Sheep Lambing Planner
This may seem so simple it is often overlooked, but just how many lambs do you expect? and how much money could you make?
Under the planning menu is the 'Sheep Lambing Planner'. It is a simple tool designed to help you see the effect of more or less ewes, lambing percentage, lamb survival. breeding stock placements, lamb growth rates and market prices. It provides windows for tupping, lambing and finishing. It calculates income based on minimum and maximum price per kilo values(PPK). The PPL is the price per lamb!
Change the values and click the 'Calculate' button
More ewes to the tup is one way of getting more lambs, but that is also more ewes to feed!
Lambing Percentage and Lamb Survival
If you want to make more money from less ewes focus on your lambing percentage / scanning percentage. You will never have more lambs than the total number born. This starts with prolificay of the ewe and the number of embryo's she produces. This is often breed specific, but is also effected by the health and condition of the ewe.
Change the Lambing percentage, Click the calculate button and see the effect of a low lambing percentage.
Lamb survival means more lambs live and may be sold, a small change in death rate has a big effect on profit. Your lamb losses are bigger than you think and will effect your bank balance.
Lamb survival is dependant breed and breeding, which is also why SIGNET have a Lamb Survival EBV!
Growth Rate
Lambs grow very fast if their mother produces good milk, during the first 8 weeks this may be well over 400 grams a day. This may then slows as grass quality fails or the worm burden increase. Maintaining growth rate finishs lambs quicker and more profitably.
You may need to weigh your lambs earlier to see this, they could be heavier than you think
Growing at 500 grams a day a Lamb will reach 42.5 Kg (finishing weight) in 85 Days!
We have breeders WHO achieve this! Organic! Pasture For Life! OFF GRASS! ( with some clover! )
However a growth rate of only 150 grams a day is also possible - THE ANIMAL IS ILL! riddled with paracites or has NO FOOD!. it will be still here at lambing NEXT YEAR! THIS IS YOUR FAULT! If your lambs are doing 150 grams a day something is wrong.
Market Prices and Income
We can not predict with any certainty what the market price will be the day your sell your lambs or send them to slaughter. However we can provide minimum and maximum values that we would expect the price to be within. This then gives us an approximate minimum and maximum income level. Although this is NOT profit, there are no costs on the planner. It does give us a clue, it may make you think it not worth it! or make you question WHERE does all the money go?
Even a small change in the pence per kilo can make a BIG difference - BUT NOT AS MUCH AS MORE LAMBS!
NOW YOU KNOW THAT!