Is there any money raising sheep?

[buzz]

Just wondering

[freewheat]

twice as much as cattle.

[kato]

Seriously?? I would also like to know.

Because we've been having the "sheep discussion" for a while now, and just have to wrap our heads around the fence issue.

[jensend]

you can almost always pencil a profit in sheep but your management has to be as sharp as your pencil. Predators are a big issue. Require more handson but more manageable than a 1400 lb cow that's having trouble calving and high on hormones.

[freewheat]

1 cow = 6 sheep in feed needs. 1 sheep should get you 1.6 lambs to sell. Lamb prices are 1.80 ish a lb for 100 lbers. And that lamb, if spring born, will be market weight by fall if you do your job. Ewe lambs can be bred in to lamb at one year, you can do accelerated lambing, 3 lamb crops in 2 years, etc. So if you do the math, it is an eye opener.

Fencing is holding me back as well, but I have been planning for them for about 8 years, it just has not worked out yet...

[kato]

Predators aren't an issue here. I raise donkeys. I've got 7 right now. LOL. The local coyotes are trained to repect the outside of the fence better than the cattle sometimes respect the inside.

I think we're going to try and get a handful of ewes in another month or so, after the calving slows down and I can steal a shed. We'll see if we like working with them before we jump in deeper.

I'm thinking something along the lines of Dorset, Arcott, Suffolk or Cheviot or such. Not hair sheep. Not with two spinning wheels in the house!

Has anybody got an experience with Targhee? I like the look of their fleeces, but don't know much else about them.

[agate]

Hello, this is Agate, I am new to this
forum. I recently came across your post
and have been reading along.

[kato]

Just an update.. bred ewes of any quality are pretty hard to find right now, at least around here, so I've got 10 lambs coming first week of May. Planning on transferring my calf raising skills to lambs, and see how it goes.

I will report back on how it goes.

[Smithy]

Hard not to make money on them this year. I am selling started bottle lambs for about the same price as 80 lbers 10 years ago!

Aside from a couple of horrid years a decade or so ago I have made more on the sheep than the cows. That is comparing expenses to income. If I accurately had a way to track labour the sheep are a little more time consuming, but who counts our own wages, lol.

[DogPatch]

Kato.......

I'll start with 2 words of wisdom,

Don't use ground grain. Sheep like it hold, and ground grain will kill them like a big truck.

Sheep hate copper, so don't feed them cattle minerals. Kills them too.

Lots of other things I could say, but that would only make them sick.

Good Luck