Survey distribution
• It was distributed to the LFO list,
approximately 65 producers
• Producers were given 3 weeks to
complete the survey of 35 questions on
Survey Monkey
• 29 Respondents
Project Description:
• This survey collected data on current practices
• 5 sections:
– Labour and Nutrition for the Ewe Flock
– Reproduction and Lambing
– Finishing, Transportation and Marketing
– Parasites
– Challenges
At this point in time, what do you
consider your biggest challenges?
• Market stability is hard to control, BUT what
about:
– Labour
– Parasites
– Animal health
• What are the issues?
Labour and Nutrition for the Ewe Flock
Q #2. How many ewes do you have?
Q #3. How many different individuals work on your farm throughout the year? (including each part time employee, family member and season contracts)
Q #4. How many hours on average per week do average individuals work? (not peak “hero hours”)
Q #5. How many person hours total per year do you spend shearing breeding ewes?
Q #6. How many ewes can you process (vaccinate and deworm) in your handling facility per hour?
Labour and Nutrition for the Ewe Flock
Q #7. Do you use a TMR mixer for feeding ewes?
Q #8. How many hours do you spend a day feeding ewes in the winter?
Q #9. What feed do you use?
Q #10. How long is your pasture season typically?
Q #11. If you use mechanized feeding for ewes in summer (confinement), how many hours per day are spent feeding?
There is a
relationship
between flock
size and time
spent shearing
- Professional
shearers?
Shearing Labour
I.e. There is NO relationship between the number of employees and flock size
Relationship Between Flock Size
And Number Of Employees
Number of Ewes Processed vs.
Size of Ewe Flock
y = 2E-08x3 - 2E-05x2 + 0.0385x + 141.54 R² = 0.3719
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
Nu
mb
er
of
Ew
es P
rocessed
Per
Ho
ur
Size of Ewe Flock
Time Spent on Ewe Flock ‘Relationship’
Calculation:
Minutes per day per ewe = # of employees (Q#3) x hrs/wk/individual(Q#4)/
size of ewe flock (Q #2) x 60 minutes/hour/ 7 days/week
Number of Ewes Processed vs.
Minute/Ewe/Day
y = 0.6119x2 - 15.991x + 210.06 R² = 0.0795
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
0 5 10 15Nu
mb
er
of
Ew
es P
rocessed
/Ho
ur
in
Han
dli
ng
Facil
ity
Time Spent on Ewes Per Day (min/ewe/day)
Calculation:
Number of ewes fed per hour (winter) =
Number of Ewes (Q #2) / Time spent feeding in the winter (Q #8)
Winter Feeding Efficiency
Summer Feeding
Ewes fed per hour for TMR and non TMR farms
I.e. TMR feeding systems are shown to be faster and labour
efficient for summer feeding
Winter Feeding
Ewes fed per hour for TMR and non TMR farms
I.e. Regardless if you are using TMR or not, there is no correlation
between the feeding system and the amount of time spent feeding
per hour per ewe
Reproduction and Lambing
Q #12. Do you use accelerated or annual lambing?
Q #13. How many lambing periods do you have per year?
Q #14. Primarily, do you lamb on pasture, barn or both?
Q #15. When selecting replacement (breeding) females, what are you placing emphasis on?
Reproduction and Lambing
Q #16. What is your lamb mortality rate, including all deaths (e.g. still born, hypothermia, cocci, starve out) up to weaning?
Q #17. Do you tail dock your market lambs?
Q #18. Do you castrate your market ram lambs?
Q #19. How many lambs do you artificially rear in a year?
Q #20. How many hours are spent on orphan lambs per day per lambing?
Labour Time Spent on Orphan Lambs
Calculation:
Hours per day spent on orphan lambs (Q #20) x 60min/hour
= Minutes per day on orphans
Q #16. What is your lamb mortality rate, including all
deaths (eg. Still born, hypothermia, cocci, starve
out) up to weaning?
Answer Choices Responses
0-5% 3%
5-10% 34%
10-15% 33%
15-20% 23%
20-25% 0%
25-30% 7%
30+% 0%
Q #14. Primarily, do you lamb on pasture, barn or both?
Answer Choices Responses
Pasture 20%
Barn 60%
Both 20%
Pasture Barn
Finishing, Transportation and Marketing
Q #21. Of lambs sold by you via auction or direct to slaughter, are they slaughtered with grain (concentrate) finishing?
Q #22. What percentage of lambs is sold to a feedlot?
Q #23. What percentage of lambs is sold direct to a packer?
Q #24. At what weight (in pounds) do you sell the majority of your lambs?
Q #25. Are you shipping lambs via custom hauler (third party trucker) or yourself?
Finishing, Transportation and Marketing
Q #26. If you answered custom in Q. 25, what do you pay per head to ship your lamb’s to primary market by hauler?
Q #27. What distance does your vehicle travel to primary market (round trip in kilometres)?
Q #28. What was the purchase or manufacturing cost (labour included) of your trailer?
Q #29. Typically, how many lambs do you carry per trip?
Q #30. How many trips do you make per year?
Q #24. At what weight (in pounds) do you
sell the majority of your lambs?
Answer Choices Responses
60-80lbs 27%
80-100lbs 33%
100+lbs 40%
Q #26. If you answered custom in Q. 25,
what do you pay per head to ship your
lamb’s to primary market by hauler?
13/29 Shipping lambs custom
Range of shipping lambs custom:
$4/lamb - $12/lamb
Average cost shipping custom: $7.70/lamb
If you choose shipping lambs
yourselves:
16/29 Shipping lambs themselves
Range of shipping lambs yourself:
$1.14/lamb - $31.88/ lamb
Average cost shipping yourself:
$7.50/lamb
Trucking lambs yourself equation:
Operational cost= [(OSMA mileage rate x1.5) x km
travelled + (km/80km/hour x $25/hour)] / #lambs per trip
Capital cost = [(trailer cost/ 10 years) / #trips per year]/
#lambs per trip
Total Shipping cost = Capital cost + Operational cost
Shipping Lambs Yourself
16/29 Shipping lambs themselves
Range of shipping lambs yourself:
$1.14/lamb - $31.88/ lamb
Average cost shipping yourself:
$7.50/lamb
Parasites
Q #31. Do you have identified or suspected drench resistance?
Q #32. How many different deworming products have you used on your farm in the last 2 years?
Q #33. How many times do you typically deworm each ewe each year?
Q #34. How many times do you deworm lambs before marketing?
Q #32. How many different deworming products
have you used on your farm in the last 2 years?
Answer choices Response
1 14%
2 34%
3 45%
4+ 7%
Q #33. How many times do you deworm each ewe each year?
Number of Times
Deworming Frequency
0 14%
1 18%
2 57%
3 11%
Number of Times
Deworming Frequency
0 46%
1 29%
2 14%
3 11%
Q #34. How many times do you deworm lambs before marketing?
Areas with the largest variation = areas with
room for improvement
– Ewes processed in handling facility per hour
– Number of employees
– Time spent on each ewe per day
– Time spent on each orphan per day
– Time spent feeding
Conclusion
LABOUR
Next Steps:
• What are you putting energy into
changing?
• Consider the areas with room for
improvement in your system
• Any problem one farm can solve another
farm could solve