The Glass Ceiling Project Avery Richer

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?

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

Q #6. How many ewes can you process

(vaccinate and deworm) in your handling

facility per hour?

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)

Q #9. What feeds do you use?

Calculation:

Number of ewes fed per hour (winter) =

Number of Ewes (Q #2) / Time spent feeding in the winter (Q #8)

Winter Feeding Efficiency

Q #7. Do you use a TMR mixer for

feeding ewes?

Yes 44.83%

No 55.17 %

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?

Orphan Lambs vs. Size of Ewe Flock

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 #15. When selecting replacement

(breeding) females, what are you placing

emphasis on?

Q #12. Do you use accelerated or annual lambing?

Accelerated 40%

Annual 60%

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%

Overall Lamb Mortality By Flock Size

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 #23. What percentage of lambs are

sold direct to a packer?

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 #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?

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?

At this point in time, what do you

consider your biggest challenges?

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

Any questions? THANK YOU!