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Mike CHS
Herd Master
They do bring a higher price but you have to cull hard to get the quality ones that folks that want registered stock want to spend the money on. A lot of people register every lamb that is born and they wind up selling them for the same price as a good commercial ewe. I sold three of my lambs to one of the bigger breeders around because his commercial side is lacking in size. I know of three farms that sold 3 out of 4 of their lambs via local sales as commercial and didn't register them. I get $350 consistently for a nice solid commercial breeder but there is a limited market for registered ewe lambs that might bring $400-$500. I can sell at 3 months if they are anywhere near 90 lbs where most registered stock has to be held longer since there is a fairly small market for them. Even then there is a lock on how many head I can take through winter whether registered or not. Since we only breed only once a year we have let our finest girls get back in great condition and bred them back and sold them bred for $400. The small holders like us can't compete in the same ring as the big boys and there are plenty of them and growing. We do have a niche with a mix of registered and GOOD commercial stock that deals mostly with small farms like our. A friend of our is big enough that he exports close to a thousand head a year to Mexico. He has some beautiful registered stock but his numbers of those are under 200 head.
I know of a bunch of farms in our Association that will sell registered lambs that I would consider commercial for $350-400 and the really nice ones like the four I just bought will get $500 each if there are buyers. Of the 60 farms that I know personally most have fairly small flocks but max out their acreages when it's lambing season. I can carry up to 70 lambs when it's prime grass season but that goes down to 30 over winter so we have to make a profit where there is one. We will never be in the black considering what it cost to set up our place but this past year plus did show a profit although small and they have paid for themselves.
Didn't mean to write a book.
I know of a bunch of farms in our Association that will sell registered lambs that I would consider commercial for $350-400 and the really nice ones like the four I just bought will get $500 each if there are buyers. Of the 60 farms that I know personally most have fairly small flocks but max out their acreages when it's lambing season. I can carry up to 70 lambs when it's prime grass season but that goes down to 30 over winter so we have to make a profit where there is one. We will never be in the black considering what it cost to set up our place but this past year plus did show a profit although small and they have paid for themselves.
Didn't mean to write a book.
to myself!!!!
