Jump to content
BC Boards

$250.00 per dog-broke Ewe?????????


Recommended Posts

I am trying to buy a few dog broke ewes to work my dogs and to dogbreak my lambs (6 month now)! The person I am talking to runs about 100 dorpers and holds several trials a year (she also sells lockerlambs).

 

She will gladly sell me ewes at a $250.00 per head or $200.00 if I take six :rolleyes: There is no way in he!! that I can afford $1200 for 6 ewes! What is a fair price for a dog-broke ewe (I am not planning on breeding for meat and I don't need the "Golden Fleece")

 

Any advise?????????

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 53
  • Created
  • Last Reply

That seems a bit high to me. We recently took several adult ewes to auction and averaged $1/lb for them; I would consider auction prices the low end of the price range. Since you cannot (be guaranteed to) get dog broke sheep from the sale barn you should expect to pay more than auction prices for the sheep (assuming they are healthy). How much more depends upon how much you want those sheep.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Claudia,

The only reason I could see for asking that much for breeding ewes is if they're registered. If you're not interested in breeding, perhaps she would sell you some wethers for less?

 

I would pay $125 for dog broke sheep, less for lambs.

 

FWIW, what you get at auction for sheep varies by location and time of year (or even time of week). I've gotten much less than $1/lb on occasion, but then again, my butcher has paid me much more than that per pound for prime lamb.

 

J.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was expecting to pay between 100 to 150 per Ewe. Like I said, I am really nor planning on breeding them to sell I just need them to be dog broke, hey I even take wethers! I even went as far as telling the person she can use my place to give lessons once a month since she is almost 2 hours out of town, while most of her students live in town! (I have a 50' roundpen and an arena). I really don't understand people sometimes. Anyone in NM wants to sell dog-broke sheep?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mixes would be fine. In my experience, dorpers tend to be heavier than some of the other hair breeds, which can make them better for just starting out with a pup, but then by the time you want to introduce driving, they are too heavy and slow. A group of mixed hair sheep might give you some mixing and matching possibilities for training.

 

J.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not sure what people expect to pay for sheep, but if you check the national markets, sheep and goats are selling at all time high prices. Cull ewes have been selling for $40 to 70/cwt this year, which are incredible prices, historically. About twice what they normally sell for. so, if these ewes were 150 lbs and brought 60 cents a pound at auction as killers, they would be worth $90/head. They could have bad udders, be open, have foot problems, be 7 or 8 years old, etc and would still be worth that much money.

 

So, a base price of $90 is set, for the culls. What does that make good breeding ewes worth? That depends on how old they are, how sound they are, how productive they've been, how productive you expect them to be, if they are registered, and a host of other factors.

 

Lambs have been selling for $1.50 plus per pound this year (heard reports of $1.80 about 6 weeks ago) for light weight ethinic lambs. Even heavy killers (125 to 150 lbs) have been bring $120 to $140 per cwt. Let's assume a ewe raises twin lambs and they are sold at 75 lbs at $1.50/lb as ethnic lambs. That ewe will gross $225 for the year. Now throw in the fact you could sell her at the same time for $90 and.......

 

Also assume she she has 5 years of productive life left and you can see why sheep prices are high. Makes that $200 seem reasonable right now. Perhaps on the high side of a price range, but not totally out of line. If some one wanted choice of a group, it is not unreasonable to charge more.

 

The suggestion of wethers seems reasonable, however, the price of those are going to be higher than most of you would expect. Use the same example of 75 pound wethers and price them between $1.30 and $1.50 per lb and you are looking at a range between $97.50 and $112.50 just as killers. These animals will never reproduce, and as they age over a year old, their value will decrease.

 

The above examples certainly deal with assumptions. The livestock business is a life of assumptions, often times wrong over the course of time.

 

mn

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Julie :D

 

I guess I could always try to dogbreak my lambs in the round pen. I did hear that with a green dog/green handler and green lambs that would be a disaster - and no - my lambs are not green colored ROFL but I do have Pinto colors :rolleyes:

 

But seriously - can it be done?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can see that if you are in the business of breeding lockerlambs that you would expect that much per aminal! I certainly would! But I am talking about sheep to train my dogs on! I really do not care if they are fullblooded and registered! Heck, I shudder to think if a dog would injure or kill an ewe and I am sure that happens every so often.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Average price around my area is about $125 for a ewe- and cheaper as they age. The 4 girls I bought were older, and were going to be culled, so I got them cheaper. Sometimes, in livestock it isn't so much about what you want to get for the animal, it's what you will save by unloading it. Keep looking- just make sure there are no health problems. Also, remember shipping is expensive, so cheaper animals may still mean the difference is made up for in shipping expenses.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mike -- that's right on. The purchaser's intended use has no bearing on the value of the sheep for sale. I know many breeders will not sell anything other than prime stock for anything other than slaughter. It's a matter of protecting one's reputation. Consider the following scenario: John Doe comes to the farm claiming to be looking for a few old gummers for dog training. I pull some out of my cull pen and sell them at current market price.

 

Two years later, John Doe is going around complaining about the rotten old sheep I sold him that couldn't raise their lambs. What's the likelihood that he's going to mention that he bought cull ewes at cull prices?

 

For the first time in my 20 plus years in the sheep business, you have to pay more for a breeding ewe than a fat lamb, which, in my opinion, is how it should be.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mike,

 

Good post. You explained it very well. The bottom line is why should we sell sheep to dog people for less than what we can get in other markets for the same sheep? Does that make good business sense? On the flip side; why buy higher valued sheep for just dog training (if you're not going to breed)?

 

Mark

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's basically like any other saleable item. You get the best price you can for it, and when you have a glut, you let them go for cheaper. Sometimes sheepdog folks have well broken sheep that may be of no interest to them anymore, but are still healthy, and good for a novice person, so they sell them at a reduced price, basically because they would rather not send them to auction, and if they are of use still, well, that's a good thing. What is wrong with that? I would hope that the sheepdog folks who do have a few extra sheep would rather see them go to good use, at a fair price, then to the auction. Oh, and that fair price, as we know, tends to fluctuate with density.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am selling mutton at $6.00 per pound USDA and lamb for $12.00 USDA

 

My sheep are crossbreds.

 

 

 

I agree with Bill and Mike!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So Tea, if I bought a 150 lb ewe off you, according to the price listed, you would want $900.00, per ewe? Or, is that cut weight? Apparently, I am in the wrong business. I need to start breeding.

 

I am selling mutton at $6.00 per pound USDA and lamb for $12.00 USDA

 

My sheep are crossbreds.

I agree with Bill and Mike!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No not $900 per sheep.

 

You are using the weight of the ewe.

 

When you sell a carcass you sell hanging weight.

 

And of course you must pay for USDA slaughter and cut and wrap.

 

I make I sell spring lamb that is sustainible and chemical free that is about 35 to 40 pounds hanging weight.

 

Yearling lamb is about 50 to 65 pounds hanging weight.

 

I get a discount because I am a charter member.

 

I work like a...er dog.......to do this is is fun but I havenot reached my projected outcome yet.

 

But I share this with other producers because the market is out there.

 

Resturants want chemical free and sustainible.

 

I also sell locker lamb for less

 

But that is less work for me.

 

I also donate lamb to our food bank as I do believe everyone should have good food.

 

The cool thing about that is my slaughter guy that is state licensed donates his fees!

 

The interesting thing is I don't own land, I forage the sheep loose.

 

They are smaller and more resistant to parasite load. They can and do forage like deer...... Browse! :rolleyes:

 

But you can't have everything, my sheep will never be huge meat sheep.

 

But they suit for what I am doing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mike -- that's right on. The purchaser's intended use has no bearing on the value of the sheep for sale.

Just a point--if the intended user is someone who stops by and wants to buy a sheep, shove it in the trunk of the car and take it home and slaughter it vs. the person who wants a dog-broke sheep for training, well, I think I might give a better deal to the latter person in order to see that the sheep goes to a better situation. So in some instances, for me, a hobby farmer, the intended use *can* have a bearing on whether there's a sale at all, as well as on the price.

 

Don't forget that Mike noted that the $90 figure for a cull ewe was based on sale prices that are high right now (and sale prices can vary drastically by region--there's a reason people from around here will pay for sheep to be hauled to New Holland; they can pay for hauling and still make money). So a person selling a $90 cull for $125 to a sheepdog person looking for training sheep is still making money, IMO, and the buyer is still getting a decent deal.

 

Breeding stock is something else. I have (almost) never bought a breeding ewe for less than $250. That's for a registered animal that is breed worthy. I've paid $500 for a ram. Show people will pay in the thousands. But I wouldn't go out and buy dog working sheep for that price....

 

J.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Julie, thats exactly my point - I do not expect her to sell me prime breeding stock, I will not breed to sell for meat! All I want is a ewe that my dogs can work at a reasonable price! We are a small herding community here, she would find out in a heartbeat if I were to breed and sell lambs out of stock she sold me for only working dogs, then my reputation would be shot!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

to the OP - if you can't do the price, why not just tell the seller you can't and ask for suggestions? I know I've been willing to lease out non-producers (not nursing a lamb for the year) for the summer for dog training or pasture clearing. The deal is they come back fat and sassy for my fall mutton customers, and the person is responsible for the full pre-set price if they don't come back at all.

 

It allows me to help good people with little upfront cash, saves my grass/management costs for those ewes while still maintaining a consistant supply of mutton for customers that want it.

 

This really isn't a good time to buy, but it will likely change. That's farming.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...