It is important that we test our plans and strategies now and then. During the week, my team asks why we don’t buy and feed a bunch of storage lambs. Then I decided to quickly make another summation about the viability of buying storage lambs at R38 per kg, rounding them up and delivering them to the market at R83 per kg.
My sum was as follows:
Food price: R 38 x 28kg = R1,064
Ralgro: R15
Vaccine and dosages: R35
Labour: R50
Infrastructure: R20
Cleaning: R10
Transport: R20
Cost price without feed: R1,214
Selling price: 45kg x 46% x R83 = R1,718.10
Available for Feed costs: R504.10
Feed costs are worked out as follows:
45kg – 28kg = 17kg
VOV = 5.1 (may be lower)
@ R6500 per ton
17 x 5.1 x 6.50 = R563.55
Loss on lamb: R59.45
@ R5500 per ton
17 x 5.1 x 5.50 = R476.85
Profit on lamb: R27.25
The above calculations have the following points of concern:
- All the animals are not going to grade A2/A3
- There are going to be mortalities (Diseases, adaptation, etc.)
- Result percentage may not average 46% taking into account 3% hot weight deduction
Where does that leave the farmer at these prices if the only market is the feedlot or the abattoir?
If you have pasture and it rained like now, it might be good to “background” your lambs. The quality of pasture and breed will determine whether lick should be given. And of course, the Meatmaster’s motto is “Money from the Field”. It’s more important now than ever.
Because we currently feed the Meatmaster ram lambs, A4 is of course a big danger for us. For our lambs entering the mainstream market it is “touch & go” to break even on the lamb in a pen. What we did notice is that our A3/A4 divide is quite age-driven. The moment the Meatmaster lamb in a pen becomes older than 4.5 months, A4 rating is a big reality.
We have therefore now programmed our scale to select the lambs at either 43.5kg or age 4 months and 10 days, whichever comes first. This significantly reduces the likelihood of an A4 rating to almost zero.
In our adventure of testing limits and considering all options, especially with our combination of extensive and intensive practices, as well as the fact that our animals are basically all registered at Studboek, we are now starting a lamb project in the Karoo. Why hamels? If we slaughter at a maximum age of 4.5 months, the market is comfortable with a ram lamb. There are quite a few noises made by butchers if ram lambs are older, especially around 7 months where they have already reached puberty. Management is also easier if there are open ewes in nearby enclosures.
Our plan is as follows:
- In our Lamb Factory™ we use the Pedigree breeding values of the parents to determine the lamb’s estimated breeding values. Any single ram lamb born where the estimated breeding values fall below our desired breeding ram “benchmark” gets a rubber band. Our IntelliFarm™ RFID handheld device will automatically tell the team whether the ram lamb should be a lamb or not. Our ram lambs follow a different route to the Karoo after weaning.
- Ewes from single lambs go back to the Karoo as early as age 14 days. We will now also start to face the predators, but believe we have enough plans to keep these lambs quite safe. Our twin ewes are staying behind on Landrani for now until we know what our losses are on the pasture.
- The pasture lambs are not weaned early like our Landrani lambs, but at 100 days. The ewes are then taken away for immediate restocking and the lambs must continue on their own.
- As always, we will constantly weigh in to monitor their performance, as well as determine losses. The aim is to determine the exact age to put on maximum weight on Karoo pasture and also avoid the A4 danger.
Price and cost wise it is very difficult to round off lambs for the mainstream market at the moment. Our LANDRANI® LAMB market cannot yet absorb all our lambs, so we are still making plans.
Our LANDRANI® Meatmasters app has gone to the respective “App Stores” today (Friday) for approval. We kick off with 171 commercial ewes ages 5-11 months.
All daughters of:
- CHIEF,
- FAT JUDGE,
- SHADOW,
- PHANTOM (Is chosen if the Grandfather was a flock ram)
Multiple birth status is as follows:
- 69 twin ewes
- 10 triplet ewes
- 3 quadruplets ewes (all three sisters walk together)
These ewes are all field adapted on our pasture in Loxton, Northern Cape. Transport will be arranged once a month on the main routes.
Even if you are not in the market to buy, I believe it will be interesting to see how much detail we make available on each ewe.
Download the LANDRANI® Meatmasters app:
Regards
Pieter