Dairy Sheep Symposium - the Department of Animal Sciences ...

from the ewes at 12 to 24 hours of age and raise them on milk replacer, shifting them to creep
feed as early as they are ready. The purpose for this is to begin milking the ewes right away, thus
gaining their early flush of milk in the bulk tank. For most ewes, this is economically viable
because the price of milk replacer is less than the price of milk, and because most of our ewes are
capable of producing significantly more milk than their lambs’ will drink.
The Financial Picture
Sheep dairying is hard, long work. In addition, those of us who are doing it are taking a risk
by investing in and attempting to make viable a fledgling industry in this country. Most of us
would like to see a financial reward for this.
In the year 2000, Dream Valley Farm posted its first ever positive contribution to management.
It was quite small for the work and investment, but it gives us hope for better things to
come. With some of the management changes we plan to make this year and next, we expect to
see a significant increase. In addition, we know that had we stayed in the lamb and wool business,
we would be forever running an expensive hobby farm.
We reevaluate our farm business plan at least every other year to redefine our goals, assess
our current situation, and plan the next set of changes. We encourage all who consider themselves
to be operating an agricultural business to do a similar thing on an ongoing basis. This
should include evaluation of current and anticipated market conditions, personal goals and
limitations, infrastructure limitations and requirements, and cash flow planning. For example,
our most recent plan includes a 4-year monthly cash flow analysis, and takes in to consideration
the fact that our three children are in high school, soon to be gone from home.
Recent financial estimates we have seen for a sheep dairy operation show that it should be
possible to attain a return to management of $30,000 or more with a milking flock of 300 ewes
producing an average of 400 pounds each. These estimates seem to take in to account all of the
factors associated with sheep dairy farming. Our own farm is somewhat comparable, except in
the area of capital investment requirements and resulting debt service payments. Ours are significantly
higher, resulting in a lesser anticipated return to management. Any individual farm
would see variations in capital financing costs, feed costs, etc., but the net result is quite promising.
Also, it is interesting to note that not many years ago the commonly used production estimate
was 250 pounds per ewe.
It is currently not known what the minimum or optimum size is for a successful family farm
scale sheep dairy. Our experience and observation tells us that the minimum number of ewes for a
profitable sheep dairy business, not considering possible gains from farmstead cheese production
and marketing, is probably in the range of 150 to 200 high producing dairy ewes. The upper limit
is unknown, but is probably dependent on the physical and environmental capacity of the producer’s
farm, and the amount of labor available from family members or through outside hiring. We know
that for our operation, a major factor is the cost of debt financing, as we have had to borrow
significantly to make the investments required.
Another less mentioned profitability factor is the degree of management skill and diligence one
possesses and uses. We have experienced ourselves plenty of costly management mistakes, all of
which had an impact on the bottom line.