Start up costs sheep

Highland Mule · Nov 18, 2021

Ffermer Bach said:
come on, he is talking about 10 to 20 sheep!
20 ewes £2000
sheep race and pens £1000

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trailer £2000

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then in the future a bit of electric fencing, at most
£2000

and I am being profligate with the spending there!

Maybe a bit much at £20k, but it would surprise you how much gear you have if you look around.
I was thinking a trailer, a truck to tow the trailer with, some hurdles, feed ring for hay (so another trailer for moving the bales?), maybe a quad, a few more hurdles because you have no dog. And then the little things add up too - castration pliers, rings, tagging pliers, syringes, bottle of ABs, wormer, worming gun, Spot on and applicator. How about a hammer and box of staples to fix the fences? The OP admits he has zero experience, so I'm assuming zero equipment either.

Daddy Pig · Nov 18, 2021

Do you just want to sell lambs for meat or sell breeding stock ? How about a nice pedigree flock of whatever breed takes your fancy, do some showing
( especially if you have kids that are interested) and go for the premium end of the market.

Bury the Trash · Nov 18, 2021

essexpete · Nov 18, 2021

Strangelybrown said:
Thank you for all your advice so far. I'd just like to add, I fully intend to get some hands on experience with a shepherd before I actually start my own small flock, so it may be a little while before I actually go out there and buy them. But I'm just trying to plan in ahead, so I know approx how much money I'm going to need to save.

Have access to suitable land?

Ffermer Bach · Nov 18, 2021

Cowmansam said:
I’d go buy some old wooden hurdles a roll of string and 10 cast ewes total outlay less than a grand

for years I had a ropey sheep handling system, then got a new one (with a grant) and wonder why I didn't 20 years earlier! It has been a revelation!

Cowmansam · Nov 18, 2021

Aye but I bet you have a few more than 10

Derrick Hughes · Nov 18, 2021

Ffermer Bach said:
come on, he is talking about 10 to 20 sheep!
20 ewes £2000
sheep race and pens £1000

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trailer £2000

CLH SINGLE AXLE STOCK - QUAD TRAILER. 7' x 4'6" 750KG £1980 + VAT In Stock | eBay

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then in the future a bit of electric fencing, at most
£2000

and I am being profligate with the spending there!

Whats wrong with a few bits of Tin for a race , for 20 sheep he can just push them behind a gate in the corner , what are draft welsh ewes selling for now , last lot if a 1000 I bought they were £3.50 each , I suppose then gone up a bit
Quad bike a dog and a cheap race , let's not get carried away , I never owned a stick

Derrick Hughes · Nov 18, 2021

andybk · Nov 18, 2021

Derrick Hughes said:
Whats wrong with a few bits of Tin for a race , for 20 sheep he can just push them behind a gate in the corner , what are draft welsh ewes selling for now , last lot if a 1000 I bought they were £3.50 each , I suppose then gone up a bit
Quad bike a dog and a cheap race , let's not get carried away , I never owned a stick

one of best bits of kit is the NZ crook i bought off mudges , along with a string sash so they cant run anywhere while you go get the truck or quad .

Daddy Pig · Nov 18, 2021

there are grants availably from the farming investment fund for sheep related equipment, from solar electric fence energisers , wireless cctv cameras right up to complete handling systems

Daddy Pig · Nov 18, 2021

Has anyone got a clamp sheep handler ? they are grant aided too so I was wondering if its worth getting one.

Mc115reed · Nov 18, 2021

So I’ll poke my head out of the trench and share some costs I had when I went properly into sheep farming (before hand I had 16 pedigree ewes but not much in the way of kit)
So here goes in my first 12 months and I’m sure somebody will be along to tell me how much cheaper and easier I could have done it for…
Isuzu rodeo truck (lasted 12 months and exploded) -£3200
12ft ifor Williams trailer with decks- £2100
97 draft mules scanned in lamb at 187-£13000
50 6ft hurdles - £650
9 600m rapp reels -£500
200 fencing stakes- £220
Vet meds and sundries (crovect wormers ect and meds)- £1500 (I had a lot of vet bills in first year

)
Rappa fencer machine- £850
Honda trx350 quad 2wd £1050
Feed at lambing time £450
Creep after lambing time £1200
I rented a shed for lambing £1500
Hay at lambing £550
Straw at lambing £600
Grazing for the year was £1650

I sold 145 lambs at the end of the year making £13500
Had 30 cull ewes too sell which made £2500

so all in I spent a fortune and made f**k all

If I could go back and do it again I’d of bought a lot better sheep those ewes were and maybe not spent as much money on electric fencing rappa setup and a quad but I knew I’d need it long term so thought might aswell go straight in and get it

Highland Mule · Nov 18, 2021

Mc115reed said:
share some costs I had when I went properly into sheep farming

Thanks. £12870 plus land, buildings and livestock. A bit less than my conservative finger in air estimate but you weren't starting from zero either, and did end up with a bigger flock that the OP wants.

Mc115reed · Nov 18, 2021

Highland Mule said:
Thanks. £12870 plus land, buildings and livestock. A bit less than my conservative finger in air estimate but you weren't starting from zero either, and did end up with a bigger flock that the OP wants.

I could of went without a lot of stuff but I didn’t see the point in bodging and making my life hard when I had every intention of pushing on…

Strangelybrown · Nov 18, 2021

Mc115reed said:
So I’ll poke my head out of the trench and share some costs I had when I went properly into sheep farming (before hand I had 16 pedigree ewes but not much in the way of kit)
So here goes in my first 12 months and I’m sure somebody will be along to tell me how much cheaper and easier I could have done it for…
Isuzu rodeo truck (lasted 12 months and exploded) -£3200
12ft ifor Williams trailer with decks- £2100
97 draft mules scanned in lamb at 187-£13000
50 6ft hurdles - £650
9 600m rapp reels -£500
200 fencing stakes- £220
Vet meds and sundries (crovect wormers ect and meds)- £1500 (I had a lot of vet bills in first year )
Rappa fencer machine- £850
Honda trx350 quad 2wd £1050
Feed at lambing time £450
Creep after lambing time £1200
I rented a shed for lambing £1500
Hay at lambing £550
Straw at lambing £600
Grazing for the year was £1650

I sold 145 lambs at the end of the year making £13500
Had 30 cull ewes too sell which made £2500

so all in I spent a fortune and made f**k all
If I could go back and do it again I’d of bought a lot better sheep those ewes were and maybe not spent as much money on electric fencing rappa setup and a quad but I knew I’d need it long term so thought might aswell go straight in and get it

So, in the first year you didn't make any money do the significant amount of purchases you had to make. But in the coming years, wouldn't you have started to make money as you built up your numbers, in addition to not having to factor in all those initial, one off costs such as the quad, rapper etc? (Not criticising, just interested in your opinion)

Strangelybrown · Nov 18, 2021

Daddy Pig said:
Do you just want to sell lambs for meat or sell breeding stock ? How about a nice pedigree flock of whatever breed takes your fancy, do some showing
( especially if you have kids that are interested) and go for the premium end of the market.

Tbh, I'm not sure about that one. It seems that breeding stock is about the quality, and selling for meat is about the quantity? I appreciate that's a very basic take on things, as obviously you need a bit of both to some extent

neilo · Nov 18, 2021

Derrick Hughes said:
Whats wrong with a few bits of Tin for a race , for 20 sheep he can just push them behind a gate in the corner , what are draft welsh ewes selling for now , last lot if a 1000 I bought they were £3.50 each , I suppose then gone up a bit
Quad bike a dog and a cheap race , let's not get carried away , I never owned a stick

Didn't you employ a shepherd though?

Strangelybrown · Nov 18, 2021

I realise that there are many variables such as access to land, time, available cash etc, but does anyone have a rough guide on how quickly a flock can be expanded? For instance, if you started out with 20 ewes, in ideal (and not so ideal) conditions, how many ewes could you expect to have in 2 years, 5 years, 10 years...

If anyone has any personal experience of building a flock from scratch it would be great to hear!

delilah · Nov 18, 2021

Strangelybrown said:
does anyone have a rough guide on how quickly a flock can be expanded?

147 days

.

Mc115reed · Nov 18, 2021

Strangelybrown said:
So, in the first year you didn't make any money do the significant amount of purchases you had to make. But in the coming years, wouldn't you have started to make money as you built up your numbers, in addition to not having to factor in all those initial, one off costs such as the quad, rapper etc? (Not criticising, just interested in your opinion)

Second year I expanded too 200 ewes and still lost about £10k… and just had my accounts back for last year (my third year) and I lost £19k but I’ll be lambing 300 this year and iv got just over 2000 lambs on grazing which aren’t mine but I do everything they require which iv invested a fair bit of money into but again it’s all start up costs in a way… it’s borderline impossible too expand and not loose money… luckily I work full time 7 months of the year and fetch about £30,000 in those 7 months too fund my unhealthy sheep addiction… this year the aim is too break even… next year I’m aiming too make money for the first time ever..

Start up costs sheep

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