# feeder lamb prices?



## ShadowfaxFarm (Jul 23, 2011)

grrrrr...so what sort of prices are ya'll getting for feeder lambs? 40-70lb range? I took 4 wether lambs to the salebarn last evening. They were 3 months old and averaged 61lbs, 2 of them were super nice, 2 of them so-so but not bad looking. They only brought $1.14/lb...now I know sheep are not big in the area but still that just seemed low to me. There were two other small groups of lambs that i saw but they were older/larger ready to butcher. I don't know what prices they brought as I couldn't stay for the sale. 

anyway I just want to hear what others are getting for their lambs.


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## LibertyWool (Oct 23, 2008)

Private sales, I'm getting $125 per head (not per lb) and they average 50 lbs. I guess that works out to 250 $/cwt, so I'm getting a premium over ASI latest number for 40-70 lbs at 164-176 $/cwt


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## sherry in Maine (Nov 22, 2007)

liberty wool where are you?

I live in Hancock county.

I bought a spring lamb, I think all in all, I will pay $250 when I pick up at butcher shop.

I might like another, if I can swing it financially.

Also, last summer, a man I work for sponsored a 4h lamb; he wasn't intersted in taking it when it was auctioned off, so he asked around and found out that I wanted it! (for free!!) I butchered it myself, this year I can afford to have it butchered. If I remember that lamb went for 2.39 per lb or 2.69, not sure. I think she weighed 137lbs. Other lambs went for higher price there.


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## LibertyWool (Oct 23, 2008)

Hi Sherry,

I'm over in in central Maine 1/2 the way between Augusta and Belfast. I'm all sold out this year. I start to advertise in mid May and they go the first week of June (I waited to the 9th this year). Now I just have to keep an eye on the ewes to make sure they dry up fine...


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## ShadowfaxFarm (Jul 23, 2011)

So I must be in the wrong part of the country!!


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## sherry in Maine (Nov 22, 2007)

LW you are not the one who sells 'ewegurt' are you?

Will you keep me in mind when you sell your next lambs? Do you raise till slaughter weight and take to butcher?
Maybe you are the one I paid already?
(got to find the receipt cant remember name of lady I do business with)

Do you do any other sheep related products? Or goats?


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## grandma12703 (Jan 13, 2011)

Shadowfox, that seems really low. I know they are doing much better around here. I am kinda sad those guys had to go to the salebarn. Sure wish I had grandkids old enough to show.


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## wendle (Feb 22, 2006)

Here's a link to the salebarn I just went to last week in Iowa. 
Kalona Sheep & Goat Sale

Just bought some sheep off a lady near Springfield and she got 1.70 per lb recently.


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## ShadowfaxFarm (Jul 23, 2011)

grandma12703 said:


> Shadowfox, that seems really low. I know they are doing much better around here. I am kinda sad those guys had to go to the salebarn. Sure wish I had grandkids old enough to show.


That's what I thought!! I think I need to find a new salebarn even if I have to travel up to Yates Center an hour away. 

I tried several different ways to find them show homes but nobody wanted to come look at them. I think part of the problem is that here locally more kids are into meat goats now instead of lambs. Oh well at least I didn't have to take any ewelambs to the salebarn!!  Thanks to you and another homesteader!

And I can't complain too much as a friend is buying 2 to butcher themselves so I didn't have to take all 6


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## Judy in IN (Nov 28, 2003)

I had a fellow call me last weekend looking for some ewes. He told me lamb prices were down, only bringing .73 a lb. He said that was because of the drought and fires in the Southwest. He claimed that there were truckloads of sheep and goats just lined up at the livestock centers.

Wellll, _may-be_....Or maybe he's trying to see how far down he can get the price. He told me that you can't hold a lamb, as the price drops. Well, that is true to some extent. However, a 1-3 year old ewe is not a lamb, as I told him.

I did take 3 lambs to the sale about 3 weeks ago. The 70 lb. ram lamb brought $1.89 per pound, the 105 lb. ram lamb brought $1.15. So, like cattle, you get a drop in price per pound, but you make it up in poundage.


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## grandma12703 (Jan 13, 2011)

Hmmm. well if prices have fallen it has been very recently because they were still high the end of May. I am going the 29th to buy and I will let you know how it goes.


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## zephyrcreek (Mar 30, 2012)

I sell directly to customers at $4/lb hanging weight. We are not big yet, but there is a growing market here.


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## ShadowfaxFarm (Jul 23, 2011)

Judy in IN said:


> I had a fellow call me last weekend looking for some ewes. He told me lamb prices were down, only bringing .73 a lb. He said that was because of the drought and fires in the Southwest. He claimed that there were truckloads of sheep and goats just lined up at the livestock centers.
> 
> Wellll, _may-be_....Or maybe he's trying to see how far down he can get the price. He told me that you can't hold a lamb, as the price drops. Well, that is true to some extent. However, a 1-3 year old ewe is not a lamb, as I told him.
> 
> I did take 3 lambs to the sale about 3 weeks ago. The 70 lb. ram lamb brought $1.89 per pound, the 105 lb. ram lamb brought $1.15. So, like cattle, you get a drop in price per pound, but you make it up in poundage.


HAHA! That guy was so blowing smoke...the demand for good ewes is pretty darn high right now.

See I was expecting at least $1.40/lb for these lambs as they were medium-light weight feeder lambs. All the market reports I had read said that was about the low end of what they were going for. If they had been crap lambs I could understand a lower price. Maybe all the regular meat buyers didn't make it to the sale this time so there wasn't much competition in the bidding.


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## wendle (Feb 22, 2006)

Looks like they dropped a little since last week when the lambs were averaging 1.55 with a few going a little higher than that. Glad I didn't go this week. Replacement ewes were bringing 60-70 cents a lb. 
From past experience, not all auctions give you fair market price on lambs. This is part of the reason I drive a little farther to Kalona. It wouldn't be worth the extra distance for only a few lambs though.


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## LibertyWool (Oct 23, 2008)

sherry in Maine said:


> LW you are not the one who sells 'ewegurt' are you?
> 
> Will you keep me in mind when you sell your next lambs? Do you raise till slaughter weight and take to butcher?
> Maybe you are the one I paid already?
> ...


Sure, I'll add you to my list to contact next year.

Nope, I'm not the the ewegurt people. I've wondered if that is Plowpoint, but I've not ask. Any more, I don't raise any to slaughter weight for any customers. Too much hassle for not much more money. I also have some alpacas and do take fleece to the Fiber Frollic and Common Ground. I also have 4 sheep skins from last year, but I've not been actively trying to sell them.


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## sherry in Maine (Nov 22, 2007)

how much do you want for sheep skin?

I am a freak for that stuff . . . . (I dont need it, but waaaaant it) What do you charge?
Also, where is Fiber Frolic in Maine? When?


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## Lazy J (Jan 2, 2008)

Not only are you in a sheep poor area you only had 4 lambs. When we bought lambs for feeding we wanted large groups of uniform lambs, groups less than 25 did not appeal to us.


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## LibertyWool (Oct 23, 2008)

sherry in Maine said:


> how much do you want for sheep skin?
> 
> I am a freak for that stuff . . . . (I dont need it, but waaaaant it) What do you charge?
> Also, where is Fiber Frolic in Maine? When?


I sell them for $100.00 each. They are brown (natural colour) with a sueded back. I have them done at Stern Tannery in WI.

The Fiber Frolic is at the Windsor Fair grounds. You just missed it, it was two weekends ago (June 2nd and 3rd this year).


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