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Smallholder to Farmer
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<blockquote data-quote="Boso" data-source="post: 7430197" data-attributes="member: 111874"><p>I've started grazing sheep 5-6 years ago.</p><p>600 is far more work than you can imagine. How do I know, well my 130 ewe flock is at times quite a bit more work next to a full time job than I would like it to be.</p><p>This is the hardest part ime, working fulltime which you have to to pay for your expansion together with a farming enterprise and just regular live.</p><p></p><p>Slow expansion will make you familiar with the whole sheep thing and might keep you free from debt, however it might also kill your motivation since it will take years to generate a substantial income if you just keep growing slowly. Took me five-six years to get to a a 130 ewe flock and great deal of what is required to keep them. In hindsight I would have rather organised 50-75k and grow the business much faster, which would mean the city job could be scaled down.</p><p></p><p>You will need quite a bit more capital than you'd think. A car capable of towing a trailer, a livestock trailer, an atv/rtv, maybe a tractor, electric fencing equipment, insurance, feed, meds, trained dog (dog food, housing, meds etc)</p><p>If you can't arrange winter grazing, 600 sheep will eat a lot of hay in a day.</p><p>Less capital will mean more labour. If you've got the time that might be fine.</p><p></p><p>Like mentioned by others, your network is extremely important. Winter grazing on another farmers land isn't offered to everyone. Took me three years to persuade someone to let me graze their cover crop.</p><p></p><p>Have been a member of several breed clubs, membership from a magazine, membership of the national sheep breeders association. I recently found out that per ewe this was a cost of almost 6 euro..... </p><p>You can gain so much knowledge at places like this and from free accesible academic research.</p><p></p><p>I sold my mongrel heard this year and invested 20k in a mv clean shedder flock. Biggest individual investment so far. Only got me 130 ewes (pure shedders, mv free are expensive over here). I really wanted to be mv free fast. Financially it would have made more sense to just breed up from the mongrel heard and start testing a percentage every year for mv and go from there.</p><p></p><p>In your case if you want to move towards a lleyn flock, I'd buy a lleyn ram (best one you can get) not lleyn ewes.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Boso, post: 7430197, member: 111874"] I've started grazing sheep 5-6 years ago. 600 is far more work than you can imagine. How do I know, well my 130 ewe flock is at times quite a bit more work next to a full time job than I would like it to be. This is the hardest part ime, working fulltime which you have to to pay for your expansion together with a farming enterprise and just regular live. Slow expansion will make you familiar with the whole sheep thing and might keep you free from debt, however it might also kill your motivation since it will take years to generate a substantial income if you just keep growing slowly. Took me five-six years to get to a a 130 ewe flock and great deal of what is required to keep them. In hindsight I would have rather organised 50-75k and grow the business much faster, which would mean the city job could be scaled down. You will need quite a bit more capital than you'd think. A car capable of towing a trailer, a livestock trailer, an atv/rtv, maybe a tractor, electric fencing equipment, insurance, feed, meds, trained dog (dog food, housing, meds etc) If you can't arrange winter grazing, 600 sheep will eat a lot of hay in a day. Less capital will mean more labour. If you've got the time that might be fine. Like mentioned by others, your network is extremely important. Winter grazing on another farmers land isn't offered to everyone. Took me three years to persuade someone to let me graze their cover crop. Have been a member of several breed clubs, membership from a magazine, membership of the national sheep breeders association. I recently found out that per ewe this was a cost of almost 6 euro..... You can gain so much knowledge at places like this and from free accesible academic research. I sold my mongrel heard this year and invested 20k in a mv clean shedder flock. Biggest individual investment so far. Only got me 130 ewes (pure shedders, mv free are expensive over here). I really wanted to be mv free fast. Financially it would have made more sense to just breed up from the mongrel heard and start testing a percentage every year for mv and go from there. In your case if you want to move towards a lleyn flock, I'd buy a lleyn ram (best one you can get) not lleyn ewes. [/QUOTE]
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