Great to see a person who walks by faith and not by sight then gives God the credit for how it turns out for after all He is the one who directed the steps. Keep trusting Him!
We started with a small cattle breed, thinking we'd eat what we raised. We were able to profit by selling more than we consumed. Years of drought conditions made it too costly to keep up. But the self-sufficient side of me wanted to raise more protein than we get from my chickens. About four years ago, I suggested we get a breeding pair of sheep and use the offspring for our own consumption. My husband thinks bigger than that. He went to pick up a Dorper ewe lamb and came home with 4. We bought an unrelated ram. He's been building up the flock quality with a cycle of breeding and selling and buying better stock. We've had no trouble finding buyers through word of mouth and Craigslist. If we had more acreage, we might really be able to make a business out of it.
We didn't have a customer ahead of time but we started really small. We bought three ewes and a ram with the thought that we could eat our own product with only a few lambs. Then we decided to raise a couple hogs for ourselves and found that there was a bit of a demand for the product. Then a local hog farmer retired and asked us to continue to supply their customer base. That's where we are now. We have a base for the lamb, hogs and Freedom Ranger chicken. It's worked pretty good for us and we are very blessed with how things have started for us. Our RUclips channel isn't doing anything for us. Facebook is working better for us.
@@johndutton4612 thank lol. We aren't big on celebrating celebrities either. Actually our first exposure to farming was entering the kids in 4H. Then we got into it too. Always will remember that first year taking the kids to pick out their market lambs for the first time!
Thank you for the wonderful content! Your excitement and passion shows. I'm just starting on my own with 7 acres and it's been a test, but Its nice to hear others experience
@@l.n.9462 Definitely! I really enjoy the online community for farming. I decided with pasture poultry and small amount of sheep. Hopefully I'll have more land soon!
My daughter is a 4H kid. She has shown sheep for 4 years now. In her second year her sheep was donated back to her and she paid to have it bred. The following year she showed and kept the baby. (Suffolk sheep) this year she has decided to start from scratch. She sold off her ewes, and her Dorset ram and now has a breeding program in mind for the upcoming year. She has made a business logo and phrase and she wants me to start creating business pages for her. She just turned 14 and is going into 8th grade. I tell you this girl is going places! I just stumbled across your page and I pray it can help her and help me help her on her journey to grow in this amazing agriculture world! If you have any advice we would love to hear it!
I came at it from a different point of view. I started with livestock as a land management tool and financed it off my crop practices. I already knew there was a good market for breeding stock and if all else failed, sale barn markets have been reasonable. I figured I'd have time to seek out and build a market base for direct market as my livestock numbers grew. The catch is I had a bit of a unique situation with quite a few resources in land and venture capital. The advantages I had to start with were needed as I had basically no experience with livestock, the learning curve has been a little harsh. Livestock probably isn't for the financially challenged or the weak of heart.
I have to agree. This video series has been strong on my heart to produce since I know so many beginners are following. I hope to stimulate some thought and planning in addition to inspiration. It’s a beautiful calling, but (speaking in light of a few waves of difficulty that have hit me this year) it’s easy to get in deep and feel defeated. Keep up the great work, Brent! -the Shepherdess
Ive helped my dad with his cattle for years, and I tap a thousand maple trees to make maple syrup. Most of my syrup marketing is done online. I started marketing on a homesteading forum 20 years ago. Word spread.
I am a dutch organic dairyfarmer with about 75 milkers and a herd of 50 ewes what whe as organic dairyfarmers have done after our creamery went bust whe startet our own milkselling coop whe sell to what ever creamery wants organic milk whe dont have our oneplant but sel to little and big creamerys we now have the biggest organic milkcompany in the netherlands with over 200 farmers producing ..
It does not matter how you get into small holding as long as you get there it seems. From what I have seen most of the small holders in the USA seem to have another job to tie them over while they work out just where they are going. Now before some one complains about that statement I am basing it on what I have seen on YT ONLY and nothing else, I know its a blinkered approach but that is all I have to go on as I am too old to see for myself just what you youngsters are up to. I think its great that you all have the gumption to go out and give it all a go, I wish I was younger and could try it also but alas the mind is willing but the body.... well the body is well worn and clapped out. Grace thanks for another interesting video and thanks for posting
I started to keep livestock as land management for my 2.5 acres of farm that I bought this past September. After researching and budgeting, I found it's cheaper to buy, house, and feed 2 dual-purpose cows, 2 breeding pigs, 34 egg laying hens, 6 roosters and a few ducks as pets than it is to buy a mower, plow, tiller, tractor and maintain that equipment. IMHO, it is also better for the environment. I am not burning fossil fuels to run all that stuff and possibly leaking oil, coolant, gas, metal shavings, etc into my ground. I also don't have to buy fertilizer which is nice. I find the company of animals to be highly enjoyable. I love watching them interact with each other. Animal husbandry a good therapeutic for my depression as well. I am now starting to move into the idea of raising feeder pigs for profit to help offset the cost of raising them and the cost of getting the ones I keep butchered. I can process chickens on the farm all day long, doesn't bother me one bit. Same with ducks. But pigs or cows are a little too much for me to handle on my own. My pigs and cows are like my dogs, I just can't bring myself to do it. I will call a local butcher to handle those for me that I have already been in contact with when that time comes. Thank you so much for these videos. Every homestead/livestock/farming youtuber I have found has been amazing and a few have called you out by name as a good one to follow so I looked you up. You have a new subscriber! Hope you have an amazing 2022!
Thanks so much for your help. I bought 5 acres in southwest PA and want to fence it in for rotational grazing of a small sheep flock. I'm going to identify a good breed of sheep and take any local niche market demand into account. Thank you for your videos!
We breed for wool, meat and auction. Every revenue stream is enhanced by more refined revenue streams with more refined products. I knew it would take two years to build my breeding flock and even begin to sell product so I invested once I knew what I could sell and had lined up some buyers. Now we are starting a line of refine wool products so we are now looking for new customers. Sheep are great! We got into a nearly extinct breed so half the battle is getting other people excited about this breed and the benefits of the meat and wool…the milk is just enough for family.
Love your spirit. Marketing is not an easy task. I agree one hundred percent and have recommended for years anyone raising anything fruit ,vegetables, livestock, have a market. Preferably someone who cares about where the food source is coming from. Selling to someone who has costumers. The auctions at the sale barn are in my opion a waste of time. Way to big of a gamble. Showcasing on Facebook, Instagram, and Utube are good. Unfortunately some people would rather just believe things just magically apear on a shelf. I totally understand that. I think you made a wise choice to sell a smaller animals like sheep. Its easier than trying to sell a twelve hundred pound cow. I could go on and on. People don't realize the amount of time, money, and work involved into working a farm. Providing a good safe healthy environment for livestock.
Just found your channel. Well done for your drive to become a farmer. I’ve been farming sheep and grain for 25 years and some days it’s not for the faint hearted. One piece of advice I would like to give is that you will never have it figured out. Also selling cuts of meat at farmers markets exposes you to the risk of selling all your high end cuts easily but having difficulty in selling the lower grade cuts and having to bin them. You need to have plan B if this happens as food wastage is one of our societies major problems. Kind regards from an Aussie sheep farm.🇦🇺👍
For your low end cuts, how is the local market for chislic or ground? Lamb chislic is very popular in South Dakota and ground lamb tastes great with pork or beef in a meet loaf.
Shannon J. Sounds like the Americans eat their sheep differently to us Aussies. I’ve been eating sheep all my life and never heard of that. Sheep meat is way too elite to mix with dead cows or pigs.🇦🇺👍
@@stevenstart8728 the average American won’t touch lamb, even fewer will try mutin. It’s about finding on ramps for the inexperienced to learn with while preserving the top cuts for those that know. Are you familiar with American meat loaf? Using ground lamb or mutin as part of an established recipe allows for easy familiarity with the protein to build.
Shannon J. No meatloaf is not really a dish in Australia. We have experienced a major shift in our sheep meat industry over the last 30 years because of very innovative farmers and the same said for processors and marketers. Our industry as developed to the stage that clever butcheries have made all cuts very appealing. Lamb has become so expensive that it is out of reach for the everyday meal and is more for a special occasion. Our exports for chilled meat have also skyrocketed. I think your country is a major importer of our products. We run a sheep farm and so butcher our own animals for the houses. Every cut is used and is delicious. Much tastier than beef. If the presenter is serious about a paddock to plate enterprise with sheep meat she needs to look outside her backyard for innovation on how too do it different and better than what the person next door does. She needs to understand the value of the products she has, be it high end cuts or the so called low end cuts. I would advise that for the low number of animals she has she doesn’t need to be chasing the low income earner with a limited experience of food preparation, she should be chasing a high end restaurant with a chief that knows how too cook a world class product and enter a relationship with the producer. Farmers markets may be a stepping stone but not an end goal. All I’m saying is aim high.🇦🇺👍
You could back into the job. At the end of the job is the customer, before that the freezer, before that processing... If you think you wanted to do forest pastured pigs, buy one at the level that makes sense. If you want it live but not do the processing, get a processing date set up as well as the hog from the swinery.(sounds swanky when selling to Yuppies) Use your free time to prepare some previous step, like perimeter fence, hay your ground or getting that web site set up.
I call my cows my cheap lawnmowers. I basically make a little hay and most years enough to make a little money there. But, for the most part, I just keep enough cattle to maintain the farms grassland and keep it from getting overgrown. My normal career pays enough that I doubt the income I produce on the farm could compete without investing twice the time. Instead, I enjoy sitting on the porch watching my lawnmowers do their thing. :-)
Hello, thank you for the video. The customer you mentioned who purchases 40 sheep/lambs recurring. I assume they purchased them for the meet, my question is were you required to process the lambs for them, they would then pick up the meat. or, did they purchase them as livestock from your farm and then they took care of the processing. Thank you.
I own 28 acres (about 24 as open pasture) about 1.5 hours away from me. Would you recommend starting a sheep farm that far away from me? How hands-on are sheep? Are you required to engage daily? Currently, I have 4 rescue horses on the property that are pretty hands off for the most part. I visit them about 2 times a month. So I'm not sure I have the room.
I’m still in the research and planning phase of my farm. Your advice along with others has been a real help. Keep it up! Never know, we may be doing business together. I’m just south of you in Huntsville, TX.
I'm out in erath County here in the great state and was wondering if there was a place I can learn about the selling of butchered meat in lamen terms. Like to start out with chicken then make moves forward in diversifying according to how well it progresses. I am starting out to feed my family but would like to grow this into something bigger. Something I can one day do with the family and quit my job of possible. Starting small first and will expand if and when I can.
hi dear lady Have a good Christmas.🎄 I hope you have a large herd of 1000 sheep next year. I wish you and your family perfect health / happy days / quality full of money and global trade. I wish all your dreams come true.🎄
love this wish everybody that think they just going to farm livestock and bcome rich they dont do market research and then fail thts so so important. thats why when we dit dorper sheep it was for the entnick people of africa that have these big funerals and we had a constent flow of stock because they slaghter the animals them selfs no cost to us etc. love your farming vids ive sent your vid on profits btween sheep and cattle to my crazy fam to show then the profit margins. but in anycase love ya contin with great work sprry again for speling.
Hi Grace, we have a small farm out here in California. I also do dorper sheep and kiko goats for meat breeding stock and a targeted grazing operation. I know I need to use the internet but I am technically challenged lol if I were to sign up for your classes do you help someone though it if there questions
could you do a video comparing goats to sheep are they pretty similar as far as profit stocking rate and care? would be interested in your thoughts you seem to think things out well.
Great question! I don’t have firsthand experience with goats, but this video from a fellow shepherd who manages both might help: ruclips.net/video/H7hvsmFLis8/видео.html
Great information on your channel. So we have been praying for an opportunity for us to shift our lives to this. It’s a lot of work, but I need to start small. Where were you finding land? I am located just south of Aubrey.
You mentioned some papers we can download and fill out to analyze info ourselves. Also I had a few questions upon starting internet research. Do you have an email address for your farm business or yourself? GodBless! Alton
I like your idea but doesn't work for my operation. I have 160 head of cattle with a older man I'm slowly buying out and we have around 200 ewes and grain land. We farm 8000 acres but no cities or towns close by so can't really do marketing unless I drive 2 hours and it just doesn't pay so I sell at the sale barns
Honestly, sheep will never replace cattle. Sheep meat is hard to cook and does not ever taste good. It’s also way more unhealthy than any other meat which is surprising given what sheep are fed. Many countries do use sheep for dairy and that works well for cheese
Is there zoning that allows farming or can I farm on any land I buy. I don't want pesky neighbors snitching me out if all land isnt suitable for farming or raising live stock. Nothing fancy just a few cows, chickens and be able to farms some crops. I come from a long line of cattle ranchers and I would like to keep the tradition going. City life is okay but not necessary to survive. Farming is the way to go.
You say something I often hear from farmers that bothers me, calling fellow small farmers "competition." Your competition isn't some dude raising grass organic fed lamb, its walmart, costco, amazon, mcdonalds, whole foods, and our modern 9-5 hurried society that doesn't allow time to cook, not fellow farmers. It bothers me and I mention it whenever I hear a farmer say this, hoping to change their view going forward at least slightly, because the comment is assuming there is a limited retail dollar available and that you are fighting other local farmers for that dollar. This is simply not the case. You actually can create a market where one does not exist before, simply by convincing people with ample disposable income of the benefits (you know them all so no need to list them) of not shopping at the aforementioned places. So you are not fighting for a limited dollar, you are creating new dollars that didn't exist before; the more farmers and the easier access to food from alternative sources, the more people spend on local food and the more people become interested when they can actually feed themselves the majority of their calories for real from local food. Just google anything about the percentage of a person's diet that comes from local food, or the percentage of retail dollars spent on local food, and compare that to statistics on those making over $40,000 a year (I make less than that as a farmer and still only buy organic food, but will just put that as a limit for those who think that not everyone can afford local food, if you make 40k a year you surely are a potential customer). There is tons of market growth potential, its about reaching out to the right potential people and finding out what is holding them back from shopping local. Most often from experience I would say it is "not convenient enough" so we have to make it more convenient.
Great to see a person who walks by faith and not by sight then gives God the credit for how it turns out for after all He is the one who directed the steps. Keep trusting Him!
Thank you, sir!!
We started with a small cattle breed, thinking we'd eat what we raised. We were able to profit by selling more than we consumed. Years of drought conditions made it too costly to keep up. But the self-sufficient side of me wanted to raise more protein than we get from my chickens. About four years ago, I suggested we get a breeding pair of sheep and use the offspring for our own consumption. My husband thinks bigger than that. He went to pick up a Dorper ewe lamb and came home with 4. We bought an unrelated ram. He's been building up the flock quality with a cycle of breeding and selling and buying better stock. We've had no trouble finding buyers through word of mouth and Craigslist. If we had more acreage, we might really be able to make a business out of it.
We didn't have a customer ahead of time but we started really small. We bought three ewes and a ram with the thought that we could eat our own product with only a few lambs. Then we decided to raise a couple hogs for ourselves and found that there was a bit of a demand for the product. Then a local hog farmer retired and asked us to continue to supply their customer base. That's where we are now. We have a base for the lamb, hogs and Freedom Ranger chicken. It's worked pretty good for us and we are very blessed with how things have started for us. Our RUclips channel isn't doing anything for us. Facebook is working better for us.
thats a great story! and hard working people like you are the ones who should be celebrated instead of singers/rappers.
@@johndutton4612 thank lol. We aren't big on celebrating celebrities either. Actually our first exposure to farming was entering the kids in 4H. Then we got into it too. Always will remember that first year taking the kids to pick out their market lambs for the first time!
Information packed programs. No none sense. Time we’ll spent!!
Thank you for the wonderful content! Your excitement and passion shows. I'm just starting on my own with 7 acres and it's been a test, but Its nice to hear others experience
Hey! Glad to see other ppl who r new to this, I’m thinking of starting farming to. what did u decide to farm?
@@l.n.9462 Definitely! I really enjoy the online community for farming. I decided with pasture poultry and small amount of sheep. Hopefully I'll have more land soon!
My daughter is a 4H kid. She has shown sheep for 4 years now. In her second year her sheep was donated back to her and she paid to have it bred. The following year she showed and kept the baby. (Suffolk sheep) this year she has decided to start from scratch. She sold off her ewes, and her Dorset ram and now has a breeding program in mind for the upcoming year. She has made a business logo and phrase and she wants me to start creating business pages for her. She just turned 14 and is going into 8th grade. I tell you this girl is going places! I just stumbled across your page and I pray it can help her and help me help her on her journey to grow in this amazing agriculture world! If you have any advice we would love to hear it!
I came at it from a different point of view. I started with livestock as a land management tool and financed it off my crop practices. I already knew there was a good market for breeding stock and if all else failed, sale barn markets have been reasonable. I figured I'd have time to seek out and build a market base for direct market as my livestock numbers grew. The catch is I had a bit of a unique situation with quite a few resources in land and venture capital. The advantages I had to start with were needed as I had basically no experience with livestock, the learning curve has been a little harsh. Livestock probably isn't for the financially challenged or the weak of heart.
I have to agree. This video series has been strong on my heart to produce since I know so many beginners are following. I hope to stimulate some thought and planning in addition to inspiration. It’s a beautiful calling, but (speaking in light of a few waves of difficulty that have hit me this year) it’s easy to get in deep and feel defeated.
Keep up the great work, Brent!
-the Shepherdess
@@theShepherdess HI I am want to start farming business too , can I contact you
@@davidjon4042 Check out farmontheweb.com . That is my website with all of the info you need :).
Ive helped my dad with his cattle for years, and I tap a thousand maple trees to make maple syrup. Most of my syrup marketing is done online. I started marketing on a homesteading forum 20 years ago. Word spread.
I am a dutch organic dairyfarmer with about 75 milkers and a herd of 50 ewes what whe as organic dairyfarmers have done after our creamery went bust whe startet our own milkselling coop whe sell to what ever creamery wants organic milk whe dont have our oneplant but sel to little and big creamerys we now have the biggest organic milkcompany in the netherlands with over 200 farmers producing ..
I bred quails and chickens. Don't have a lot of land but hatch chicks and selling to customer atm it's fun
I love these videos! You are giving a master class in each video for: life, farming, and business.
It does not matter how you get into small holding as long as you get there it seems. From what I have seen most of the small holders in the USA seem to have another job to tie them over while they work out just where they are going. Now before some one complains about that statement I am basing it on what I have seen on YT ONLY and nothing else, I know its a blinkered approach but that is all I have to go on as I am too old to see for myself just what you youngsters are up to. I think its great that you all have the gumption to go out and give it all a go, I wish I was younger and could try it also but alas the mind is willing but the body.... well the body is well worn and clapped out. Grace thanks for another interesting video and thanks for posting
You are entirely right! According to the USDS 80% of farm owners have some source of off-farm revenue!
I started to keep livestock as land management for my 2.5 acres of farm that I bought this past September. After researching and budgeting, I found it's cheaper to buy, house, and feed 2 dual-purpose cows, 2 breeding pigs, 34 egg laying hens, 6 roosters and a few ducks as pets than it is to buy a mower, plow, tiller, tractor and maintain that equipment. IMHO, it is also better for the environment. I am not burning fossil fuels to run all that stuff and possibly leaking oil, coolant, gas, metal shavings, etc into my ground. I also don't have to buy fertilizer which is nice. I find the company of animals to be highly enjoyable. I love watching them interact with each other. Animal husbandry a good therapeutic for my depression as well.
I am now starting to move into the idea of raising feeder pigs for profit to help offset the cost of raising them and the cost of getting the ones I keep butchered. I can process chickens on the farm all day long, doesn't bother me one bit. Same with ducks. But pigs or cows are a little too much for me to handle on my own. My pigs and cows are like my dogs, I just can't bring myself to do it. I will call a local butcher to handle those for me that I have already been in contact with when that time comes.
Thank you so much for these videos. Every homestead/livestock/farming youtuber I have found has been amazing and a few have called you out by name as a good one to follow so I looked you up. You have a new subscriber! Hope you have an amazing 2022!
Thank you very much!
Thanks so much for your help. I bought 5 acres in southwest PA and want to fence it in for rotational grazing of a small sheep flock. I'm going to identify a good breed of sheep and take any local niche market demand into account. Thank you for your videos!
We breed for wool, meat and auction. Every revenue stream is enhanced by more refined revenue streams with more refined products. I knew it would take two years to build my breeding flock and even begin to sell product so I invested once I knew what I could sell and had lined up some buyers. Now we are starting a line of refine wool products so we are now looking for new customers. Sheep are great! We got into a nearly extinct breed so half the battle is getting other people excited about this breed and the benefits of the meat and wool…the milk is just enough for family.
Love your spirit. Marketing is not an easy task. I agree one hundred percent and have recommended for years anyone raising anything fruit ,vegetables, livestock, have a market. Preferably someone who cares about where the food source is coming from. Selling to someone who has costumers. The auctions at the sale barn are in my opion a waste of time. Way to big of a gamble. Showcasing on Facebook, Instagram, and Utube are good. Unfortunately some people would rather just believe things just magically apear on a shelf. I totally understand that. I think you made a wise choice to sell a smaller animals like sheep. Its easier than trying to sell a twelve hundred pound cow. I could go on and on. People don't realize the amount of time, money, and work involved into working a farm. Providing a good safe healthy environment for livestock.
Thanks for sharing with us. Karl gave you great advice.
Just found your channel. Well done for your drive to become a farmer. I’ve been farming sheep and grain for 25 years and some days it’s not for the faint hearted. One piece of advice I would like to give is that you will never have it figured out. Also selling cuts of meat at farmers markets exposes you to the risk of selling all your high end cuts easily but having difficulty in selling the lower grade cuts and having to bin them. You need to have plan B if this happens as food wastage is one of our societies major problems.
Kind regards from an Aussie sheep farm.🇦🇺👍
Great advice here! Thank you so much.
For your low end cuts, how is the local market for chislic or ground? Lamb chislic is very popular in South Dakota and ground lamb tastes great with pork or beef in a meet loaf.
Shannon J. Sounds like the Americans eat their sheep differently to us Aussies. I’ve been eating sheep all my life and never heard of that. Sheep meat is way too elite to mix with dead cows or pigs.🇦🇺👍
@@stevenstart8728 the average American won’t touch lamb, even fewer will try mutin. It’s about finding on ramps for the inexperienced to learn with while preserving the top cuts for those that know. Are you familiar with American meat loaf? Using ground lamb or mutin as part of an established recipe allows for easy familiarity with the protein to build.
Shannon J. No meatloaf is not really a dish in Australia. We have experienced a major shift in our sheep meat industry over the last 30 years because of very innovative farmers and the same said for processors and marketers. Our industry as developed to the stage that clever butcheries have made all cuts very appealing. Lamb has become so expensive that it is out of reach for the everyday meal and is more for a special occasion. Our exports for chilled meat have also skyrocketed. I think your country is a major importer of our products.
We run a sheep farm and so butcher our own animals for the houses. Every cut is used and is delicious. Much tastier than beef.
If the presenter is serious about a paddock to plate enterprise with sheep meat she needs to look outside her backyard for innovation on how too do it different and better than what the person next door does. She needs to understand the value of the products she has, be it high end cuts or the so called low end cuts. I would advise that for the low number of animals she has she doesn’t need to be chasing the low income earner with a limited experience of food preparation, she should be chasing a high end restaurant with a chief that knows how too cook a world class product and enter a relationship with the producer. Farmers markets may be a stepping stone but not an end goal.
All I’m saying is aim high.🇦🇺👍
Your content is encouraging! Thank you!
You could back into the job. At the end of the job is the customer, before that the freezer, before that processing...
If you think you wanted to do forest pastured pigs, buy one at the level that makes sense. If you want it live but not do the processing, get a processing date set up as well as the hog from the swinery.(sounds swanky when selling to Yuppies) Use your free time to prepare some previous step, like perimeter fence, hay your ground or getting that web site set up.
Very good point!
I call my cows my cheap lawnmowers. I basically make a little hay and most years enough to make a little money there. But, for the most part, I just keep enough cattle to maintain the farms grassland and keep it from getting overgrown. My normal career pays enough that I doubt the income I produce on the farm could compete without investing twice the time. Instead, I enjoy sitting on the porch watching my lawnmowers do their thing. :-)
I’ve told myself a million times that the peace I find on pasture is 1/2 the pay. It’s a beautiful thing!
Thank you for for your honest advice.
Just wishing you a Very Marry Christmas
A nice day for a change in Northern Minnesota.
Thank you!! Merry Christmas to you!
All the way from SA 🇿🇦 I hope to be like you
Watching your videos makes starting a farm business seem like the most reasonable next step. Keep them coming!
👏🏻👏🏻
Subscribed! I really like this channel. Great videos. Was thinking about getting into cattle farming but now I'm thinking sheep
Hello, thank you for the video. The customer you mentioned who purchases 40 sheep/lambs recurring.
I assume they purchased them for the meet, my question is were you required to process the lambs for them, they would then pick up the meat.
or, did they purchase them as livestock from your farm and then they took care of the processing.
Thank you.
They were going to buy the live animals and handle all of the processing. 👍🏻
@@theShepherdess thank you :)
I own 28 acres (about 24 as open pasture) about 1.5 hours away from me. Would you recommend starting a sheep farm that far away from me? How hands-on are sheep? Are you required to engage daily? Currently, I have 4 rescue horses on the property that are pretty hands off for the most part. I visit them about 2 times a month. So I'm not sure I have the room.
I’m still in the research and planning phase of my farm. Your advice along with others has been a real help. Keep it up! Never know, we may be doing business together. I’m just south of you in Huntsville, TX.
Thank you!
Make a video about how can I make TMR for my sheep according to NRC book.
I'm out in erath County here in the great state and was wondering if there was a place I can learn about the selling of butchered meat in lamen terms. Like to start out with chicken then make moves forward in diversifying according to how well it progresses. I am starting out to feed my family but would like to grow this into something bigger. Something I can one day do with the family and quit my job of possible. Starting small first and will expand if and when I can.
Thanks for sharing.
Merry Christmas and have a blessed prosperous New Year. 🙌
Thank you, Patricia! Your support has been a huge gift this year. ❤️❤️ Merry Christmas and God Bless you!
-the Shepherdess
hi dear lady
Have a good Christmas.🎄
I hope you have a large herd of 1000 sheep next year.
I wish you and your family perfect health / happy days / quality full of money and global trade.
I wish all your dreams come true.🎄
Thank you!
love this wish everybody that think they just going to farm livestock and bcome rich they dont do market research and then fail thts so so important. thats why when we dit dorper sheep it was for the entnick people of africa that have these big funerals and we had a constent flow of stock because they slaghter the animals them selfs no cost to us etc. love your farming vids ive sent your vid on profits btween sheep and cattle to my crazy fam to show then the profit margins. but in anycase love ya contin with great work sprry again for speling.
Thank you, Ben!
Thank you for this valuable info. ❤️
Hi Grace, we have a small farm out here in California. I also do dorper sheep and kiko goats for meat breeding stock and a targeted grazing operation. I know I need to use the internet but I am technically challenged lol if I were to sign up for your classes do you help someone though it if there questions
Yes sir! I will help you through any questions you have.
-the Shepherdess
@@theShepherdess ok great thank you
could you do a video comparing goats to sheep are they pretty similar as far as profit stocking rate and care? would be interested in your thoughts you seem to think things out well.
Great question! I don’t have firsthand experience with goats, but this video from a fellow shepherd who manages both might help: ruclips.net/video/H7hvsmFLis8/видео.html
Holy cow (pun intended), your subscriptions are exploring 😍 😳
It’s been blowing my mind the last couple weeks. 🤯🤯🤯
Worst advice would be. Quit your farm businesses and go and work in an office 9 - 5 Mo to Fri.
Great information on your channel. So we have been praying for an opportunity for us to shift our lives to this. It’s a lot of work, but I need to start small. Where were you finding land? I am located just south of Aubrey.
I’m currently working on 23 acres my family owns. We are in upper east Texas. 👍🏻
You mentioned some papers we can download and fill out to analyze info ourselves. Also I had a few questions upon starting internet research.
Do you have an email address for your farm business or yourself? GodBless! Alton
Thank you, Alton! Here is the link for the full Sheep for Profit ANALYSIS: bit.ly/SheepAnalysis
Can you tell me when is the best time to breed Dorper sheep,, oct or November or ?
October if you have warm springs (like I do in Texas). November if you are in a state that has snow through march!
Lots of love, respect and prayers from Kashmir valley❤💚💖❤💚💖❤💚💖❤💚💖❤💚💖❤💚💖❤💚💖❤💚💖.
I like your idea but doesn't work for my operation. I have 160 head of cattle with a older man I'm slowly buying out and we have around 200 ewes and grain land. We farm 8000 acres but no cities or towns close by so can't really do marketing unless I drive 2 hours and it just doesn't pay so I sell at the sale barns
Great work, Chris! You are working on a much larger scale, so the volume probably provides the revenue you need.
How are you finding customers for your products
How long do you keep your market lambs on the ewe
Between 12-14 weeks, depending on the size. Earlier if they are very large (50-70lb is my weaning weight goal).
Honestly, sheep will never replace cattle. Sheep meat is hard to cook and does not ever taste good. It’s also way more unhealthy than any other meat which is surprising given what sheep are fed. Many countries do use sheep for dairy and that works well for cheese
Did you dealing with the FMD as well in US??
Could you explain FMD?
we still don't really have customers 😬
Is there zoning that allows farming or can I farm on any land I buy. I don't want pesky neighbors snitching me out if all land isnt suitable for farming or raising live stock. Nothing fancy just a few cows, chickens and be able to farms some crops.
I come from a long line of cattle ranchers and I would like to keep the tradition going. City life is okay but not necessary to survive. Farming is the way to go.
It depends on your county and the ordinances/zoning laws they have in place.
Great
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You say something I often hear from farmers that bothers me, calling fellow small farmers "competition." Your competition isn't some dude raising grass organic fed lamb, its walmart, costco, amazon, mcdonalds, whole foods, and our modern 9-5 hurried society that doesn't allow time to cook, not fellow farmers.
It bothers me and I mention it whenever I hear a farmer say this, hoping to change their view going forward at least slightly, because the comment is assuming there is a limited retail dollar available and that you are fighting other local farmers for that dollar. This is simply not the case. You actually can create a market where one does not exist before, simply by convincing people with ample disposable income of the benefits (you know them all so no need to list them) of not shopping at the aforementioned places. So you are not fighting for a limited dollar, you are creating new dollars that didn't exist before; the more farmers and the easier access to food from alternative sources, the more people spend on local food and the more people become interested when they can actually feed themselves the majority of their calories for real from local food.
Just google anything about the percentage of a person's diet that comes from local food, or the percentage of retail dollars spent on local food, and compare that to statistics on those making over $40,000 a year (I make less than that as a farmer and still only buy organic food, but will just put that as a limit for those who think that not everyone can afford local food, if you make 40k a year you surely are a potential customer). There is tons of market growth potential, its about reaching out to the right potential people and finding out what is holding them back from shopping local. Most often from experience I would say it is "not convenient enough" so we have to make it more convenient.
subtitles in spanish please
Hello, what is the breed of your sheep? I can solve many of your problems for free; if you wish, we can communicate with you via email.