My son and I discussed me getting a job to pay for my sheep habit….. and to pay for all the fencing, barn and everything I don’t have now, and NEED!!!Yeah, I have similar issues....need to sell but some are JUST keepers
At least for a while. Start ups are difficult. Spent a lot to get here... But I work to pay for it -- so there ya go.
my job is flexible.
That's great! Having lambs available when no one else does is great marketing. Are these lambs for ethnic slaughter at 3 weeks, or do you have to hold them for the buyers for several more months? Do you sell as entire or wether? I prefer selling for slaughter because of repeat business. LOL I used to have several locker lamb customers, but with hay costs what they are here, I can't sell private treaty slaughter lambs (100 lbs.) because of feed cost to raise to 5 months. I get almost the same price at 12 weeks (weaning) at auction without putting 2 months more feed in. If you have pasture grass, holding the lambs until heavier weight is not a problem cost wise.My commercial lambs I listed online as available at 3weeks old in January and February. All 3 were sold with deposits in hand within 2 weeks. No one else in area had lambs on the ground yet. Cute pictures sell!
Considering all ram lambs as walking lamb chops makes it easier. Harder when they are pets. Selling all ram lambs is easier for us because that is what we did with the dairy goats. In dairy animals the bull or buck babies are garbage. Bull calves were just tossed in the old days, now the calf man picks them up and raises them for steers. In Chino the calf man had a contract to pick up all bull calves and also for all medicated milk. Medicated milk would have been dumped by the dairy but the calf man picked that up and used it t to feed the calves. Buck kids have gone up in value too with the ethnic market.
Start ups are difficult and very expensive - we spent the past 30+ years getting set up here. Now we have to start over in Texas with the fencing. Our property is fenced properly here, we have multiple fenced paddocks, a small barn, storage containers and sheds, have the materials to put up other shelters, and we have all the equipment here - it is just in a different state. If we had grass pasture year-round here, we would probably not relocate. It will cost a LOT to do the fencing we need for the dogs since it needs to be 5-6' high on the perimeter. The interior pasture fences don't need to be as high, and we will try to get the grants for those. At least we now have sufficient ewes, but we have to transport them. And hope they don't die from Barber Pole!
