Loading at Deadman

[jodywy]

Locked my ewes up Monday night then sorted off replacement ewes. The Outfit that bought my lambs sent a big 5th wheel trailer down and we loaded it and mine Tuesday morning with lambs. We got a light weight then on the way back up to dead man we weighted again. When we got there one semi trailer was loaded and they was just Starting on the 2nd. We then unloaded and filled the bottom of the Blue tractor's sheep wagon, then help load it up. This outfit shipped 3 more loads Wed, and one Thursday and will start shipping ewes and replacement lambs today thru Monday.

quick work at the jam gate

Full corral

Ground tied

a look up Dead Man

a crew at the back

Run away !run away!

not going to get thru all of them

Can I help PLEASE!!!!!!

 

[George]

A friend of mine is trying to get me to buy some sheep.

He states I can pasture 6 head per acre here and he also states I can sell 4 fat lambs per ewe per year.

He is also telling me he just sold his finished lambs for $1.25 #

How much of this can I believe? I can keep one cow / calf per acre here for about 9 months a year then feed hay for 3 months, just to give a referance as to what the ground will produce - - 7 tons of alfalfa hay per acre is good ( not this year )

Is he really getting 2 sets of twins per ewe per year?

I know nothing about sheep but might be willing to learn if part of this is real.

 

[jodywy]

A friend of mine is trying to get me to buy some sheep.

He states I can pasture 6 head per acre here and he also states I can sell 4 fat lambs per ewe per year.

He is also telling me he just sold his finished lambs for $1.25 #

How much of this can I believe? I can keep one cow / calf per acre here for about 9 months a year then feed hay for 3 months, just to give a referance as to what the ground will produce - - 7 tons of alfalfa hay per acre is good ( not this year )

Is he really getting 2 sets of twins per ewe per year?

I know nothing about sheep but might be willing to learn if part of this is real.

100lb feeder lambs are $2/lb

CO: 3100: Feeder Lambs 95-105 lbs 221.00.
700: Replacement Ewes yearlings 315.00 per head.
WY: 400: Feeder Lambs 70-75 lbs 225.00.
1500: Feeder Lambs (pool) 90-95 lbs 220.57 for Oct.
300: Replacement Ewes aged 150.00 per head.
UT: 1200: Feeder Lambs (pool) 90-100 lbs 230.25 for Oct.

here are the prices on the rail if you finish them
National Weekly Lamb Carcass
Choice and Prime 1-4:
Weight Head Wt Avg
45 lbs down 242 419.38
45-55 lbs 238 420.90
55-65 lbs 1393 377.90
65-75 lbs 2119 367.14
75-85 lbs 2084 364.76
the Wt.Avg is $/cwt

another way too look at it is 5 ewes=one cow, on a AUM basis

 

[George]

Can you really get 4 lambs per year with good management?

If you can pasture 5 to 1 then I should be able to keep about 5 per acre or 20 lambs per acre - - -do I need to creep feed them? 20X $200 = $4,000.00 per acre - - - this just sounds to good to be true! If this is right why do I have cows?

I assume rotating pasture should still be done. Could I have the sheep follow into the pastures I just moved the cows from? I try to leave about 6" of grass when I move the cows. I normally move the cows at least once a week even if they still have plenty - - -I feel this helps with the horn flies.

 

[Anonymous]

Can you really get 4 lambs per year with good management?

If you can pasture 5 to 1 then I should be able to keep about 5 per acre or 20 lambs per acre - - -do I need to creep feed them? 20X $200 = $4,000.00 per acre - - - this just sounds to good to be true! If this is right why do I have cows?

I assume rotating pasture should still be done. Could I have the sheep follow into the pastures I just moved the cows from? I try to leave about 6" of grass when I move the cows. I normally move the cows at least once a week even if they still have plenty - - -I feel this helps with the horn flies.

George- there are some negatives with sheep...Dumbest animal I know next to maybe a turkey-- and sometimes it seems like they will die for just looking at them wrong... And if you live in an area close to dogs running loose or coyotes- they seem to draw them...I've seen a pack of dogs hit a sheep herd and kill/maim dozens in one night...

And they can be very frustrating when trying to chase them somewhere (good dog works well for sheep)...Need much tighter fences then for cows..
Also- any access to shearers in your area? Shearing crews are getting tougher to find...Anyone else run sheep in your area you can find out how they are doing?

The big item I hear about in the midwest and near urban areas is the raising of goats- for some of the ethnic populations...And you don't have to shear many of the breeds of them....

But they are good at cleaning up a weedy pasture- and some folks have run them just to take care of leafy spurge in a pasture (used to have a government pay you to do program).... Grandpa would never let us get rid of the sheep while he was alive- as he said they were what always got him thru the tough times....And my sister and I used earnings from the sheep/lambs and raising bum lambs to pay for a fair share of our college fund..

 

[LazyWP]

I'm pretty dumb when it comes to sheep. How many pounds of lambs can a person get on a pot? How many lambs can a ewe raise out in the pasture? The only sheep I was ever around died after we had it for about 3 weeks.

 

[jodywy]

I'm pretty dumb when it comes to sheep. How many pounds of lambs can a person get on a pot? How many lambs can a ewe raise out in the pasture? The only sheep I was ever around died after we had it for about 3 weeks.

they had a F permit the blue truck had 515 lambs, gross wt was well over 80,000. there was around 50,000llbs of lamb on each truck
mine is a farm flock and I had over a 200%lamb crop. those on the moutain were around 130% but I know some range outfits that shed lamb and after coyotes still ship over 150%

 

[LazyWP]

Interesting..... Thanks