5 options for lamb finishing

Menna Williams, South Wales Red Meat Technical Officer

At Aberbranddu, near Pumsaint, Carmarthenshire, Irwel Jones sells 800 lambs a year to Dunbia after finishing on grass reseeds and silage aftermath with some concentrate, between September and the end of November. Five finishing systems have been put to the test for a new project and to evaluate lamb performance and cost effectiveness for the 850-acre hill farm.

The project is comparing 310 male lambs, which have been split into five equal groups all having an average weight of around 32kg, for finishing on five different systems:

• Forage rape and Italian Ryegrass mix

• New reseed

• Old ley only

• Old ley with concentrate supplements

• Concentrates indoors

“We want to finish lambs faster and at heavier weights, so it will be interesting to compare the different options and see which help the lambs perform best,” says Irwel.

“However, the cost of the finishing method also needs to be justified. One of our main aims is to be less reliant on bought-in feed, so by doing this project I can put a value on different ways of finishing and have faith that we are using the best method for us in the future.”

The project started in early September and lambs will be weighed every fortnight through to fattening by the end of November. The project will record the number of days to finishing, the kg of lamb sold per hectare, volume of concentrate used, any health issues and all costs and return on investment.

Leading sheep consultant Lesley Stubbings says farmers must carefully consider their options for lamb finishing, while ensuring they do not impact on next year’s lamb crop. “Farmers cannot afford to let lambs rob ewes of grazing they need to get back in the right condition for tupping. This will not only affect the scanning percentage of the flock, but it will also have a knock-on effect on lamb growth next year,” says Lesley.

“The best place to start is to weigh the lambs that are left, work out how much weight they need to gain and match this to what is available. The bottom line may be that to protect the ewe flock, some lambs have to be sold as stores, rather than bringing them in and finishing on concentrates. As a rule of thumb, by the autumn, assuming they are healthy, lambs need 7-8kg of feed for each kg of gain, so at £200 per tonne, that will cost 150-160p per lamb per kg of gain.”