Our butcher charges per head for slaughter plus per kilo for butchering and per kilo for making sausages or burgers. So you can ask what your butcher will charge and work out what you’d need to sell at to make any money, and see if you think it worth it.
Or, as oor wullie says, put the mutton in your own freezer and sell all the lamb
. I’m with oor wullie on that!
I’ll tell one other story. We’re all different, but this was my experience. When I was farming up north, I wanted to be doing my best for my sheep, but also doing it properly, making commercial decisions and not being sentimental. I had a favourite ewe, Judith, and when she couldn’t be bred any more I put her in with a batch of ex-BH’s cull ewes for the mart. I went to the mart with them, and visited them in their pen to make sure they were all ok. Judith was clearly relieved to see me, and visibly relaxed when she saw I was there. I was glad for her I had been able to reduce her anxiety, but the memory of the feeling of betrayal that came over me will be with me forever. I sent one more favourite to the mart but didn’t have the guts to go with her, and felt equally bad that I hadn’t been able to give her the moral support she deserved. So now, being on a small scale and having the luxury of making this choice, my old girls go with me to the abattoir for our own use, or it’s the hunt, vet or knacker man to the premises for them. No more unknown destinations. If I’ve learned one thing in my varied life, it’s that feeling good about yourself is the most precious thing you have. Some things are really not about the money. But again, we are all different and I don’t in any way suggest that others should make this same choice. Only that each of us should, if we possibly can, make the choice that feels right for us.