Lambs

Newton Stewart yesterday saw a mixed offering of lambs with heavier types returning a very acceptable average of 267p/kg or £126/head, but lambs lacking flesh proved harder to cash.

Of these sheep and lambs killed in Colorado, less than 100 sheep and less than 100 lambs were killed by wolves.

TexelX ewes with single lambs Beltex lambs at foot sold to a top of £80 per life from G McGibbon, West Quarter.

Currently mating 5000 ewes, the Thomas operation produces only prime lambs, turning them off as suckers as well as feedlotting some lambs.

Many sheep and goat producers indicate a special bond quickly develops between lambs and their guard llama and the llama is particularly protective of the lambs.

And despite the effects of inclement weather, store lambs held up well with Texels from Loaningfoot selling to £78 and Charolais from the same home peaking at £94/head.

Another wolf — No. 2103 — killed the three lambs at rancher Philip Anderson’s place.

A number of sheep had aborted lambs due to the stress and had their vaginas “mutilated”.

Cast sheep held up similarly well, selling to £125 for a Texel from Druidhall, and store lambs peaked at £90 for Charolais from Grove.

De Niro lost to Anthony Hopkins for another horror performance, as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs.

Fresh Suffolk lambs with frame could make £80-£88, a pen at this price consigned by the Swinbank & Briggs partnership, Malham.

Heavy lambs to 26kg sold from $175 to $196/head.

However, some markets struggled to maintain numbers, with most reporting that more lambs were needed to meet the demand.

If each ewe killed was to produce twin lambs, each worth £100, that’s a big cumulative loss over several years.

In March 2019, Finn welcomed his first lambs after his horned tup ran with his Sandy Lane ewes and his poll gimmers went to Pembroke Warburton, purchased from the Andersons at Smallburn Farms.

It forms part of the farm’s long term strategy to produce hardy and efficient replacements and heavier lambs without introducing concentrates or heavy use of fertiliser.

It was mainly larger prime lambs that met with demand at Dumfries yesterday, with 52kg+ types averaging 230p/kg and selling to 240p/kg for Texels from Collochan.

It was such a welcome accomplishment that Beauty and the Beast became the first animated film to ever have been nominated for Best Picture, an award it lost to the decidedly less family-friendly Silence of the Lambs.

Just this weekend, I was shown a photograph of local lambs who had been destroyed by a dog.

Lorn, Pheonix Park, Largs, Bolwarra Heights, Melville, Luskintyre, Mindaribba, Rosebrook, Hillsborough and Lambs Valley are City of Maitland suburbs part of the Upper Hunter electorate.