Lambs to Market
Last night I drove a batch of 12 lambs down to the auction. The very first batch of lambs I have ever sent down there, and the culmination of 10 months of work to get to this point.
My plan with the sheep was to sell the lambs at auction. I did research about which weights sold best there and bought my breeds accordingly. Some breeds of sheep just look ready at particular weights. My goal was a finished out lamb at 60-70 pounds in as short a time period as possible. Some breeds are large boded and would never look finished and filled out at 60 pounds because they are just still growing into themselves. Other breeds would eventually get to 60 pounds, but it would take months and months because the mature size of that sheep might just be above the 60 pound mark. I chose Polypays and Ile de France because they have the body type to finsih out nicely at my goal weight.
I also purposefully bred my ewes to lamb in the winter so that the lambs would be ready for easter sales. The sheep that I bred myself ended up lambing in December and January, which is a little later than they needed to be, but luckily I was able to buy some bred ewes from my cousin. He was slimming down his flock and I got 25 ewes who were set to lamb in November.
So from reaching out to farms in early March of 2023, bringing home my first round of ewe lambs in June, breeding in July, Lambing in November, and now finally sending the first lambs off to auction in March 2024, it has been a long time coming. Farming is not for those who need instant gratification! But that is one of the things I love most about it. You get to watch your hard work pay off over months and months. Every bucket of grain you pour today doesn’t feel like it does all that much, but the culmination of all that work gets you to these points in farming where everything comes together. Both exciting and nerve wracking at the same time!
The barn looks a little more empty today, but the anticipation of seeing what price my lambs will bring is distracting me quite nicely