Taking Lambs To Slaughter

[Beekissed]

Bay, I love the pics and the temp chute! If it works, it's a success in my book. I LOVE CPs...so versatile and strong.

Here's a tip I read about....in the back of your stock trailer, try mounting a cheapy mirror with a piece of CP in front of it to protect it from too much damage...or just sticking some of these at the back of the trailer...

https://www.amazon.com/Flexible-Mir...ocphy=9009341&hvtargid=pla-318856916619&psc=1.

Sheep like to go where other sheep already are, so seeing themselves in the mirror can trick them enough to get them into a scary dead end.

I'm going to try this to see if it actually works and let you know.

Love to hear about your sheep adventures!

 

[baymule]

I shook a red plastic coffee can of feed, poured some in a pan (in the trailer) and called them. I picked one up and put him in the trailer, he ran to the feed, I shook the can again, SHEEP SHEEP SHEEP in a high pitched shriek and they all came pouring in. My sheep come when I call. I move them from pasture to pasture with that red coffee can and hollering SHEEP SHEEP SHEEP! They will run me down!

 

[pjn]

Always enjoy reading your posts. Hope your husband mends quickly

 

[baymule]

We picked up meat on Friday. We had 2 customers waiting, both came to the farm and picked up their order. One is a chef, cooking it for his parents. His Dad works at Lowes, where we met him and he told us how much he liked lamb.

The other couple came yesterday. We met him at the taco truck. His wife is from Spain, the high point of her visit was giving animal crackers to Ringo. They both enjoyed the farm and meeting the dogs and sheep.

Next I’ll take pictures of meat and advertise it on Craigslist, Facebook marketplace and a local Facebook group. We’ll see how it goes.

I had half the ground meat made into sausage, it is delicious! I don’t know why I haven’t thought of this before.

We went to an auction yesterday only to find it closed for Thanksgiving weekend. But we were able to talk to a man who runs things. He said lambs 6 months to a year sell for $75 to $125 a head, ram lambs bring the higher price.

So if selling meat direct to customers turns out to be a PIA, we have another avenue for sales.

 

[flowerbug]

We picked up meat on Friday. We had 2 customers waiting, both came to the farm and picked up their order. One is a chef, cooking it for his parents. His Dad works at Lowes, where we met him and he told us how much he liked lamb.
...

considering the price of it at the stores around here i could see where any chef would be happy to have a reliable supplier and being able to see how it was raised.

 

[ducks4you]

The place where I bought hens from two years ago sells "lamb" in the late summer/Fall, all around 6mo.
You (the customer) pays a flat $500.00
THEY transport to the butcher, YOU call the butcher to order cuts, then YOU go and pick up your meat from the locker.
If you like, I can send you their link. They raise 5 kinds of fowl, heritage pigs, sheep, and goats.

 

[baymule]

Yes @ducks4you please send me the link.

@flowerbug what does lamb sell for in your area?

Here at the grocery store, lamb chops sell for $38 a pound, leg of lamb is $24 a pound and ground meat is $12 a pound. We sell all cuts for $10 a pound, 10 pound minimum.

 

[ducks4you]

Joy of Illinois Farm

Welcome to Joy of Illinois Farm Champaign, Illinois Raw Goat Milk, Free-range Eggs Sheep Goats Hogs Chickens, Ducks, Geese , Rabbits 2024 Questions? Email us

www.joyofillinois.com

I will message you my email and foward the one with the links for ordering from this site.

 

[flowerbug]

Yes @ducks4you please send me the link.

@flowerbug what does lamb sell for in your area?

Here at the grocery store, lamb chops sell for $38 a pound, leg of lamb is $24 a pound and ground meat is $12 a pound. We sell all cuts for $10 a pound, 10 pound minimum.

i haven't even priced lamb around here lately as Mom won't eat it. i would make a lamb stew with any cuts i could get for a decent price. the lamb chops i used a few years ago to try to make some gyro style meat were about $7/lb on sale.

my basic lamb stew recipe is well trimmed lamb, browned in plenty of butter, garlic and olive oil, let it simmer for a few and then pile on chopped onions and then on top of those i'd put some chopped cabbage to steam while the meat is simmering as long as you like. i will eat cabbage from raw to mush without a blink as i love it. once it gets to being nearly done enough for whatever level of hunger i have i add only a little tomato juice to give the broth some color and then it is done. can steam potatoes with the cabbage too on top if you want those, but for some reason i normally skip those with lamb. i think because i like them with beef so think of them as a beef companion more. hmm, funny...

 

[catjac1975]

@seedcorn

Our lamb loading has a lot to be desired. We have invited our friend over to help us catch and carry lambs to the trailer, it took 2 or 3 of us, that worked, not great, but it worked. I have tackled them in the lot, slipped a halter on them and led/dragged them to the trailer with me pulling and BJ pushing. That also works, again not great. We have put up 2 cow panels coming out of the sheep barn, to a trailer, then chased them into our crappy chute and lifted/dragged to the trailer.

I have plans for that elusive "someday" loading chute that will miraculously be attached to the barn and be in a place that is easy to back the trailer to. Those plans are in my head, nobody can see them, they are subject to change and they are not implemented yet. Temporary is my magic word. Cow panels, bits of wire, hay string and pallets are marvelous inventions.


I formulated yet another invisible temporary loading chute in my head. I'll pause for a moment so y'all can feel sorry for BJ. We generally tie up, argue, fight and yell at each other because he can't read invisible head plans and thinks his ideas are better than mine. I remain mystified



at what the he!! is wrong with him. Him, likewise with me.



So I attempted to relate verbal blueprints, how hard can this be? It's just cow panels, right? This time, my brilliant idea scrapped pervious plans of backing up to the barn, gate, wire gap or other location, which are hindered by the placement of a power pole and guy wire. What a stupid place to put them. I have even inquired about moving them from representatives from Wood County Eclectric Co-Op which pretty much got shot down. Anyhoo, my new plan was to run a cow panel, along with a 18' piece of non climb horse wire, down the back of the portable building and along the fence. The sheep barn is a 20'x24' lean to off one side of the portable building. A fence runs down the back of it, to the back yard--another

temporary

fence. Their lot opens to that pasture with a

temporary

wire gap. My

temporary

loading chute would make use of my previous fencing efforts.






After preliminary bickering, we got started. We rounded up T-posts-another marvelous invention, hay string, tossed a cow panel over the fence, along with a T-post driver and the long piece of wire which came with a bonus piece of rebar which at one time, functioned as a wire gap. BJ used the end pieces of the horse wire to wrap around a cow panel-part of the sheep lot, while I held it up. He then drove a T-post and I tied the wire to it with hay string. It's


temporary



, OK? We got that piece of wire up, then positioned the cow panel and jammed it up against the cow panel gate that we use to go in and out of the side pasture, another


temporary



cow panel fence to keep the sheep off the side pasture while the winter rye and clovers grow. This had the joyous result of severely restricting just how far that piece of cow panel gate would open. We drove the T-posts, secured with hay string and the chute was up! We cut the fence, making a place to back the trailer to. We high-fived ghfive: our congratulations of a job well done. We hitched up the trailer and BJ backed it up to the hole in the fence perfectly.







We did this on Sunday, it was sunny, warm and beautiful. We loaded them up on Monday afternoon, so we could leave early Tuesday morning. We usually load up the night before, if there are problems getting animals loaded, it gives up time to work out the finer details of obstinate animals and ignorant humans and we don't miss our appointment the next morning.


I stood in the middle of our loading chute, turned toward the barn and took this picture.

Then I turned towards the trailer for this picture.

Then I took this picture of the hole we cut in the fence and the peeled back section that worked as a stop.

Then a picture of the lambs in the chute.

It worked! Best one yet.


After we loaded the lambs, we cut the hay string that held the cow panel up against the cow panel gate that Paris is standing on the other side of, wondering what are we doing. We pushed the end against the outside fence and tied it with hay string. The gate now swings freely. It is tied with wire, by the way. LOL BJ unhooked the wire on the other end and we tied it to the fence with hay string. Both ends are closed off, the sheep or dogs can't run through it. It worked so good that we left it up for next time.



All my failures, all my

temporary

brilliant ideas, contribute to helping me build a better invisible "someday" loading chute in my head.





So yesterday morning we take the lambs to the packing house. Naturally they didn't want to get out of their cozy trailer. I pushed one out, went back for another, Lamb #1 ran back in the trailer. Me and the lambs were not communicating well at all. BJ got in to help and the sheep rodeo began. One ran between his legs, knocked him off balance and down he went on his knee, then he rolled on the trailer floor. I'm looking at bits of hay and sheep poop stuck to his clothes, thinking, I gotta wash that! He wallowed around, trying to get up. For you young folks out there, old people are like turtles on their backs when we fall down. We lay there, arms and legs waving around like that's going to somehow propel us back up on our feet. Finally the turtle rolled over, got on his hands and knees, grabbed for the side of the trailer and struggled to his feet. He staggered out the side door. Score: Lambs-1 BJ-0



Mr Jim got in to help and together we pushed one out and into a pen. They are sheep, one goes somewhere, then they all go. Mr Jim and I pushed the rest of them to the end of the trailer where one planted his front feet, the one behind him stuck his head under his butt, raising it up at a precarious angle. Finally the dam broke, they all poured out and we claimed the victory!



In the mean time, BJ limped around to the driver's side, crawled into the truck with his knee the size of a grapefruit. I went inside to give cutting instructions and found out they are booked up through February, so I made an appointment for May for the lambs we have now.



BJ is not a mutton buster. He is mutton busted. I have rubbed his knee with Arnicare-it's great stuff for pain relief. He can walk, bend his knee, it is just swollen and it hurts. He is currently kicked back in his recliner, he'll be ok and up and at 'em in no time.

When we raised pigs, we fed them inside the trailer for about 2 weeks before slaughter. So easy.