Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: The cost of starting with sheep  (Read 19022 times)

Buffy the eggs layer

  • Joined Jun 2010
The cost of starting with sheep
« on: August 22, 2012, 03:28:39 pm »
Hi  :wave:
  I have recently started with sheep and a friend asked me for a rough idea of how much it cost to start up. I thought that I would put together some rough costings for members as a guide for other newbies who might be interested in working out a budget.
 The cost of the sheep vary on age, breed, quality and availability and can cost anything between around £90 and £1,000 but for the purpose of this excercise lets say they cost an average of around £100 - £150 per ewe.
Feed varies again depending on the content but a bag of sheep nuts would cost aprox £8.00 a sack.
Hay is £2.50 to £4.00 a bale dependant on quality or if you are able to get it straight off the field.
Mineral licks are roughly £15 a time and there are a number to choose from.
Parasite control in the form of wormer, Click, Crovect etc is available in smaller quantities for those with only a few sheep but works out more expensive per head that way.
 0.8Ltrs Crovect £28.00, Click £53, Maggot oil £13, wormer £50
Foot shears £15 and Alamycin spray £6.00
Mains electric shears for shearing, dagging or trimming - £200 or hand shears £25
Rope halter £5.00 or webbing headcollar and lead £12.00. Shepherds crook £15
Hurdles £24 each, Double Hay Rack £20
Plastic bucket £3.00 Rubber skip bucket £8.00 Water trough £55, Feed trough £25,
Other things to consider are,
Fencing materials either permanent or electric,
Bedding materials in case you bring them indoors to lamb etc
Breeding and Lambing products of which there are loads!
Field shelters, Insurance, Vaccinations, Vets fees, Breed society registration, Books, Courses, Butchery, Transportation.......,
 If your lucky like me you will have some of the kit already or be clever enough to make or recycle some bits and pieces that you will need.
I hope that you find this helpful and that it hasn't put you off ;) :sheep:   

lachlanandmarcus

  • Joined Aug 2010
  • Aberdeenshire
Re: The cost of starting with sheep
« Reply #1 on: August 22, 2012, 04:35:25 pm »
The only biiiig variable is the cost of the sheep, our unreg Shetlands are more like £35 than £100, which can make a big difference if you are getting quite a few (and also makes it a little less painful in the pocket if one has to be PTS).

SteveHants

  • Joined Aug 2011
Re: The cost of starting with sheep
« Reply #2 on: August 22, 2012, 05:29:21 pm »
Costs with Wilts horns (as I remember them):


I bought shearlings which wasn't very clever - if I was doing it again, Id buy old ewes for meat price plus a bit and breed replacements out of them, much cheaper.


This is based on rented ground 5ac summer + 15ac hay aftermaths winter (hay kept for landowners use)


so; 15 Shearlings @ £150 ea = £2250


1 x old ram (still going, actually) = £200


1 X Vetrazin (which I would have expected to last for some years, because they only need a dab at the base of their horns) = £30ish
1 x Combinex = £45


Heptavac: £20


Dosing gun and multi injector: £40


Foot shears: £18


Lambing kit and sundries, inclding antibiotics etc (possibly): £100


Crook: £20


14 Hurdles @ £20 ea = £280


1 x trailer £400 (ebay bargain)


3 x bags of pelleted beet for bucket training = £15


Mins etc; say 4 licks @ 12/lick = £48


TOTAL: £3266


Rent = 1 lamb/yr plus a bit of labour here and there, so I suppose the cost of that was about £20 COP for the lamb and maybe £100s worth of labour.


I wouldn't be buying fencing because it wasn't my land, but I have been known to put up the odd fence here and there. All land was watered, but when I have had land that isnt, I have made drinkers from half plastic barrels at a grand cost of £0. I loaned my ram to other Wilts Horn owners for hay and so I covered all my forage like that.


If I was a pedant, I could put the cost of the landrover and insurances etc in there, but I had it already.


The reason I got the land was that it was too small for a commercial sheep farmer to be bothering with to come and put animals on, so it wasn't really worth any rent as such, except for horse paddocks, which is what they had done, but after years of that the place was looking a bit of a mess, to say the least.


With wooled sheep you could get away with buying hand shears for dagging and getting a shearer, and the price of the wool would pay for the shearer if you had enough sheep, but wouldn't pay for click etc - so be wary, wool, unless you have some artisan outlet for it is still very much a loss-making enterprise.

SheepishSophie

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • Derbyshire
  • An aspiring shepherd
Re: The cost of starting with sheep
« Reply #3 on: August 22, 2012, 05:44:06 pm »
This'd be very helpful! I'm currently starting out and get asked this by my Dad on a regular basis (Aka daily) and I can tell him if I think about it but sometimes I forget things. With several people doing it, things one single person might forget are included!

I start sheep-stuff-shopping in a few weeks, including all equipment. Rather sad that it's more exciting than, say, clothes shopping for me!

FiB

  • Joined Sep 2011
  • Bala, North Wales
    • Facebook
Re: The cost of starting with sheep
« Reply #4 on: August 22, 2012, 05:46:59 pm »
Steve - whats the going exchcnage rate re ram:bales of hay?  I have hay, but no ram so thats a good thought for me this Autumn.  Thanks for sharing costs all. 

SteveHants

  • Joined Aug 2011
Re: The cost of starting with sheep
« Reply #5 on: August 22, 2012, 06:17:24 pm »
If it was money, Id want £60 to borrow the ram, and bales have been silly money till this year...a fiver or so - I think I took about 50 bales last year, so somewhere between retail and production cost.

Bramblecot

  • Joined Jul 2008
Re: The cost of starting with sheep
« Reply #6 on: August 22, 2012, 10:16:07 pm »


I start sheep-stuff-shopping in a few weeks, including all equipment. Rather sad that it's more exciting than, say, clothes shopping for me!
Hi Sophie  :wave:   Not at all sad  :D - I love buying sheepie things too.  Always on the lookout through local ads and e-bay for secondhand equipment.  It doesn't always have to be pristine as I know the sheep don't care, and then you can spend more on the important things like vaccines, good food and medicine.  Good luck with your sheep venture :thumbsup:

the great composto

  • Guest
Re: The cost of starting with sheep
« Reply #7 on: August 23, 2012, 09:10:28 am »
Its really good to see some of the real costs of starting out but it would also be nice to see the balance of where the expected income would offset those costs.


SteveHants

  • Joined Aug 2011
Re: The cost of starting with sheep
« Reply #8 on: August 23, 2012, 01:42:10 pm »
That will all depend on your lambing percentage and ewe replcement rate.

Buffy the eggs layer

  • Joined Jun 2010
Re: The cost of starting with sheep
« Reply #9 on: August 24, 2012, 07:44:42 pm »
Hi TGC,
   I put the costings together just as a bit of a rough guide for people stating out with an intention to breed from a small registered hobby flock. That may not be the quickest way to turn a buck however.
If you wanted to keep a small flock then what you would make would depend greatly on whether the sheep were registered and what lambs were produced.
So an equally rough guide would be that if you breed from 4 ewes and were lucky enough to get 6 good lambs, 3 ewes and 3 rams. Then you sold the registered ewe lambs for the price that you paid for their mothers and sold 2 of the ram lambs for meat and one as proven prize winning :trophy:  Tup then you might just be lucky enough to cover your initial outlay. :fc: :-\
However a farmer friend of mine recently told me that the easiest way to make money out of sheep is to buy in commercial store lambs (say texel crosses) . He told me that he need to buy a breed that fattens quickly and cheaply for a chep price at the sales. With the costs of wormer, vacs, feed...etc he needs to make £27 per sheep just to cover his costs when he sells them on for meat at auction later in the year.
A small holder friend of mine also tells me that the cost of butchering and slaughtering her ram lambs was also £27 per lamb through a local butcher. 
And a local hobby breeder tels me that he expects to get £80 for a butchered lamb by selling to friends and reletives.
I aim to try and break even with my sheep and chickens as I see it as a hobby with a benefit of producing food and going some way to paying for its self. Having said that, choosing breeds that bring me pleasure is more important to me than profit. So a more commercially minded member may be able to give you a better idea of how to make a few quid.

SteveHants

  • Joined Aug 2011
Re: The cost of starting with sheep
« Reply #10 on: August 24, 2012, 10:01:11 pm »
You'd never breed a saleable tup each year off that number of ewes, sorry.


You'd be lucky if you got a decent ram once every 25 years or so, and even then, unless you kept growth records, you wouldn't have a benchmark to see how good a tup he really was.


When I started with Wilts Horns I had 15 and I wouldn't have considered selling a tup for breeding - it wouldn't have taken you long to get a bad reputation and the world of Wilts Horns isnt so big that it wouldn't have stuck with you for a long time.


If you are breeding rams, even in a minority breed, I would probably reckon a flock of about 50 is too small, but might have to do if the breed was rare. Of a commercial breed you are talking hundreds, minumum.

LandieMan

  • Joined Jul 2012
Re: The cost of starting with sheep
« Reply #11 on: August 24, 2012, 10:27:37 pm »
It is not all about cost. I have broken even on my first year, discounting fencing. I have learnt where to cut costs. Apart from this the joy of sitting in a field with a dozen relaxed sheep chewing the cud is worth it.

Mallows Flock

  • Joined Apr 2012
  • Shepton mallet
    • Somerset Pet Sitting and Dog Walking
Re: The cost of starting with sheep
« Reply #12 on: August 24, 2012, 10:32:05 pm »
Oh Landie... if only there were single men like you in Somerset! LOLOL!
From 3 to 30 and still flocking up!

Buffy the eggs layer

  • Joined Jun 2010
Re: The cost of starting with sheep
« Reply #13 on: August 25, 2012, 07:39:50 am »
Thanks Steve,
 
    Thats really helpful to know. I nearly bought some wiltshire horns, really glad I didnt now.
I know people who have produced tups from small minority breed flocks and sold them on to hobby breeders for a few hundred quid but I must admit they were not Wiltshires and they didn't produce one a year.
Good luck with the wilts hope you are able to have enough ewes ( and enough years) to produce a quality ram one day :fc:
 

Sylvia

  • Joined Aug 2009
Re: The cost of starting with sheep
« Reply #14 on: August 25, 2012, 09:47:44 am »
Cheaper to trade the use of a tup. I swap pork for the use of McBlack, the dear of him, though now I have a daughter of his in my little flock I will have to think again, maybe buy a tup lamb, use him then eat him :-\ :-\

 
Advertisement
 

Forum sponsors

FibreHut Energy Helpline Thomson & Morgan Time for Paws Scottish Smallholder & Grower Festival Ark Farm Livestock Movement Service

© The Accidental Smallholder Ltd 2003-2024. All rights reserved.

Design by Furness Internet

Site developed by Champion IS