Store lamb finishing – a viable options for all farmers

Over the last 15 years, finishing store lambs has been a profitable exercise on many grassland and tillage farms. The level of profit derived from this enterprise varies from year to year depending on the prevailing store lamb price, concentrate feed costs and the spring hogget price. The increase in concentrate feed prices meant 2022/23 was probably at the lower end of the profit scale

However, for the coming season there is an opportunity for farms with available grass/forage crops to consider finishing store lambs as concentrate prices continue to drop, store lamb prices remain moderate, and the outlook for lamb prices in the spring is positive,

Systems

There are a number of market options for store lamb finishers.

Finishing as a light lamb

In years such as this, where the store market for lighter hill lambs is comparatively poor, then for some hill farmers the option of finishing some lambs to carcass weights from 12-16kg is worth exploring. It is vitally important, though, with this system that prior contact is made with the factory or a producer group to establish that they are willing to take the lambs, and also outline the specific specifications they are looking for in these lighter lambs.

Studies carried out in Teagasc Athenry on performance targets for finishing lambs to lighter carcass weights have shown that it is possible to finish lambs that are 20-25kg live weight at weaning to carcass weights of 12-16 kg within eight to 10 weeks of housing.

In these studies, lambs were housed after weaning at an average live weight of 23.2 kg and slowly built up to ad-lib concentrate intake.

Lambs consumed 1.2 kg DM/head/day of concentrates once eating concentrates ad-lib. Average daily gain was 205g/day for the ram lambs and 173g/day for the castrates. They killed out at 42% and 44% respectively.

Lambs were drafted for slaughter once over 33 kg live weight for castrates and over 34 kg live weight for ram lambs with a fat score equivalent to fat score 2. Proper selection of lambs for slaughter is essential with this system and lambs need to be weighed regularly to avoid falling out of specification for the ‘light’ lamb trade, but under-finished for ‘French’ specification markets.

Where lambs, particularly ram lambs, reached 36 kg live weight and were deemed “unfinished” then they were retained and finished to ‘French’ market specification (>18kg carcass weight).

It is very important when finishing lambs to lighter carcass weights that they are assessed for condition prior to being sent for slaughter to ensure they have sufficient fat and muscle cover. Lambs that are under-fleshed will not process correctly and will produce unsaleable meat.

There is potential to finish male hill lambs at lighter carcass weights while meeting market specifications for muscle and fat cover. However, markets are somewhat limited for these carcasses so it is important to have a contract for these type lambs and careful selection of lambs prior to slaughter is essential to ensure carcasses meet minimum specification for payment.

Finishing store lambs to French market weights

Finishing store lambs to French market weight 18+kg carcass is probably the route that most store lamb finishers target. The time at which these lambs will be marketed will depend largely on the purchase weight, time of purchase and forage quality available.

For heavier store lambs 35kg plus, marketing will almost certainly take place before Christmas. For lighter lambs marketing will take place in the New Year.

Production of breeding hogget ewes for sale in autumn 2024

A traditional production system where a farmer purchases ewe lambs annually and keeps them for approximately 12 months, selling them in the breeding sales the following year.