Estacado Sheep Feedlot

A few weekends ago Gustavo (I have already talked about him, he is another Brazilian from ESALQ, in the same program that I am here) and me went to visit a sheep feedlot in Dimmitt, TX. This feedlot was recommended for me to visit by my Sheep Production professor, Dr. Sam Jackson. The manager, Mr Beerwinkle received us really politely and showed us the facilities and explained how he runs the feedyard. Most of the lambs come from San Angelo (the Hill County, 260 miles south), mostly black face (Hampshire and Suffolk) and merino crosses. The quality of lambs varies a lot and the days in feed will depend on that. There are some lambs that come from New Mexico, really good animals, that enter in the feedlot with 94 lb and are kept there for 70 to 90 days. On the other hand there are some light animals that enter with 50 lb and need to be feed for 180 days. Another factor that dictates the days in feed is the market that they will be sold. The muslin ethnic market wants a small framed, well-muscled animal (up to 90 lb, against the 120 lb of normal market), with less fat, preferentially male and uncastrated and for that they around $1.40/lb (against $0.95 – 0.96). The main destination for this category is New Jersey. Other normal destinations are Denver, CO; Dixon, CA and Detroit, MI.

The lambs are feed different diets according to how long they are being fed. The initiation diet is 40% chopped hay, 20% alfalfa, cracked or steam flaked corn and cottonseed hulls. The final diet is 87% whole corn, alfalfa pellets tetracycline and mixture (minerals) and is fed for approximately 20 days. To sheep there is no problem to feed whole corn because of the better chewing that they have compared to cattle.

By the time we were there the capacity was not fulfilled (around 50,000 hd) but there were arriving the fall born lambs that would be finished for the spring market (Easter) with 8 months. In the slaughter they receive a bonus of $9.00 for the pelt (hair sheep has no value) and a discount of $25.00 for break joints. The lambs that were there were sheared in January to optimize gain and wool revenue (even thought that the wool price makes no more that covering the shearing costs).

Thanks Mr. Beerwinkle for the visit!