The Rural Voice, 2000-08, Page 25about 1.8 lambs per ewe per lambing.
As much as possible the lambs are
gown on pasture, then finished in the
barn. June -born lambs will be
weaned in early September then be
brought inside and fed to be
marketed around Thanksgiving.
Many producers are tending to get
away from lambing on pasture
because you often hit the market low,
Murray says, but that requires plenty
of barn space.
"It seems you either go for the low
cost of production and try to finish
them as much as possible on pasture
or you invest in facilities and try to
hit the better market, particularly at
Christmas and January," Murray
While most producers buy in
their creep feed, the Clarks
make their own from a
combination of corn, mixed grain and
roasted soybeans run through a roller
mill. They buy in the roasted
soybeans and corn if needed but
grow as much of their own grain as
possible.
Unlike many producers, they
don't try to hit the high markets at
Christmas and Easter and instead
market throughout the year. "If we
market through the year it seems to
work out as good for us as anything,"
Murray says. The last few years it
seems you'll do as well marketing
your lambs before the flood of lambs
hits the market as to aim for the
holiday market, he says. Again
sometimes two weeks after
Christmas or Easter, when there's a
shortage of lamb, the prices might be
just as good as at the traditional high -
market times of the year.
"We market at all weights and
sizes, just depending on how much
room we have and what the market's
doing," he says. Their shipments are
mostly to Cookstown and Brussels.
Prices can vary by as much as 25
per cent from week to week
depending on whether western or
Quebec lambs have flooded into the
Ontario market, he says.
'Despite the growth in flock size
over the years, Ontario producers still
can't fill the demand for lamb.
Though New Zealand Iamb continues
to come in at cheap prices, many
Ontarians are still ready to pay a
premium price for locally -produced
lamb. "The local abattoirs and local
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