# Annual or Lifespan Cost of Keeping Sheep



## steader (Dec 1, 2006)

Has anyone broken down the annual/yearly cost of keeping a sheep (for meat)? I'm starting to read about cb&t and other maintenance issues but I was curious what some of you pros have figured out. From the reading I've done it appears that some don't even make it a year (IOW they're eaten) so you can break it down to their lifespan if that's easier.

If there are threads discussing this I couldn't locate them and a link would be appreciated, some of the things I'm thinking about. The purchase price is a separate line item and I'm looking into that currently.
- Food cost: We'll be trying to do it purely off 'the land' but trying to figure out how many sheep we can have per acre on the land we're on however there are probably times we'll need to supplimental feed.
- Vet costs: For example the cb&t cost as well as any additional boosters that should be given over the lifespan of the sheep.
- Other costs?

BTW I'm in central Texas where we have pretty mild winters.

Thanks.


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## elgordo (Apr 9, 2005)

That's an interesting thought Steader, I try to keep costs down and keep a flock book, ie who's out of whom, but you may have inspired me to really knuckle down and write out costs. Of course I can't figure in the pleasure I get out of interacting with my "gals"!


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## steader (Dec 1, 2006)

elgordo, good point on the pleasure issue. I'm not trying to figure out if it is 'cost effective' but more get a better idea what the costs will be. We're going to start simple with just a couple without breeding etc and learn general care and maintenance and real application (not book knowledge).


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

The biggest yearly cost is feed. Even pastures arent "free" if you have to plant them, but they DO cut expenses a lot. They dont need grain all the time so good pastures are the cheapest way to go.

Vaccines and wormers are not a big expense. A 50 ML bottle of CD&T vaccine is usually less than $5 and will do 12 sheep the first time, or 25 if its just the yearly booster. Its usually less than $1 to worm one. If you focus on the cost of a meat lamb born on your farm, it's about $5 if you slaughter at weaning, since all youve done is let it drink milk and maybe a couple of CD&T shots. A good Dorper lamb can go from 8 lbs at birth to 50 lbs in about 45-50 days mostly on milk and nibbling at pastures. After that they may start eating some gran but still wont consume a huge amount if pastures are growing.



Where you are you can probably get by most of the year on just pasture alone, depending on the breed you choose.


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## SilverVista (Jan 12, 2005)

Personally, CD/T at $6.95 for 25 doses doesn't worry me. It's when circumstances keep me from buying hay out of the field, and imported winter hay on a bad hay year comes in at $215 a ton, that I look really, really hard at those ewes!


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## kesoaps (Dec 18, 2004)

It's going to be difficult to get an answer that will fit your particular circumstances as we're all in need of something a bit different and prices vary by region.

I can pick up local hay in the field for $2 bale, or buy it at the feed store for $4 and up. Thats a 50 lb bale of selenium deficiant grass hay. Alfalfa, if I'm lucky, I can get for $8 bale; at the feed store it's $12. A sheep will eat somewhere between 3-5% of their body weight in roughage...quality hay will be less than nutrient deficiant hay. I was going to use the lower quality hay and suppliment with a pound of alfalfa pellets...but that was still more expensive than buying the larger bale of good quality alfalfa.

Pasture, as has been mentioned, is not free. Although I've got a pasture that I can use year round should I choose (the neighbor's place), I still need to fence it. So the first year it's more money to graze my animals than feed them for a few months...but the second year the fence is in and it extends the life of my pasture at home (providing I don't fill it up with more sheep) and begins to save me some money.

Still, a couple of ewes pay for themselves easily enough, especially if you can get free ram service. I had someone else's ram come here and I fed him for a month while he bred my ewes. Didn't cost much extra to feed him and the girls gave me twins for the most part, which more than paid for the feed/care with very little effort on my part. I think the key is to make sure you've got a market for the lambs, keep ewes that twin or triplet and cull those that single, and find a market for every aspect of the animal that you can. Silver Vista posted a link recently to Sudan Farms that is an excellent example of marketing.


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

I know what you mean about figuring the cost of keeping sheep. I don't have any yet either and I'd sure like to know what to budget for a couple of ewes and their resulting offspring. Of course its looking a bit farther off than I'd hoped, life seems to get in the way of even our best plans.  

Still, I am going to have to call around and get an idea of the cost of good hay because they won't have much pasture. I'll be looking for lambs and milk and wool. Actually the idea came about because I want fresh raw milk for our family and a cow is way too much and a couple of goats would be too (as well as being more troublesome!), but 2-3 ewes that milked well would be just about perfect and the easiest to keep. Then I started to think that I really like to eat lamb and spinning has always interested me and sheep just seem the best choice! 

Like you, I'm not so worried about making money, I just want to know what to expect it to cost me to have them so that I plan ahead with enough and a bit laid aside to take good care of them when I am ready to get them.


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## Ronney (Nov 26, 2004)

As Kesoaps has said, everybody's circumstances are different so your not going to get a hard and fast answer. Our sheep are grass fed 12 months of the year so supplementary feed doesn't figure on our budget, nor do we plant forage feeds. If I kept a sheep from a lamb to a hogget it wouldn't cost anymore than $10.00 at the outside in direct expenses including shearing, vaccination, drenching and flystrike prevention. That does not include time. To buy the same animal over the supermarket counter would be close to $200.00. If I sold it on the hoof I could expect to get between $70.00 and $80.00 which would more than cover it's share of rates, fertilizer, lime, fencing, water reticulation and whatever else makes a farm click over as well as it's direct expenses.

Cheers,
Ronnie


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

My pastures are growing slowly now with the cool weather so Ive been feeding them mainly hay. I can get a 4 X 5 round bale of coastal bermuda for $15 and it lasted 22 ewes for 2 weeks. Since they are all gestating now Ive also been feeding them about a pound a day of pellets mixed with corn so the cost of that per week is about $25.

If my math is correct thats about $65 every 2 weeks for 22 full grown Dorpers at a daily cost of 21 cents each. 5 of them have given me lambs this week, and each lamb is worth at least $130. Thats $650 worth of lambs. I could cut the grain costs if I had a bin so I could buy in bulk. It takes about 2250 lbs to feed them a pound a day for 3 months (With 25 sheep ) Right now I only have 6 acres of pasture, but Im fencing in another 4, so by the Spring Ill have enough to keep them on grass almost all year long. The ewes that have lambed so far are "first timers" so many of the rest should drop twins. I may actually MAKE a little off them this year, especially if Im able to sell some as breeders, since those are worth about twice as much as a meat lamb.


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## DocM (Oct 18, 2006)

My 4H kids keep track of EVERYTHING for their market animals. Last year, the average to bring a superior animal to market (cost to buy lamb, keeping it for required time - all lambs auctioned at 7 months or less, all vaccinations and wormings, taken off pasture and fed complete feed or feed and hay for 6 weeks prior to auction). The average cost per pound, to raise, for these lambs, was 1.10 a lb. I think that's pretty accurate. If you were raising your own from ewes you already have, average in the cost of buying the lamb as the cost to feed/house your ewes while dry. Show lambs are usually fed high priced Nutrena Show Lamb and no hay during show season, March-August. That adds significantly to the cost.

I feed "selenium deficient grass hay" cut about 10 tons off our own land, buy another 20 tons for about $65 a ton, but that's for the horses and goats too. Feed hay in the winter to my mixed black face flock. We have pasture all year round - even though it's currently covered with snow - snow cover about 65 days a year - they still have plenty of grass year round, even in this cold climate, but I have 60 acres of open pasture. They also get BoSE shots prior to lambing, and the lambs get a booster, tetanus when docked, BoSE at one month when wethered. Worming 4x a year, low parasite area. Everyone gets a CDT booster in the spring when sheared (we do this ourselves) They have selenium in their minerals available all the time. Supplemental complete sheep feed in bunkers November thru February, don't really know how much per animal - $250 per ton, dump about 50 lbs a day for flock of 20 animals. They're all pretty fat. Lambing starts in three weeks. We rarely need vet service for our sheep - in fact, we've never needed vet service for them. 

My records show that our own meat lambs, not the show stock, cost about .60 a lb to raise to freezer camp. We home butcher.


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## DocM (Oct 18, 2006)

GrannyCarol said:


> I want fresh raw milk for our family and a cow is way too much and a couple of goats would be too (as well as being more troublesome!), but 2-3 ewes that milked well would be just about perfect and the easiest to keep. Then I started to think that I really like to eat lamb and spinning has always interested me and sheep just seem the best choice!


Keep in mind that sheep are pretty specialized. Meat sheep aren't dairy animals, they dry up pretty quick after weaning (this is bred into them, many breeds of meat animal can be bred more than once in 12 months). Sheep that make good spinners don't grow fast enough to make meat. Dairy sheep are just that - they aren't bred for meat OR wool. Dual purpose animals, like rombouilettes, are never the best of both worlds. And crossbreds are unpredicatable, although my leicester/suffolk crosses are close - some have great fleece, others don't - and you couldn't milk them longer than 4 months.


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## vallyfarm (Oct 24, 2006)

Do not forget the most profitable part of owning ANY animal...Their exaust! On my farm we also grow several vegitables, potatoes, asparagus, blueberries, strawberries, etc for sale. The cost to fertilize/ improve the soil would put me out of business. A few cows/sheep/goats makes a HUGE profit for me. The "input" costs, even if I break even in one or two years, on the sale of meat, are nothing sompared to the "output" these animals provid me. Mike


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## kesoaps (Dec 18, 2004)

> Dairy sheep are just that - they aren't bred for meat OR wool.


 Don't tell that to my clientelle...they were drooling over my dairy sheep fleeces!


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## eieiomom (Jun 22, 2005)

Piggyback on Kesoaps post...I have more interested in my dairy cross fleeces than I have fleeces to sell !
My meat customers also rave about the tender taste of the market lambs.

In addition to this....depending on what the breed is in the cross....very prolific and produce lots of lambs 

No, they are not necessarily meat producers like your easier keeping breeds, but they are definitely dual purpose sheep !


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## minnikin1 (Feb 3, 2003)

I'm on another list (for wool sheep) where this topic came up recently. The consensus there was that it averages to about
$100 yr per sheep for food/med/wormer only. 
My accounting is deplorable, so I cant say if I agree with that figure or not.


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## kesoaps (Dec 18, 2004)

Well, if my math is right (and it may not be), I'm figuring about .50 per day per animal for about 8 months out of the year. That would put me in the $120 range for just about everything...exception being those unexpected vet visits (why I don't expect them, I've no idea...I have at least one each year, and that animal's cost doubles!)


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## DocM (Oct 18, 2006)

eieiomom said:


> Piggyback on Kesoaps post...I have more interested in my dairy cross fleeces than I have fleeces to sell !
> My meat customers also rave about the tender taste of the market lambs.
> 
> In addition to this....depending on what the breed is in the cross....very prolific and produce lots of lambs
> ...


In terms of recognized management, what I stated is true. What you claim is merely anecdotal evidence. It wouldn't be profitable to go into raising a dairy breed for their wool, or for their meat. I spin too, so I know that there may be a small market for any fleece, even a suffolk (although I wouldn't bother spinning it). Even a high priced fleece, like off one of my leicesters, doesn't pay for what it costs to raise it. Raw fleece is cheap. Most people can get it for free. And meat? Yeah, you can eat any lamb. What I was discussing was how fast they grow, making them more profitable in a certain amount of time. It's simple economics. One of my club cross lambs can weigh 140 lbs at 6 months, on pasture, although they average closer to 120. Your dairy breed won't. Your wool breed won't. My lamb will sell for more because it weighs more. They probably taste exactly the same.


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

I understand that a single purpose animal will make more money on the market. I am NOT, repeat NOT trying to make money. I just want to know what my hobby and home milk is likely to cost before I go forward. I'm not interested in a marketable single purpose sheep, I am interested in having sheep for MY milk, with meat for the family and perhaps playing with the fleeces. 

I really appreciate the information everyone is giving me, by looking at that and the local hay costs (I'll have some grass/browse, but mostly dry lot I'm afraid) I can have a pretty good idea how much I will spend on my pets. I only plan to have a couple of them after all! (Yes, I know how THAT goes! but space really is pretty limited, I'll have to control myself!) 

I'm more likely to compare the cost per gallon of milk to what I pay at the store and be glad that I can drink fresh milk at any price! You really can't buy raw milk.


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## Ronney (Nov 26, 2004)

Some years ago I did an excercise is stupidity - or at least some people may have seen it as that. It was with a cow. I worked out how much milk we used as a family per week and every week put the retail cost of it in a dresser drawer and left it there. At the end of the year I had $730.00.

This cow actually milked for the whole 12 months and in that time she reared her calf, provided milk for the house, fed two pigs and provided milk to rear two orphan lambs. I think it fair to say that she more than paid for herself.

Carol, a sheep is not going to produce that amount of milk and in all probability your not going to have to rear orpahn lambs or feed pigs, but I think you will find that by rearing her lamb ( which I suppose will go into the freezer) and providing milk for the house, she too will pay her way.

Cheers,
Ronnie


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## kesoaps (Dec 18, 2004)

Oh, she'll certainly pay her way Granny Carol. Dolly put the 'mutt' in mutton, being a cross bred romney/suffolk. Her wool was coarse like a suffolk, so no added bennies from the romney cross there. She wasn't as big as a suffolk, no nothing gained there. But she could raise twins who'd gain over a pound a day on her milk, then let me milk after weaning for 2-3 more pounds a day over the next few weeks. My hands got tired of milking those unmilkable teats, or I probably would have gotten more.

Point being, by selling the twins at $75 each, Dolly paid her way, plus I had milk. No breeding fee needed as it was a borrowed ram and still enough pasture in the fall for me not to worry about more than a couple dollars worth of feed. 

I seriously think sheep are one of the best investments you can make on a farm.


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

Except for East Friesans I can't think of another single purpose dairy sheep. Lacune's are as meaty as most brit breed sheep, Rideau Arcott are definately a light lamb/wool/dairy breed, Awassi lambs command a premium foir meat (ethnic market) Truth is if you approach any breed of sheep as single purpose you're going to lose an oportunity to make money. Pointless to compare costs, mine are substantially less than $100 per sheep, but I grow all my own feed or get it at field cost. I get tonnes of corn for free so again how do you factor that in? Its going to be different for everybody. Every sheep needs to be vacinated and wormed. I use an 8 way vacine as the cost is compareable to the CDT so why not cover 5 more clostridial diseases? Worming is negligable and even cheaper to worm hundreds instead of dozens. The suggested numbers are similar for me. You have to sit down with a paper and calculator and work out (daily feed as Kesoaps suggests looks good) and plug in your costs. You need to factor in some vet costs, a formal vet/client relationship means easier access to prescription drugs, like thiamin and dexamethasone, and it really makes keeping animals easier. Think $250/year minimum for the flock, some years there will be more some less. Even for home use only you need to compare your input costs to the results you benefit from so this is a great thread!


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## DocM (Oct 18, 2006)

GrannyCarol said:


> I'm more likely to compare the cost per gallon of milk to what I pay at the store and be glad that I can drink fresh milk at any price! You really can't buy raw milk.


Raising just a couple animals for home use will cost you less than buying a comparible amount of packaged meat and milk from the store - at least with sheep. Goats are another story... sheep are easier to raise. Even if it costs a little more, you'll know exactly where your food is coming from. Peace of mind is priceless.

Have you posted on some livestock boards, like yahoo, looking for raw milk? While it IS illegal to sell for human consumption in lots of areas, it is usually legal to sell for animal consumption - if you end up drinking it, who cares? You take the same responsibility for illness as if you were raising and drinking your own raw milk. 

Raw Milk 

More Raw Milk


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

Doc, thanks for the ideas. I was able, for a time, to own shares on a cow. What lovely milk! However, she sold the cow and now its just too far away. You'd think living in the middle of nowhere it would be easy to find someone with a cow that has a bit extra, but our population density is very low. 

Now I just need to find someone with sheep's milk to taste, so that my husband starts to run out of excuses.... Of course his best one is that we already have 19 ducks, 7 cats, 4 dogs, 2 parakeets and some tropical fish and I do get a bit tired of taking care of them all. I'm not all that old or unhealthy, but I am a bit slow and lazy.  Still, we're already tied down, I already have to do chores a couple of times a day, what's one more set of animals??


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## kesoaps (Dec 18, 2004)

Come spring, Carol, you'll need to make a trip west!


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

Actually I probably will want to visit. I was hoping to anyway! Perhaps I can bring my daughter, or my husband, or both. When will you start to have lambs and milk so that I can try it?? I'm about ready to get out of town right now, let me tell you, its been gray and rainy/snowy so long I feel like I am in Seattle!


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## kesoaps (Dec 18, 2004)

Well, if you're trying to escape weather that feels like Seattle, a trip west most definitely is NOT where you want to be, lol! I'm not expecting lambs until April, but have a friend who may be lambing in December or January (and I'm greedily...uh...anxiously...awaiting the milk!)


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## ShortSheep (Aug 8, 2004)

Some other costs: Shearing, advertising (website, classified ads), mineral blocks, initial purchase price of buckets, feed pans, shelter, fencing; micron testing if desired.


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## MorrisonCorner (Jul 27, 2004)

minnikin1 said:


> I'm on another list (for wool sheep) where this topic came up recently. The consensus there was that it averages to about
> $100 yr per sheep for food/med/wormer only.
> My accounting is deplorable, so I cant say if I agree with that figure or not.


Oh, interesting... I start out a year with roughly $100/animal in the budget and replenish the amount as I sell animals. Looking at my numbers I'd have to say that is pretty close to my experience, give or take $5-10.

I'm regularly contacted by people who are hoping they can "turn a profit" or make a business out of keeping sheep. I personally find it is, at best, break even (with a freezer full of meat as my profit). But if you're willing to really market everything from the baaa to the butt... in other words do farm visits, which gives you a customer right on the spot, sell wool, meat, and even compost... doing it all vigorously.. you probably could make a modest profit on a modest flock.

We don't have the land for it though. If you're feeding hay all year it adds up too quickly, and last year we found out that overstocking a small pasture is not a good idea.


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