Big Chops

[woolpuller]

Hi cakadu:
WSSRP is Western Suffolk Sire Reference Program operating in Alberta.
OSSRA is Ontario Suffolk Sire Reference Association that operates centrally in Ontario but accepts members from USA and Canada.
Sorry to be slow returning to your questions.

[Busterflatts]

As meat sheep producer, one of our most major concerns are the magic fifty pound carcass that everyone seems to be convinced is what the Canadian public is demanding in the way of processed lamb. From the verbal surveys I have done, most people I have encountered who have ever ordered lamb chops in a restraunt will never do so again because they are so dissapointed with the puny little bits of meat they are served in the way of a lamb chops. Those bitty chunks of meat are what make lamb so hard to sell to the general public. I have asked around a lot why only a fifty pound carcass and have been told directly by the packers after 100-110 pounds live weight, regular wool lambs tend to go to fat rather than meat, nessesitating butchering them before this happens. Our solid solution to the problem was to breed with Dorper rams exclusively. we do quite a bit of farm gating and take all our in-the-box lamb up to 140 pounds a least with only the perfect fat covering on every carcass. Makes selling frozen lamb in a box a cinch as the customer sees they are getting their money's worth.

[cakadu]

It is good to hear of your success in terms of direct marketing lamb. You seem to have found the right combination of producing what your customers will pay you for.

With some of the breeds, I know that it is a matter of cost in terms of putting that extra weight on. If the current philosophy is to have a market lamb in 120 days, then with some breeds, to go beyond that costs too much and takes more time to put that extra weight on.

The other side of that is many lamb customers out there see bigger chops as an older animal i.e. mutton and that can sometimes really hurts sales as well. It takes a lot of effort and resources to change people's ideas of what is "normal" and this would be no different.

Our markets prefer the lighter learner carcass and that is who we sell to.

I would suspect that just like with cattle farming, some sheep producers do not know their actual costs of production and what they sometimes charge for the meat does not pencil out in the end. It sounds like you've done your homework and are making things work for you instead of the other way around.

It takes a lot of effort, time and resources to direct market, but we've found it to be worth it in the long run as we are in charge of the product from beginning to end. Not everyone has the inclination or the time to do that and the extra costs of doing the marketing have to be pencilled in as well.

Bottom line is that it depends on who you are selling to, what they want and if you can provide it at a price that leaves the shepherd with some money after all is said and done. If you are getting the perfect amount of fat cover for the customers you are selling to, then that is good news indeed. People feel they've got their moneys worth if you provide them with a quality product consistently that meets whatever needs they have.

[Busterflatts]

In my opinion you are absolutely right in evrything you have written. The whole crux of the sheep business is to make money. Yes, there are some who have not pencilled out the true cost of production.
Just to give some indiction of what we are trying to put together, we tested about 250 lambs a couple years ago, all inclusive, the good and the bad and averaged 110 lbs. at 100 days with a .9 lb average again right across the board. We sold quite a number to Canada West rail grade. They carcassed out at 68% and averaged 6lbs more cutable meat per cascass than an average lamb at 110 lbs. These were high percentage Dorper cross lambs. We instructed to bring our lambs in at about 95-100 lbs so that our Dorper cross lambs would fit in with the other lambs killed.
That all being said, with the drought and hoppers the last few years, we have not "made any money" as we have had to pay a way to much for feed. We have had to feed year around for the last two years as a result of the hoppers eating all the pasture. We consider ourselves to be in a crisis management situation and are simply trying to ride out the drought and BSE all the while trying to preserve our investment.
And, yes again, not everyone want a big lamb and we are only to happy to put out one of the smaller lambs on demand and send it off to the butchers.
In order to be cost effective, we have not been able to pencil any profit into light lambs, the return is just to small.

[cakadu]

That's a fairly respectable gain. What were you feeding in order to achieve gains like that?