canadian lamb company

[oldwest]

I am fairly new to the sheep industry and was wondering if any of you are in the company or going to get in and why or why not?

[DogPatch]

I think the concept that they are proposing is noble, and work the effort of trying to get it going. However from my experience having to listen to all the arguing and complaining about pricing (from all sides)its going to take a miracle to make everyone happy.

As far as I am concerned..... go for it, take the price if you are happy with it, be in the program for the LONG TERM, and don't listen to the spectators who say it won't work, if you think it will.

Best of Luck to those that are trying to make things better. Shame on those that complain about prices, blame everyone else for their problems, and then offer no constructive solutions to help.

[grassfarmer]

I guess you should define your objective in owning
land first. Is it the land-base to earn your living from,
to earn part of your living from, a place in the country
to indulge in your hobby or is it your retirement
investment fund or a means to hold and pass wealth
onto the next generation.
Once you define the objective of ownership then you
can start to talk price/value.

[smcgrath76]

Land price increase is both good and
bad, like most things.
Good - increase in land values allows
you to use your equity to expand, incur
debt, etc.
Bad - increase in land values allows you
to use your equity to expand, and incur
debt.

The issue is really what debt does to
cash flow, not what land increases do to
net worth.
For us, the value of our land from a
bankers perspective is pretty healthy,
and we have a relatively low debt load.
From our perspective the value of our
land might as well be $0 because it is
not for sale and I don't plan to realize
that wealth in the form of dollar bills.
I realize that may change as life throws
its' curves our way, but for the
forseeable future if things go
reasonably as planned, that's the plan.

[ALLFARMER]

I can agree with that. Since I am under 40 I dont
feel I have any business slowing down.

Ordered 18 ton of alfalfa pellets today. $277/ton in
my yard. Feeding 7lb/hd that's $0.88/hd/day plus
the straw which I have lots of. If hay was
40$/bale which here it's certainly not that would
be like $1.11/hd/day Thinking if this goes good I
could add 100 or 150 cows next year fairly easily.
If that happens we'll be buying a 3 point hitch
grain feeder attachment for a tractor. Straw here
is likely 20$/bale. Maybe adversity bring
opportunity.

[ALLFARMER]

So no one to take over ASRG? Is this your nest
egg or your kids lol? Dads the ASRG/RRSP?

[grassfarmer]

If you are feeding 100 cows for 240 days this winter
will you go to a year-round confinement feeding
system if you more than double your cow numbers?
Or will your pasture triple it's production in line with
it's enhanced real estate valuation?

[ALLFARMER]

If we can get the 3 bush quarters cut and piled by
summer that would give us 7 producing grass.
The native grass takes right over once the
trees/willow are gone. Never a shortage of work
around here.

[wd40]

AF - I'd like to chat with you, call me at 780-518-6885

[Bez]

So what is happening with this now?

After all the failed start ups during the BSE go around I am leery of participating.