[Jacob-list] downsizing

[Linda]

We're in a different situation here. Prices and demand for quality 
breeding stock in the southeast has risen in the last few years. I think 
the internet has alot to do with that. After a few years when even 
finding hay was near impossible, hay is now fairly plentiful and we are 
paying less for better hay. It has started to rain after five years of 
drought, so my sheep get to eat grass sometimes. My yarn sales are 
pretty good. And I'm getting younger (just joking..I'm aging as fast(er) 
as everyone else - and I sure feel it on our hills). But, Dave is 
semi-retired now, so I have more help now and feel younger at the end of 
the day :-). We haven't had much luck in finding someone to come do the 
little bit of clearing we'd hoped to do for more pasture, which has been 
a setback. But it was a profitable year for me.
I'm curious about the economics of not breeding all the adult ewes. You 
still have to feed them. Unless you are separating them from your bred 
ewe flock, they are eating just as much and producing only a fleece to 
sell.  You won't be feeding the lambs, of course, and the fleece would 
probably be a bit bigger.

Linda

Betty Berlenbach wrote:

> It sounds like the economic situation is taking its toll on us 

> breeders.  I have been bemoaning the fact that for the last 10 years 

> or so, grain and hay prices have skyrocketed out of control, but the 

> price of lambs, both as meat and as breeding stock, has pretty much 

> stayed the same. (I guess I should be grateful, in a way, as up here, 

> the prices of shetland sheep, which I also had as a cash crop, have 

> gone from $5-800 apiece to $200 or max, $300 apiece.  I got rid of the 

> shetlands!  I will have to downsize a little, and like Cathy, am 

> aging, and thinking that each year I go down a bit in numbers.  

> Hopefully, at some point, I will be able to switch to buying six lambs 

> in the spring, keeping them on pasture until November, and then, 

> shearing and butchering, after breeding and keeping them all year 

> becomes too difficult.  I do like having them here.  I will breed this 

> year, probably 12 ewes, but I might consider just breeding some of 

> them...We shall see. I don't have to make that decision until Nov. 1.

>  Betty, in Vermont,who now has a blog, thanks to help from Walter and 

> Linda.  See Betty's blog at http://sheepwoman.wordpress.com.

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