$4.2 mil vs $536K - Sheep vs Cattle Profitability on Grass 

I think you should speak to the combined of both, since sheep don't eat the same, and both can eat the others parasites. So sheep significantly improve the pasture. They will eat more Forbes, help clean up silvapasture.

Amen on The Good Word !!! Good livestock information !

I appreciate you starting off with the WORD.

excellent information, keep the videos coming!

Thanks for another awesome informative video!

My dad was stationed in Australia during WW2, he told us about the mutton🤮Sandy Brock 9f You Tube "Sheepishly Me". Started with cattle, then went to sheep. Cows rarely have twins, sheep do. Math doesn't lie! Great video

Great analysis and information as always. I'm a spreadsheet guy as well!

I think you hit on all the big points and of course there will always be other costs to consider but they are generally a wash (sheep may need guard dogs and better fences, cattle need heavier duty working facilities, etc.). Most research that has considered the whole lifetime production system of sheep vs cattle has concluded that, worst case scenario, sheep are just as profitable on an animal unit basis (5-6 sheep per cow) but usually have the advantage. Thanks for the video!

Wondering how a comparative analysis of sheep vs rabbits would turn out. One buck and three does over five years. I enjoyed the video!

Thoughts on the video and food for thought. Clearly the limiting factor on growth is acreage. Also for those just starting don’t dismiss wool sheep (like I did). Now I have both wool & hair sheep. If one has the motivation to market products- from a wool sheep you could have 3 (or more) products in about the same time a hair sheep provides one. A fleece, a carcass and a pelt. Also all discard wool can be used as fertilizer or made into pellets for fertilizer. Further, I attended shearing school this spring and was able to shear mine own flock and now others flocks as well. I initially got hair sheep out of fear of shearing to be honest. There are pros & cons to all things, you just have to make the best decision you can given the situation you are in. Keep up the great work, I always enjoy your videos!

FYI cattle have a gestation period of 9 months and can generally calve before 3 years of age, which would effect your analysis somewhat. If everyone jumped on your bandwagon, profit margin would radically change. Around 60 years ago my Dad and step-Grandfather made a greenhouse (I still remember them building it while the snow was falling) and sales were great - but we lived on a gravel road. The following year 3 miles away on the state paved highway another guy opened a nursery, are sales plummeted. On year 3 no plants were even started on our farm. A few years later we transformed the building into a sugar house and I liked Maple syrup better than green plants!! Lol

Thanks!

Thanks for breaking this down. For me the big expense is fencing. If you incorporate that type of infrastructure which could include watering systems, shade systems, planting, medical stuff, buckets, etc. then the analysis is much different. You might be able to add some depreciation into the spreadsheet to account for that. Or there are spreadsheets that will calculate when you get an ROI on that investment. And when I crunched those numbers it was not good. And it doesn't count the cost of land and labor hours. Even so, I'm moving forward and building my flock.

Thanks for the informative analysis. I grew up on a cattle farm, so I definitely understand the cultural aspect of raising cattle. My wife and I started our sheep flock last year with just 4 ewes and a ram. We were blessed with 7 lambs last month. My question is, when you got started did you try using the same ram again to breed back to the female lambs that you kept? Most information says not to breed them, but other people have said they have no issue if only done once or twice. Thanks!

Can you please share how you market and bring the sheep to your consumer? Is it direct sales through your website? Farmers market? We just came across your videos this week. Thank you so much for your clear and concise information, faith in the Lord to provide, and running your farm like a business. We are trying to slowly shift our careers and have been consuming as much of your information as possible.

Where do you sell your sheep? Direct to consumer? If so, how do you market? Feel like that could get tricky at that much scale.

Hi Jason, interesting comparison about the profits of raising Sheep and Cattle. It is amazing that Sheep can breed after 7 months old and Cattle you have to wait 2 years before breeding. It is great that with your triplet births on the Sheep that the mother's can generally raise the 3 lambs on their own without Supplemental milk. Good to see the Sheep feeding all of that lush Green Foliage. We have had to a lot of extra rain this Spring so it looks like you are benefiting with the extra moisture. I was kinda shocked to see that one Sheep head butting that lamb that must have belonged to another mother. I thought Sheep would be a little more tolerant of lambs that don't belong to them. You must have gotten tired of your beard as you are all clean shaven in this video.

Starting with word, got my subscription. Maybe expound a wee bit on it 👍🏼

I'm glad to see sheep have become a realistic option for small scale farmers. That was certainly not the case in tbe 70s and 80s when my dad lost his keister with sheep.

Matthew 19:29…little dyslexia popping through.😁Really enjoy your channel.👍

Real numbers guy, I like him. Everyone knows no numbers are perfect but this is what I'm looking for. Not into hobby-like folks who by my estimates are pissing away Grand-parents money to make RU-vid videos and a few chickens. I'll subscribe to Birchfield and thank you.

You mentioned WWII veterans hating mutton. We had mutton back on the farm when I was young and it was not popular either. How are you marketing and selling the sheep?

I have 2 ewes 24 months old no lambs. Is that common?

I think that your values on sheep are overly optimistic and based more on direct marketing at a premium than commodity values. $500 for large groups of commercial breeding ewes in not realistic. I do agree that sheep have a large biological advantage over cattle. The mud doesn't get anywhere near as deep with sheep as it does with cattle!😁 The future for lamb and sheep sales looks good as ethnic populations continue to grow in the US.

What about Bison

How many acres are you on?

Do you sell lamb freezer meat from your farm?

Are you looking to sell a breeding stock ram this year?

You even gave cattle the advantage on starting off with only 1 ram and 3 ewes. Should have been 5 rams and 15 ewes as that’s the equivalent animal unit as 1 bull and 3 cows. Would have made sheep numbers rise at an earlier year. I find the limiting factor of lamb meat is the American palate. As more and more farmers discover the profitability of sheep it’s going to cause the supply to bump up against the less than stellar demand for lamb meat and profitability will drop. For now though, every cattle farmer should have some sheep. They make cattle pasture better and as long as you start with good genetics (don’t buy sheep that require anti-parasite treatments) and rotationally graze they are very easy keepers.

🇳🇿❤️🙏🏼

Hmmm start a processing company at $800 for a 3 hour job for cow,$180 Sheep.

Just heard Ryan Hall Y’all talking about Oxford and the touchdown of a tornado just west of you, but apparently not on the ground over your area specifically. Looks like the storm has moved past you, praying that all is well. 23 lambs on the ground, 11 ewes and 12 rams so not great numbers. Can’t complain though, as all are healthy and as dumb as sheep were alleged to be…so apparently good genetics.

If you have a farm that can hold 236 head of cattle, you're not running it with 3 cows and a bull, lol.

Your calving down good cattle at two years old. That's dropping it's first calf at its second birthday. Gestation is 285 days, little over 9 months. Your profit potential is so off it's funny. If you could make that money everyone would do it 😂. If you are lambing down a few hundred sheep, you will see roughly 10/14% loss in the lambs, not the total flock. I think you should stay doing what you are doing because you don't really know what you are talking about to be honest. Fyi, your sheep should be in about 3/4 inches of grass on a rotation every 3rd day and coming back around to the original paddock in 21ish days. Sheep have 3/4 good years and then 3/4 really bad years.