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Anyone Eat or Raise Lamb?

I

in-too-deep

Well-known Member
Been pondering getting into sheep production in addition to our beef cow/calf herd. I used to raise sheep when I was a kid but never ate any. Is it tasty? Doesn't sound like mutton would be very good, but a 1 year +/- old lamb? Cook it like beef? I don't think I could grow something I wouldn't eat myself. Thoughts?
 
I raise a few lambs every other year. I butcher them at around 9 months. Leg of lamb is a nice item to have for special dinners, shanks are great in soup, ribs, chops, roasts etc, just like with beef or venison. Ground lamb is also really good for burgers and meat loafs. I even make lambcon from the flanks. - my version of lamb-bacon. Lambs do well on over grown pastures as they eat a lot of broadleaves and young trees. They'll clear out poison ivy too.
 
From what I have heard, unless you raise the lamb yourself, you can't afford to eat lamb. Some of the most expensive meat in the market if you can even find it.
 
I buy spring lambs that are being born now. I only raise a few for home use. I guess they are maybe 30 or 40 lbs when I get them. You can butcher them much earlier than I do, I think at 3-4 months at around 100 lbs. I wait longer so I can butcher mine at home once the weather is cool enough to let them hang in the unheated shed. At nine months they are getting pretty big, probably 150-ish pounds. I do not finish them on grain. I feed them on small amounts of grain (12% tindle mixed with ground corn) throughout their time. They each get about a cup of food twice a day. They spend all day on pasture and put on weight fast and spend a lot of time laying around chewing their cud.

I buy them from a friend of mine who keeps about 30 ewes. He told me that last year that lamb prices at the sale barn for something like three times what he had been getting. He was pleasantly surprised at how the price had gone up.
 
Lamb is very good. We usually have one leg of lamb cut into steaks when we butcher, it is delicious. Sheep deal is high right now but many years it was in the tank.
 
I raised Shetlands for the lamb meat for many years.

My ewes lambed in late February to early March and I took the lambs to the processor in mid-to-late November. They'd dress out at anywhere from 40 to 70 pounds hanging weight.

The quality of the meat has a lot to do with the breed. I later switched to Katahdin sheep as they are hair sheep and don't need to be sheared. Bigger lambs too, but the meat was not nearly as good as the Shetlands.

Also, mine were on Momma's milk for as long as she'd put up with them and fresh grass pasture all Summer. Only grain they got was a little sweet feed twice a day mostly as training to get them to come when they heard the bucket. Also kept a bale of hay in front of them at all times.
 
I've been a cattle rancher for most of life , I love beef. However I also love lamb. I live in area where there are large sheep operations, people here know how to cook lamb, I seldom miss a lamb barbeque. I usually buy from local rancher who has a contract with Whole Foods.

Eat Lamb, 20,000,000 Coyotes Can't be Wrong
 
Around here, about the only people that mess with raising sheep, are people that are short on hay and pasture resources. You can have a sizeable heard of sheep on alot fewer acres than it takes for cattle.
Been a good market in it the last several years. It's a market I don't follow very closely. But from what I've heard here and there, they been kind of all and all been higher than beef, dollars per pound.
Local (get rich quick type) cattle feller decided he'd venture into sheep in addition to his cattle. After learning that sheep require more care than cattle, I don't think it panned out so well for him. He threw in the towel on his get rich quick idea, and went back to just cattle.
Mutton is popular among people with religions that don't eat beef or pork. Especially pork, or neither beef and pork. Where you don't find those such religions, mutton is kind of pretty un-common. Just not something you see or hear about very often. I live in a such area. I'd have to drive atleast an hour away to a city with a population above 15,000 to expect to see mutton in the meat case at a grocery store. I know it's not that way in other areas of the country, but that's how uncommon it is in the area where I live. Mutton here has to be trucked along ways to be processed. Once processed, it has to be trucked alot further than that to be marketed.
This is just the story in my location. See what others have to say about thier local.
 
Lamb is very tender meat. butchered under 9-10 months. I have a little over 100 ewes. price of lamb is high at under 80lbs. we sell just before Easter and last year $4.10 a lbs. doesn't matter if 80lbs or 50lbs same price per lbs.

start lambing last week of Dec. or first of Jan. best I have done is 80-90lbs lambs at 3 months old. average would be more like 60-70lbs at 3 months. If you have big suffolk ewes and feed grain to the lambs you can get them to 100+ lbs at 3 months.

I have been told after they are a year to 14 months old they start tasting like mutton. All the ones I have eaten have been under 6 months and taste better than beef. only thing is it costs alot more money.

I have done them on the BBQ, smoked a leg, roast. just about anything you can think of and it is good.

Roasts we usually did in slow cooker as they are small enough to fit in. only spice ever used was salt and pepper and sometimes a little thyme.
 
to much grain makes them fat and the fat is what gives a tallow feel in your mouth. most people want non grain fed.
 


We used to breed sheep. It started out as the kid's 4H project then grew until we had 15 ewes. We didn't eat any ourselves for the first few years because we didn't think that we would like it. That was until we went to the neighbors for a cook-out and they had roast lamb on the spit. They had cut slits into it and inserted cloves of garlic. It was VERY tasty and after that we had lamb a lot. We had Hampshires, that were born in January and we sold a lot for the Easter market. The ones that we grew out to 100 lbs. hanging weight would be done in May or June, and sold for the barbecue market. They would be on pasture from late April and the lambs would get grain. Sheep take better fence than cattle.
 
Dad raised sheep when I was a kid, we sold all the lambs at just under 100 lb before Easter as noted. The only lamb I have eaten is from a restaurant as an adult. We did have mutton one time. We were unloading corn from false front barge wagons and the crib was in the sheep pasture. One old ewe spotted my dog and chased him under the wagon, she mis-judged her speed and forgot to duck. She hit a bolt on the back with her head and was killed. My grandfather skinned and gutted her. He took her into the house and butchered her on the kitchen table. She was pretty old and tasted horrible. We kept the sheep on the farm where we lived. My job starting at a very young age was to get six bales out of the mow for dad. I could do it just after I got home from school or wait for dad. Typical barn lighting one light bulb over the inside of the main door and one under the mow where the sheep were kept. It was pretty dark in that mow.
 
We like it. Bought 3 bummer lambs last year to raise for the freezer but with how much they were bringing my son sold them. We also raised two bottle goats and we butchered them. They are fantastic eating. Both are really high now. Bringing way more than cattle. I have only messed with bummers but they are pretty damn entertaining running around the pasture and are like little dogs will follow you anywhere
 
There are 2 kinds of sheep. Wool and hair. Wool sheep taste like crap! I raise hair sheep( they shed instead of shearing) and they taste great.
 
I love lamb chop or leg or lamb, but a great steak is better price wise. Of course if price was no consideration--------. The last lamb chop cost me $60
 
When I was a kid the next door neighbor lady would fix lamb chops.

I tried it a couple times and really liked it.

Last lamb I ate was at an Egyptian restaurant. It was ground meat, extremely greasy, awful...
 
Members of our Lions Club rotated during the summer in providing the meeting meal. My time came and I suggested lamb burgers as my contribution. Lots of ugh, oohs and nooos. Came meeting night I prepared the lamb burgers on the charcoal grill. Ended up going home and getting more out of the refrigerator to satisfy the demand. They are now costly, but worth the effort.
 
(quoted from post at 11:25:40 02/01/22) Cook it like beef? Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Don't cook it like beef. Use lower heat for longer, but DON'T overcook it.

I've just started accelerated breeding with by 55 head ewe flock. Lamb 3 times in two years. So far I like it. I only have about a third of the flock lambing at one time, but I get lambs 3 different months a year. (April, August, mid November--mid December.)

Find a mentor that has raised sheep, or someone you can call with questions. There is a learning curve.
 
We eat lamb regularly. My wife grew up on a small dairy farm. Plenty of Holstein beef there but never had lamb till she fell in with my Italian family. Italians and Greeks will tell you how to fix it. Little steaks like T-bones are great on the grill. She uses ground lamb in patties with parsley and feta cheese. A leg roasted with garlic, parsley and lemon is like heaven. But mint jelly....UGH.
 
After reading all the replies my mouth is watering for lamb Chops. I to raised a few Sheep years ago and butchered my own I liked it but the kids didn't care for it. I raised my kids the same way I was raised, eat what is on your plate and don't complain it's worse where there's none. Well that was in the 70s and about 10 yrs ago when the kids were here for Christmas one Year the subject of Lamb came up, both kids said how they hated Lamb and would never eat it again, I never knew they didn't like it and it was the same with Liver. We had a good laugh.
 
I used to raise sheep years ago.
True milk fed spring lamb is a delicacy. That is when they are on spring pasture and still getting some milk from the mother, 80-115 lbs. My brother in law was feeding them out on corn, maybe to 150-200 lbs. Much bigger cuts, still tender and good flavor. I don't think they become mutton untill over 2 years old. I wish I had sheep now instead of cattle.
 
Raised sheep as a kid. Wool used to have a good market for clean wool. Your breeding stock will need to be sheared each spring, most wool buyers will also do the shearing.
 
We've raised Shetland sheep for a number of years for wool products. Have eaten a few from time to time. OK, but nothing special, as far as I'm concerned. There awfully small, not much meat for the work. Butcher charges as much as he does for processing a deer.
 
I have raised sheep all my life they are a lot of work but have made a good living with them.I have raised some beef also and in my situation couldnt make them pay.Predators are a main problem for me have killed over 180 coyotes in the past 8years and lost plenty of lambs in the process.Irresponsible dog owners are a problem also.As for eating lamb my wife and I love it.One problem with lamb is slaughtering them when they are too fat.Cant stand eating fat especially lamb.There Is definitely a learning curve with sheep.Prices right now are as high as I have ever seen them.
 
The people that lived in the house on one of my rented farms about 5 yrs. ago came out to the field when I was cultivating. She met me on the end and asked me if I like eating lamb? I told her I never had it. She said her husband just threw some lambchops on the grille and I should stop when I'm done. Oh my gosh them were good. He also grilled some asparagus and also on the grille was some kind of apple desert. Everything was absolutely delicious.
 
I eat lamb in Iceland, where it's very popular. Sheep are big there. In their traditional soups it is some of the most tender and delicious meat I've tasted.

My friends are sheep farmers and when I visit they often have a big hunk of smoked lamb in the middle of the table and everyone cuts off a slice and puts it on bread or just eats it. I didn't realize the prices this meat commands--they are eating like kings. Gerrit
 
My cousin raises lambs for meat. I get one every year from him. Outside of ham and bacon, I prefer lamb over pork chops any days of the week. I wouldn't walk across the street for a pork chop. But that's just me, I guess.
 

We raise lamb, hair breeds to be specific. I sold out a few years back and am rebuilding now. Prices are good, no doubt. Fencing is an issue as are worm loads and, above all, PREDATORS!!! Sheep are far tougher than goats and easier to fence. Both sheep and goats are enjoying good prices. Theres a lot to doing a good job with sheep and goats, most of it comes down to parasite management, having good graze for each (they eat different stuff) and knowing what to look for as far as problems.
 
I need educated on lambs and goats. What is a good bread for eating. Which is better? Is there a market for either or do you need to be in a specific area to sell either one.
 
(quoted from post at 10:56:34 02/02/22) I need educated on lambs and goats. What is a good bread for eating. Which is better? Is there a market for either or do you need to be in a specific area to sell either one.
Click to expand...


Here are ten of the more popular breeds of sheep for meat: Suffolk; Dorper; Dorset; Katahdin; Icelandic; Barbados Blackbelly Hampshire; Texel; Tunis; and Cheviot. There is plenty of bread loyalty and debate about which are better. Meat breeds are bred primarily for their feed efficiency and not for a good fleece.
 
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