Preparing lambs for marketing helps add to profits
Understanding how to properly prepare lambs for a sale as well as market those lambs before the sale is something that can help sheep producers maximize their profits.
Preparing lambs for a sale does not just start days before the sale, it starts as soon as they are born and placed in lambing jugs, which are small pens used to separate ewes along with their new lambs from the rest of the flock.
Debbie Bacon, the owner of Bacon Cattle & Sheep in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, said she bands her lamb’s tails “while in the jug and prior to 7 days old.”
Banding tails is a normal task among sheep breeders to remove the tail from the lambs with minimal damage or infection. This is also known as docking, which helps to reduce the risk of infections or health issues later in the lamb’s life.
Lambs typically learn how to eat grain on their own between two and three weeks of age. Once they learn to do this, they should be started on a creep feed.
“The hardest part of getting lambs ready to sell is probably getting young lambs to be bloomy enough,” Bacon said.
Whether breeders are taking their lambs to a live sale, or hosting an online sale, it is important that the lambs look healthy and have a good cover, or layer of exterior fat, prior to sale or picture day.
Bacon prefers to open her barns for customers to view the lamb crop as young as 4 to 5 weeks old.
Lambs should be marketed for sale between the seventh to 12th weeks of age, because as they age it becomes more difficult to sell them, according Bacon.
The type of sale breeders wish to attend will also determine how you prepare lambs for a sale.
“Live sales require lambs to be show broke, whereas online sales simply require them to be broke enough to set up and brace (for the picture),” Bacon said.
Online sales allow producers to reach a larger number of customers and do not require sellers to be at a specific location the day of the sale. However, live sales allow the customers to “to truly appreciate quality,” Bacon said.
It is also important for breeders to consider the cost of marketing when deciding how they want to sell their lambs.
Online sales will require a photographer to take pictures of the lambs so that the producer can post them to the online sale. Online sales also require people to help get the lambs ready to picture.
Bacon said her favorite online sale platform is SCOnline Sales but there are numerous options for online marketing.
Live sales will require travel and food fees as well as paying for an extra person to help if the breeder chooses to bring one. Bacon said attending live sales are usually more expensive for her operation.
Sheep producers have many things to consider when deciding how to market their lambs. The most important thing is to consider all variables and decide what is best for their operation.
