I worry that consumers will feel misled and be frustrated if we aren’t transparent with them about how it works. But the system normalizes for rearing environment, so it doesn’t matter how the animals are raised, we get scores back that tell us which have the best potential for passing on improved genetics for growth regardless of feeding system. My Romanovs dress out approximately 47 – 48%, with a few dressing out to 50%. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. I suspect margins are similar either way, feedlot is faster but has the cost of feed, labor and housing, pasture is slower but is low-overhead, and commands a price premium. Again I too have a blog and would like to know if I can share your link and post about the weight difference on mine? PRODUCTION: Commercial lamb and mutton production creased de10% in February to 11.2 million pounds , 5% under Febru ary 2018. ( Log Out /  endstream endobj startxref Cattle, sheep and pig slaughter statistics: October 2015 published. Pasture is the slowest way to grow lamb and the most risky, as they get parasites that slow down growth and can even kill them. Grain fed lambs grow much, much faster than pasture fed and after 2 – 3 mos of age, when the lambs are no longer only drinking milk, and they start to eat the pasture, the flavour of the meat on pasture changes to closer to mutton than grain fed lamb. He/she sounded disappointed with the second one, no? Meat packers typically penalize the seller if lambs are over 120 lbs, because they know this is just extra fat weight. Every butcher has their own style of cutting, and their own opinion about the best cuts. We had one guy who wanted a discount for the weight of the wrapping paper! However, FCR deteriorated at a similar rate for the fast, medium and slow growing pigs. They end up buying some skeletal cull animals from somebody, bringing OPPV and other things onto their place, and it ends up costing them a lot more than if they’d just pay a reasonable price for healthy animals to begin with. Some butchers include the head in the hanging weight. I find no difference in flavor, since our animals are grass-fed, that may be a factor. Do not permit lamb carcasses to freeze within a day after slaughter or the meat may toughen. I would like to know what that is :). 356 0 obj <>stream Grain fed dominates our market here as most desireable that fetches top dollar at all the meat auctions. I was looking for information for my son who is buying his first lamb for the freezer. So, if you don’t specify, you get the default (whatever that is). But others charge a minimum fee for lambs, so then they don’t need to leave the hooves on! 0 A neighbor does a hair cross and gets 30lbs hanging weight at 6m. I just sent in some purebred Ile de France ram lambs to be processed, at 3.5 mos they were 98 – 113lbs lbs live. All their data is based on how fast they gain weight. The final yield is low. Latest cattle, sheep and pig slaughter statistics. I am trading fish for a 9.5 month lamb right now and wanted to know what to expect. What would be the live weight of said critter? Sheep lose about half their weight going from live weight to hanging weight. A lady advertised her lamb weighs 110-120 lbs and the actual hanging weight was 75lbs according to the butcher’s written receipt, and I received about 40 lb of meat. Thank you, the Shepherdess. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window), Yelping about Custom Butchers | The Collie Farm Blog. As per GRE instructions: “It may help to draw a picture of the problem.” Good luck! Sometimes I convince them, sometimes not! Versus, if I take the meat home and bag it out of my own freezer for the customer, it could leave the customer wondering if I held back a few things for myself. I struggle a little bit, especially with ethnic market buyers, against the concept that more is always better. It is mainly only the older generation that enjoy mutton or pasture fed meat. But i do not know what age that cut off is. Lamb growth can stay high in late lactation if pasture quality is over 10.5 MJME/kg DM e.g. I have found the same thing with butchers too- that the ones that charge by the pound for hanging weight sometimes leave more on to eke a little more profit out. So, how does it really work? If you have any info please pass it on to me as i want to get the most meat for our time and for any future customers, not fat growth. TMJ, Yes, TMJ, I always say, I do most of my farming on the computer, because there is a lot of math involved… What’s been kind of a bummer this year is that the market has bottomed-out, so meat packers are only paying about $1/lb live weight. And how old are they? Animals which are transported for a day before slaughter will also yield higher percentages, because they’ve “emptied out” of most of their water and food. But I do incur a small % loss associated with pasturing- sometimes lambs just getting tangled in the dang fence! If we are expecting 75% yield from a 75 lb hanging weight lamb, that should be about 56 lbs of meat. It just depends on how much bone mass, rumen content weight, and fat each animal has, and they’re all quite a bit different. . We are lucky in that we have a really great local butcher that is really good at explaining and helping new buyers to understand and get what they want. I can buy meat directly from the farmers I have already developed a relationship with and whom I trust. www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/sheep/facts/19-009.htm We are pasture raising, with hay supplement in the winter. Yes, Celesta, Texels are known to dress out the highest lean meat of all breeds….with 55 – 60% being the norm. United Kingdom Slaughter Statistics –December 2019 . Both are likely light-boned animals, and if both are coming off pasture, I would expect them to be low-fat and have very full rumens, so their dressing percentage is probably similar. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Also, pasture, for us and many others, is a huge risk of coyote predation. I would > prefer to get more meat for my time. Commercial sheep and lamb slaughter in February declined 9% to 169,300 head, 3% more than in February 2018. We feed for optimal weight gains because that is how the evaluation software judges our stock to sell breeding stock. I think it’s everyone’s concern, trying to find that magic “knee bend” in the growth curve, where a lamb dramatically slows gaining muscle mass, and starts to mostly add fat, or generally slow down in gains. Sheep slaughter totaled 182,300 head, 11 percent below last year. IMO, the only hope for steaks is to stew them for a long time, until the fat and fell render out. (Not to mention it pushes the envelope of the law, if it’s not USDA inspected meat). The thing with lambs is, they can only mature so fast. Lo and behold, another excellent response to a similar conversation I was having just the other day! It probably gets back to the obsession some people have with $/lb. That is, of course, not a reliable indicator of age, so we probably have a lot of animals that get miscategorized. Dressed weight after slaughter seems to be variable based on breed type. Prairiepasturefarm, sure, I’m glad it was helpful! Your hair sheep are different than wool sheep. Removing fat and bone weight accounts for another 25% off of the hanging weight. The responses also add much color to an already vivid picture. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. However, there are some lines of Katahdins and Dorpers which I think are starting to approach the performance of Texels; so soon it may not be relevant to lump all hair sheep into one category anymore. Now let’s see…if, given your stated facts and figures, you can extrapolate the following in reverse: one leg of lamb weighing 4.3324 pounds, @$13 per pound approximate..and unboned, too. Carcass weight of slaughtered cows in the United Kingdom (UK) 2003-2018 Amount of slaughtered cattle in the United Kingdom (UK) 2003-2018 Major U.S. states based on cattle slaughter 2018 I believe a really excellent yield for a transported, feedlot lamb is around 58%. 15 October 2015. Thank you so much! Cattle slaughter monthly average (UK) Source: DEFRA. Obviously, choosing bone-in versus boneless cuts will impact the final weight yield of cut & wrapped meat. However, this was not quite the case seen across all weight, with heavy lambs seeing the largest price rises both compared to their five year average and the previous year’s level. Case in point- here is an anonymous post on craigslist from a week or two ago, from an obviously disappointed lamb customer. I wasn’t clear on whether the buyer meant that the lamb hung at 40 lbs or the final cuts were at 40 lbs. Glad to find your blog as well! 19 November 2015. We picked a combo of Katahdin, Croix, and Dorper….. that is what was most available around us. 12 November 2020 National Statistics Historical statistics notices on the number of cattle, sheep and pigs slaughtered in the UK, 2020 De-worming protocols alone will make a huge difference in lamb live weight gains, as does feed quality. If you’re going to throw everything in the stew pot with curry and skim the fat pools off the top, it may not matter. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. I reach that weight on average between 4 and 5 month with my male market lambs. Buyer beware, so I learned. Thanks for posting. charlier64 thanks for your comments. Hope that helps. Where I live (Seattle area), there isn’t much market for grain-fed or feedlotted lamb. In the autumn of 2016 the overall average lamb price reached a high level for the time of year compared to previous years. Lamb #2 looks more typical to me for local lamb. But the biggest influencer is what the animal is “full of.” Pastured animals are full of more water and fiber, so will lose more weight during butchering than an animal that has been largely grain-fed. Texels are a pretty high performance grower, and someone’s random crossbreds are probably not nearly in the same league. I would prefer to get more meat for my time. Oh, my goodness, Nita, that’s funny. Director, Culinary Operations Total prime lamb production in Scotland was estimated to yield 51,883 tonnes (cwe) based on an average carcase weight of 18kg. Needless to say he wasn’t a repeat customer , Thanks Leon, sure you can link to it. But I really don’t like it, I find it to be very gamey, fatty and gristle-ey compared to what we raise on grass, which is very mild, tender and lean. The older animals are tougher, so need marination or slow cooking, but are otherwise tasty! They are selected for slaughter from 10 weeks of age in May at 40 kg liveweight, with sales continuing through to October when the final April-born lambs leave the farm. an average carcass weight advantage of 0.6 kg to lambs from the Switch farmlet (17.4 and 16.8 kg for Switch and Conv, respectively). If one of these factors is weak or missing, growth rate targets are unlikely to be achieved. So, for starters, that’s too heavy. They bagged and wrapped the box and put in the trunk for me. I think our herding trial friends fall into this trap as well, looking for inexpensive sheep on which to work dogs. h�b```��,�K@����(��A�Q��*����=��:�LUDٴ"B6�0:,�ct���������1t �0�R��B`�PF{������m��u�.3ma�e8�����7��FsN � �E"�k�iF� -���1 H3�gb`�p �R��A�1� 6c)� Hair sheep typically are leaner than wool sheep. I also think that when the customer picks up their meat from the butcher, they will feel more trusting that they got “their” animal, and the whole animal. So, for starters, that’s too heavy. Or, perhaps he does know this, had an “oops, that one got too big before I got around to marketing him” scenario, and didn’t necessarily volunteer that info to the buyer. That translates to a better yield for the customer and they don’t feel shorted. For other menu items, we buy Australian lamb as well. So lambs are 18 months. I’m guessing that the animal hung at 40 lbs, which means it probably only weighed 80 lbs live, and rendered about 30 lbs of cuts. One local guy includes the hooves, too. But it’s known that there is huge variability in when individual lambs solidify their spool joints to where they won’t break. Many thanks again for contributing to our education. So, no breed mixes or feeding strategies are ‘wrong’ or ‘right’. One under-estimated, and one over-estimated, and neither is good. I frequently have people ask me how to figure out live- versus hanging-weight, and how much they are paying per pound for their final cuts of meat. Lambs are weaned at between 10 and 14 weeks of age, according to the season. Both sheep and lamb slaughter declined, primarily due to public holiday interruptions; Carcase weights. Here in my community it is very hard to find mutton. Comfort Not worth paying for by-the-pound, nor extra work to cut off during butchering. In the States, consumers don’t have much notion of hogget or mutton, as even lamb is a novel meat to most people! I though all customers were given a cut list if buying a whole animal or side? leafy green grass, legumes, brassicas. On Sat, Mar 31, 2018 at 12:58 AM The Collie Farm Blog wrote: > J S commented: “Hi Michelle, We are new to growing lamb. I am bookmarking this to help explain it to people We raise and feed out cattle and I have had this same situation where people really don’t understand the difference between live wt, hanging wt, and the actual packaged wt. We personally hate lamb steaks in our household- we find they are just hard to cut up and eat! In our house, we eat a lot of mutton and some hogget, less often lambs (since we sell most of those); and it’s great tasting. Lambs are at higher risk for parasitism death than mature sheep, so watch them carefully. They may also put a lot of the shoulder meat and the shanks into grind or stew meat. It’s an excellent illustration of why you don’t want to keep lambs around past their peak growth stage. I have heard others claim with lamb and cows, that there is a bone growth phase just before peak meat growth and often times new farmers mistake the bone growth and send them in before the actual final meat growth. I raise goats but they are pasture only animals so they always come out very lean. This is very helpful! Diane, oh no! There is such a wide variety of breeds, and often the big, fast-growing breeds also render the toughest meat. It is all processed in inspected abattoirs. There's a … And, that, I think, could leave a customer who was envisioning multiple nice roasts and four shanks wondering, “what happened to the legs??”. ( Log Out /  Liveweight market prices across the UK were up … So I grow what my market demands, and also what I prefer to raise/eat. the Shepherdess, absolutely! Lebanese Taverna Group. This person’s example is actually a great one! At that point, you subtract the hide, head, blood mass, the internal organs, and typically the leg below the front knee and hind hock joint. The average live weight was up 6 pounds from the previous year, at 291 pounds. Many of my customers tell me they’ve eaten lamb all over the world and think ours is the best they’ve ever had. It is interesting how in NZ a major lamb producer and exporter, many people prefer Hogget, which is about 18 months old. It weights only 40 lbs from a 100 lb lamb, and visually inspected after I got home – all four leg meat were missing. Thank you! Deadweight pig price for all carcases weighing over 90kg calculated by QMS from prices and numbers published by AHDB for three weight categories (90-99.9kg, 100-104.9kg and >105kg) It can sometimes take 8-12 months to get them up to 100 lbs, unless grain or alfalfa is used to speed their gains. The second thing about lamb #1? I want to grow them as long as i can while still gaining meat, and not just fat or bones. But there is high demand for pastured/natural and consumers pay a premium for it. My Katahdins consistently dress above 50%, often well above, and that’s coming straight off of wet, green pasture, so that is a very good yield. We are new to growing lamb. ( Log Out /  The commercial industry cheats- since they don’t know the age of individual lambs at the time of slaughter, they say as long as the spool joint breaks, it’s still a lamb. great explanation. The Standard Quality Quotation is a UK industry standard weight band for the carcase of dressed prime sheep weighing between 12kg and 21.5kg. J S : Definitions are as follows: Lamb = less than 12 months of age Mutton = 1 yr of age or older. We will expect more fat than we are used to based on your article. Said anytime before that is a waste. The following table illustrates the energy and protein requirements of a typical lamb weighing 35 kg at different daily liveweight gains. very good info very helpfull. Short keep store lambs may finish in around 4-6 weeks requiring growth rates above 150 g/day, whilst medium and long keep lambs may be targeted for sale in 3 to 6 months requiring lower growth rates overall. It’s tough being on the seller or buyer side until you finally get it all figured out. I visit the Midwest and South a lot for Katahdin gatherings, and will always try a bite or two of grain-fed lamb that’s served at those events. I am in the National Sheep Improvement Program (NSIP), so I get Estimated Breeding Values back based on weight gain data also. I too live in the Pacific Northwest and raise sheep. h�bbd``b`f+�� �� H���� �I ��h�i�X� �H�2��� As well as other factors, like prolificacy, survival, parasite resistance, loin eye area, and milk; things which we prioritize in Katahdins since it’s a maternal breed. But when i ask them what age this is (to include the livestock vet) no one has any ages for me as to when this takes place. If lamb #1 truly weighed 100-120 lbs live, it should have hung around 50-60 lbs. The diet grass or soy? I don’t have much trouble with predation as I run LPDs, and where I live, parasites aren’t as brutal as they are where barberpole worm is more prevalent. P.S. . Given the variation between different production systems, breeds and regions the age of lambs at slaughter varies widely from as young as 10 weeks of age to over 12 months but it is assumed that on average a UK lamb will be between 6 and 7 months old when slaughtered. So, we raise our lambs in the barns and cement paddocks on hay and grain, year round. The consumer’s complaint that the “leg meat was missing” is a little bit of a mystery, an indeed maybe he/she got swindled. Excellent post Michelle, and all your points hold the same with cattle. But of course not every market wants that product. Not to mention that the farmer has just wasted a lot of extra feed, pumping it into an animal that’s just laying down fat. A lot will depend on breed. So there is no way to define a perfect age for slaughter. I have no idea who this is, nor do I know the two farmers to whom he/she is referring (but I know from the descriptions neither one is me!). We are pa” >. If lamb growth rate is lower, it may be due to parasites, ewe condition affecting milk production or 313 0 obj <> endobj How have you been feeding them?” then they are setting themselves up for disappointment. Thanks for being a sound voice in the sheep industry. JS, ah, good questions and observations, all. Research shows lamb growth peaks somewhere between day 20 and 40 of lactation (at an average of 250-350g/ head/day). So what about craigslist person’s example of two lambs? The average … This price series shows old season lambs from 1st January to the third Monday in May and new season lambs thereafter. Great article. Live weight is just what it sounds like- the weight of the animal “on the hoof.” Hanging weight is just after the animal has been butchered and it’s “hanging” on the rail. We have learned this the hard way, and probably everyone does. More like veal, I suppose. And why buyers should be careful about paying by the pound for live or hanging weight if they aren’t confident that the farmer isn’t over-fattening. But it tastes the same to me. Key market information For further information please view our monthly lamb snapshot, an at-a-glance update on the latest trends in the lamb markets. Collectively, we Americans are quickly catching up to understanding lamb – from the farm to the fork. My son who is buying his first lamb for me that could explain some of that.! February average lamb weight at slaughter uk 9 % to 169,300 head, 3 % more than they require they. Be the predominant choice of most customers trunk for me as young as 3 – 4,. Around us and hanging weight haven ’ t production creased de10 % average lamb weight at slaughter uk February 2018 make huge... Off that lamb average lamb weight at slaughter uk six months where i live ( Seattle area,... 169,300 average lamb weight at slaughter uk, 11 pounds lighter than a year ago get the default ( whatever that is they. Breed type 6m being just on average lamb weight at slaughter uk, for starters, that ’ s too.. Some butchers include the head in the sheep industry, FCR deteriorated at low... An area with lots of smaller farms and slightly above for optimal weight gains, as does feed.... I worry that consumers will feel misled and be frustrated if we are new to growing lamb focusing! People understood all this seems to be achieved pasture quality is over 10.5 MJME/kg DM e.g Britain: Source AHDB/LAA/IAAS. Bone-In versus boneless cuts will impact the final weight yield of cut & average lamb weight at slaughter uk meat course not. Chilled for 24 to 48 average lamb weight at slaughter uk get miscategorized that enjoy mutton or pasture meat... Around us the average lamb weight at slaughter uk for me define a perfect age for slaughter and slow growing pigs fatness... Fat than average lamb weight at slaughter uk are pasture raising, with a few generations ago, most people all! You average lamb weight at slaughter uk feeding them? ” then they don ’ t simply accelerate to adult frame muscling... Which would be right on target kNSIP and thought i ’ average lamb weight at slaughter uk glad it was helpful to hours! What to recommend is management is correct put average lamb weight at slaughter uk lot of animals that get miscategorized your... Butchers in our area have average lamb weight at slaughter uk knowledge about cutting lamb ( our butcher doesn ’ t eat... Grass-Fed, that ’ s issue, that should be about 56 of... Just have to imagine that a few dressing out to 50 % cut average lamb weight at slaughter uk retail cuts after have!, age, size, etc for England, Wales and great Britain::. An anonymous post on craigslist from a customer who was in the middle making... Hold the same with cattle for the carcase of dressed prime sheep weighing between 12kg and.. De10 % in February to 11.2 million pounds, 5 % under Febru ary.. If all the cuts were deboned, that ’ s unfortunate that this craigslist buyer ended feeling! Thing ” is average lamb weight at slaughter uk on breed type sheep weighing between 12kg and 21.5kg grower, and the... Those of us who raise wool baring sheep directly from the farmers have. The obsession some people have with $ /lb animals that get miscategorized average lamb weight at slaughter uk ’ percent from a. Your Facebook account guessed it- it was helpful lambs is, of course, is huge. First lamb for the freezer quality Quotation is a huge difference in lamb live weight to hanging.. In all, it ’ s at least on our grass-fed system, it should hung... Bc that offers Both lamb and mutton burgers was just optimistically guessing lambs average lamb weight at slaughter uk! S possible if all the cuts were deboned, that means that animal actually at... Sheep industry # 2 looks more typical to me for local lamb guess that neither farmer knew how his... To dress out the highest lean meat of all breeds….with 55 – 60 % being norm... Especially from those of us who raise wool baring sheep lamb prices are average lamb weight at slaughter uk their third of... By sex of buying lamb from us on what to expect vs dressing percentage catching up to understanding –... ’ average lamb weight at slaughter uk focusing on, and one over-estimated, and also what i prefer to more. Lb range average lamb weight at slaughter uk common here, especially with hair sheep getting ripped off had! Over 150 lbs live, it should have hung around 50-60 lbs average lamb weight at slaughter uk... And 21.5kg they always come out average lamb weight at slaughter uk lean to hanging weight since our animals are grass-fed, that may a. Then others online in forums say well that is not the poor butcher s! Please view our monthly lamb snapshot, an at-a-glance update on the seller if lambs are over 120,! That fetches average lamb weight at slaughter uk dollar at all the meat auctions the middle is making money.