We brought 5 Portland ewes 13 years ago, have kept all the females, today got 19.
Conversely, started with 3 Dorset Horn ewes and today got 38.
Point being, there's sheep, and there's sheep.
Start up costs sheep
- Thread starter Strangelybrown
- Start date
We brought 5 Portland ewes 13 years ago, have kept all the females, today got 19.
Conversely, started with 3 Dorset Horn ewes and today got 38.
Point being, there's sheep, and there's sheep.
I started October 2014 with 15 SWM draft ewes...£600. Rented a secure 10 acre field with water.£80 per month.
Made a pen out of 10 6ft pallets £0
Trained sheep to go in pen with food...took a month as they were mental.
Was friendly with a farmer who lent me his BFL tup.
Lambed them the following April...bit scary but had 20 live mule lambs.
Kept the 10 ewe lambs to breed (still got all of them).
Once you've got the first lambing done you're away.
Now got a flock of 100 breeding mules and 25 breeding SWM ewes. (and a bit more ground and some cows!)
Plenty of books on sheep health available. Helps to know a sheep farmer from the start for advice.
Don't need a trailer for 15 ewes if you can borrow one and don't need fancy kit to start up with.
Get tough sheep to start with as they are more forgiving when you make mistakes. Watch out for maggots...they can kill sheep faster than you can!.
Just got to go for it.
Edit..keep it simple don't buy lots of kit...grow good grass. Can make a profit in the good years.
Made a pen out of 10 6ft pallets £0
Trained sheep to go in pen with food...took a month as they were mental.
Was friendly with a farmer who lent me his BFL tup.
Lambed them the following April...bit scary but had 20 live mule lambs.
Kept the 10 ewe lambs to breed (still got all of them).
Once you've got the first lambing done you're away.
Now got a flock of 100 breeding mules and 25 breeding SWM ewes. (and a bit more ground and some cows!)
Plenty of books on sheep health available. Helps to know a sheep farmer from the start for advice.
Don't need a trailer for 15 ewes if you can borrow one and don't need fancy kit to start up with.
Get tough sheep to start with as they are more forgiving when you make mistakes. Watch out for maggots...they can kill sheep faster than you can!.
Just got to go for it.
Edit..keep it simple don't buy lots of kit...grow good grass. Can make a profit in the good years.
Last edited:
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
So, in summary, the more sheep you have, the bigger the loss you will make?
That’s about the strength of it @Strangelybrown .
Absolutely! But it offsets tax off my summer job and I f**king love it for some reasonSo, in summary, the more sheep you have, the bigger the loss you will make?
That’s about the strength of it @Strangelybrown .
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
- Location
- Ceredigion
I can't think of many ,Are you coming out as Mr Dyson?
But agreed, there’s worse ways to lose money.
My dad (who was a shepherd) decided a couple of years ago he wanted to have a flock of ewes for when he retires in 2030.
He bought 10 cheviot cross 3 year old ewes of me for £80 and they still lived with my sheep, he has had 38 ewe lambs out of them in 2 years (he swapped the weathers for ewe lambs), this year he sold the ewes for £130 and bough 8 yearling off me for the same value so now has 28 yearlings and 18 ewe lambs. So for his initial £800 (cash investment), he now has £4930 worth of stock.
He pays for keep and vet by helping me on a Saturday morning (while mum is out shopping), he has to find 16790 grazing days for my sheep in the winter so I can have his in the summer. Which is basically 530 mule ewe lambs for 31 days, he had found this easy and enjoys shepherding them.
Aspiring Peasants
Member
- Location
- North Pennines
Is the loss not negative cash flow rather than a trading loss. i.e. you still have the value of the equipment, breeding stock etc on your balance sheet and with the way prices have gone they will probably have gone up in value?
Our accountant told us we'd made quite a reasonable profit last year but cash flow did not reflect this as it got spent on better breeding stock, and machinery because I couldn't help myself
As for the OP's question. There is no substitute for experience, then base your plans on what you have learnt, personal preferences and what land/buildings you can acquire. Listen to other people but keep an open mind because everyone has their own take on things and there are many different systems that work not just one. Also be wary of taking advice from people who are trying to sell you something
- Location
- sw scotland
Our cull ewes averaged £86 yesterday.
As for equipment, you are correct, some scrap wood for a gate, a few hurdles along a fence. You don't need a race for 30 sheep, just a wee pen to hold some.
To OP
If you're lucky enough to find about 80 acres split into 10 acre fields and they're all together you don't need a quad a dog or a stick. 20 hurdles and a home made race will do for 150 ewes. Interconnect all the fields with gates so you can keep them moving. My girls watch me all the time and I only have to go near a gate and they think it's move time. Put pen the other side of gate if they need gathering.
Get them addicted to cake (easy
) so you can catch individuals by chucking a few handfulls on the ground and diving into the resulting scrum.
Breed your own replacements, eliminate lameness, learn to shear your own sheep and the rest is straightforward. (Except for unexplainable deaths etc)
100 ewes = 150 saleable lambs.
150 x 70 (store price) = £10000
Rent £4000
Fly/worm/vacs/scanning = £1000
Ball park figures for me...remaining income not profit but up to me how it's spent or not .
Got to like your sheep, if they're a pain get shot of them as they've got a hundred ways to die if you don't look after them.
If you're lucky enough to find about 80 acres split into 10 acre fields and they're all together you don't need a quad a dog or a stick. 20 hurdles and a home made race will do for 150 ewes. Interconnect all the fields with gates so you can keep them moving. My girls watch me all the time and I only have to go near a gate and they think it's move time. Put pen the other side of gate if they need gathering.
Get them addicted to cake (easy
) so you can catch individuals by chucking a few handfulls on the ground and diving into the resulting scrum.Breed your own replacements, eliminate lameness, learn to shear your own sheep and the rest is straightforward. (Except for unexplainable deaths etc)
100 ewes = 150 saleable lambs.
150 x 70 (store price) = £10000
Rent £4000
Fly/worm/vacs/scanning = £1000
Ball park figures for me...remaining income not profit but up to me how it's spent or not .
Got to like your sheep, if they're a pain get shot of them as they've got a hundred ways to die if you don't look after them.
- Location
- Carmarthenshire, West Wales
at the time about 400 more
Who on earth is going to let someone with no experience or presumably no contacts have 80 acres, I graze a lot of ground and only one piece of pp is over 20 acres and none is fenced. I have 16 different landlords and they have been gained by years of experience.
Contacts...it's who you know isn't it?
I got 10 acres to start with and tacked with a sheep farmer friend for a few years. Made more friends and they found my 70acre farm through their friends.
I appreciate I am very lucky as it's not easy to find a start up farm.
(Mine was knackered and overgrown...landlord wanted it farmed again)
I got 10 acres to start with and tacked with a sheep farmer friend for a few years. Made more friends and they found my 70acre farm through their friends.
I appreciate I am very lucky as it's not easy to find a start up farm.
(Mine was knackered and overgrown...landlord wanted it farmed again)
Sounds like you have to work hard at the sheep game...fair play to you
The way I got going was that I had a dozen ewes when I was 17, I went to work for a big lamb finisher who let me take on the small bits that weren’t worth his time, it just snowballed from there. I’ve do the same will a lad in the village, but had to give the talk that I got given “you can have my keep if I let you, but steal if from me and your in trouble!”
Last financial year ended last April though and the value of things hadn’t gone up yet, my assets will Definatly look better this financial year that’s for sure… my bank account still says -£5000 80% of the time thoughIs the loss not negative cash flow rather than a trading loss. i.e. you still have the value of the equipment, breeding stock etc on your balance sheet and with the way prices have gone they will probably have gone up in value?
Our accountant told us we'd made quite a reasonable profit last year but cash flow did not reflect this as it got spent on better breeding stock, and machinery because I couldn't help myself
As for the OP's question. There is no substitute for experience, then base your plans on what you have learnt, personal preferences and what land/buildings you can acquire. Listen to other people but keep an open mind because everyone has their own take on things and there are many different systems that work not just one. Also be wary of taking advice from people who are trying to sell you something
I was very very fortunate that I got given a number for a family that were going out of sheep at the same time I decided too go into them… they sold me a lot of equipment at a really good price and gave me 12months too pay them aswell as passing me on a lot of there grazing and letting me pay pence per head per week because they knew I’d struggle too stock it heavy enough, again letting me pay them when I sold some lambs… those kinds of people and arrangements don’t come along every day and I Defiantly couldn’t have got where I am without them… that 26 acre arrangement is now a 400 acre arrangement and Hopefully next year will be 50 acres of stubble turnips too
400 acres in one bloke, thats what dreams are of.Last financial year ended last April though and the value of things hadn’t gone up yet, my assets will Definatly look better this financial year that’s for sure… my bank account still says -£5000 80% of the time though
I was very very fortunate that I got given a number for a family that were going out of sheep at the same time I decided too go into them… they sold me a lot of equipment at a really good price and gave me 12months too pay them aswell as passing me on a lot of there grazing and letting me pay pence per head per week because they knew I’d struggle too stock it heavy enough, again letting me pay them when I sold some lambs… those kinds of people and arrangements don’t come along every day and I Defiantly couldn’t have got where I am without them… that 26 acre arrangement is now a 400 acre arrangement and Hopefully next year will be 50 acres of stubble turnips too
Strangelybrown
Member
I presume you have considerable fuel costs then? How spread out are your different pieces of land?
It’s all over the place in 20 acre blocks though it’s not in 1 block sadly
and Iv got the m6toll and A38 running through most of it so it’s still a trailer job moving sheep a lot of the time… I’m in rotation with there hay and haylage business so in summer I’m a bit more limited too what iv got.. it does work well though because it’s rare I graze the same field twice in a year which is awesome for work control