[Jacob-list] sale/auctions

[Linda]

Around here, we adhere strictly to the policy of "buy high and sell low."  :-)

Sheep prices have always been low in this area and Jacobs appeal to a specialized market.  The drought years 
certainly
didn't help any sort of livestock sales. The vast majority of Jacob owners in Georgia don't register and don't plan to.
 So having double registered stock doesn't mean that much to most local buyers.  It does to me, though, and I'll keep
registering.

I haven't yet taken any to sales, but last Christmas the meat prices were pretty good at the sale barns, so if the
freezer is full, I may take some wethers - or half wethers (that's another story).   Does anyone sell registered stock
at auction with papers???  My main concern with selling at sales is that records are lost.  I'm still against selling
cull stock at auctions where they can reenter the breeding population.  But I have thought about selling good ewes at
auction, along with their papers. Some years you end up with more sheep than you need or can sell or eat, or ones that
are just too good to butcher.

Linda

On Sun, 16 May 2004 09:28:04 -0400, Susan J Martin wrote:
>Ok, listers, I am going to really go out on a limb here.  Thom Simmons  is
>getting out of the sheep business and giving away his sheep - "You pick them
>up, they're free."
>
>So here's my beef ~ I love my sheep, but it surely is  hard to find homes for
>them ~ and I haven't a clue how some breeders who  advertise sheep for $300 or
>$400 sell them!!!  We have JSBA registered  sheep, healthy sheep, great
>looking sheep, both two horned and four horned,   but I don't have buyers
>constantly calling/knocking to buy sheep ~ and I  advertise and have a web
>site.  I am selling my sheep pretty cheaply and  the ones that don't sell end
>up at the sales auction .......... I have  absolutely no other choice.  And
>please, don't suggest I butcher them for  dog food........I have 19 lambs and
>only two dogs.   And I don't have  great ethnic market links in the area where
>we live.......the buyers for the  ethnic markets purchase their lambs at the
>sales barn...........same place my  little lambs end up.
>
>A product is marketable only when there are buyers ~  the old supply & demand
>thing that makes the world go round!
>
>Sue Martin Stonecroft  Manor Lititz, PA

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Patchwork Farm in NE Georgia