[Jacob-list] downsizing

[Linda]

We pay anywhere from $50/ton to $240/ton for hay, although I'm not sure 
I'm going to get much of the $240/ton hay this year.  It works out a 
little better in terms of having to haul it to supplement with alfalfa 
cubes or pellets and add some grain when I need to.It saves a bit of 
money to buy rolls, especially since the farmer has been rolling me 
300lb rolls - much easier to work with then the 1000lb rolls we used to 
get. Being self sufficient enough to grow your own hay certainly sound 
wonderful.

Linda

Thomas Carnes wrote:

>

> From our perspective, we play both sides of the inputs.  We grow our 

> own hay, and sell most of it.  We make enough on our coastal to buy 

> alfalfa (which we cannot grow here as a perennial crop) in the winter 

> with our coastal profits.  It would be much harder on us if we were 

> not able to grow feed.  I can see how being subject to all the price 

> fluctuations as fuel prices move would be very difficult.

>

>  

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> *From:* jacob-list-bounces at jacobsheep.com 

> [mailto:jacob-list-bounces at jacobsheep.com] *On Behalf Of *Linda

> *Sent:* Sunday, August 23, 2009 6:28 PM

> *To:* Betty Berlenbach

> *Cc:* jacob-list at jacobsheep.com

> *Subject:* Re: [Jacob-list] downsizing

>

>  

>

> 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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