 to 115 class.

[Island Shepherd]

Since I have two classes of sheep (hill/island & Mule x Suffolk) they get marketed in two categories: 80-100 and 100-115. I could only vote for one.

[Darroll Grant]

Over 115 on grass, but we have grass during the winter.

[Janet McNally]

if there are any ideas how to redo the poll so it is more useful fire away. I was curious if the trend to market lighter is going to hold or if people are going to change their goals a bit.

Janet

[Lana Rowley]

As Darroll said, Right now the valley buyers want lighter lambs as they have grass. Lana

[Janet McNally]

What is the price of an 80 lb lamb out your way?

Janet

[Tom Nichols]

Janet,
I have heard of lambs that were bought in the upper $.80's, seems like a heck of a deal if you have grass and are buying.
Some mountain lambs are moving to the valley at $.55-$.65 per pound of gain -seems to cheap if feedlot gains are over a dollar. Why should our feed and labor be worth less than a feedlot owners?
It is really too early yet for bringing in lambs. We have been very dry since late April and feed on the perennial grass fields looks nice after a few showersw in August and September but is very limited in volume and regrowth potential. Clover seed fields are providing a large part of lamb grazing right now but there is little new growth and the dry remains after seed harvest are dissapearing fast on the many fields I passed on a recent tour of the valley. We may get rain this week but even so the annual ryegrass is still at least a month out.
We are lambing pretty heavy with at least 150 pair and another 90 in the drop. We will scatter them out thin on fescue and hope for enough rain to soon move onto orchardgrass and then annual ryegrass when it comes on.
Some times in this sheep deal you hit and sometimes you miss. I guess that's why I still work a day job.
Tom

[Wayne]

I normally feed to 125 to 130 and plan to do the same,,, I used to feed heavier but have gone to a smaller framed ewe over the years. We raise our own feed so while it is still costly, not as costly as buying it.

[K Bar K Farm]

Ramadan is typically a great time to market lightweight lambs in the NE, but not this year. Here is a link to Monday's market report from New Holland:

http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/ln_ls322.txt

Pretty sad prices for that market.

Some might argue that this market was a bit late to make Eid ul-Fitr (Oct.2) but the week before wasn't much better.

The NH reports have been mentioning there have been a lot of heavy lambs and culls (which is not what the Ramadan market looks for), telling me people are dumping sheep. I'm guessing this is in part due to the economy, and in part due to the drought we were having here until about 3 weeks ago when the rain started coming again.

We were going to market some lambs for Ramadan, but I'm glad I didn't. At those prices, I penciled it out and I can afford to hold them and grow them out even if I had to feed them alfalfa hay and/or $6 corn (thankfully the grass is growing again, so that won't be necessary!).

So we will be holding these lambs and marketing them into the Eid ul-Adha or Christmas markets.

In the meantime the fall lambs are dropping, and I'm feeling like I'm up to my eyeballs in sheep with this many on the farm right now!

Kathy

[jpa]

last year we were in the 100-115 range. This year all of the lambs we have sold were 115+

Jason

[Duane]

This sold at 127 lbs. last year 135. Took a two dollar hit because they weren't over 130#

[Bill Fosher]

There's a category in that report in which 50 lambs, averaging 84 lbs, sold for $88.76/CWT. That's about $75 per head before commission, yardage, and trucking. No way to make a living, let me tell you.

Feeders may be rubbing their hands greedily, but with prices like that there'll be nothing to feed in a couple of years.

[K Bar K Farm]

Bill,

I talked to several lamb buyers during the Ramadan market this year, and a few acted like they were 'doing me a favor' by offering to 'take the lambs off my hands'. Needless to say, the lambs are still on the farm.

Kathy

[Paul DeWitte]

With the high price of feed, I have been thinking of this all summer/fall.

If we sell our lambs as feeders, the person buying them has to buy them cheap enough to make some money when he sells them as fat market lambs.

So if we keep them and feed them out ourselves and can feed them for the same cost as the guy that buys feeders, we should be able to make the same as he does, or loose the same amount as he does.

All that I know now is that both hay and corn are about double as last year and the price of fat market lambs is no higher than last year.

A neighbor sold some lambs av/72 lbs for 85cents a lb. last week.

Maybe the answer is what do we do to loose the least amount.