Great Lakes Dairy Sheep Symposium - the Department of Animal ...

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for purchase. There is little that can be concluded exclusively from the percentage of East Friesian or Lacaune in a given crossbred ewe. Further, when you do your business plan, make sure that you are using a reasonable milk production level, including lowering your expectations in the initial years. There will be a big difference in the economics if you are only producing 250 lbs. of milk versus 500 lbs. of milk. Principle 5: Size does matter. Like with most types of farming operations, small sheep dairies (250-500 ewes) will have more of an economy of scale advantage, and perhaps can tolerate a smaller margin per head because they are dealing in volume. However, they still will need to pay attention to their products and markets since the quantity of milk will still be relatively small. They may be most efficient if they milk most or all of the year. Sheep dairies in the middle population range will probably struggle the most, since they will not have the advantages that either of the other two sizes of operations will have. In all size farms, thorough record keeping, financial monitoring, and budgeting are important to financial success. One mistake that people often make in preparing their budgets is that they don’t sufficiently budget for losses or potential losses. For instance, what will be your lamb mortality? How many runts will you have? What will be your ewe cull rate? How much bad cheese will you throw away?, etc. Principle 6: There is no money in value-adding, but there is money in selling value-added products. Unless you doing custom processing for another farmer, you are not guaranteed an economic return just because you made a value-added product…But, you are guaranteed the extra expense. The money is made when you sell a quality value-added product at a profitable price. It is important to not take for granted the costs of producing value-adding products, especially dairy products. This includes your labor. The price for the farmer’s value-added product needs to be sufficient to cover the market price of the milk ($.70-$.85/lb for sheep), the costs of the facility, production, marketing, and distribution, as well as an appropriate wage for all of this extra labor. If a farmer is not selling the product for a price that pays for all of these costs, then the farmer needs to consider changing the price of their product or becoming more 4
efficient or just selling milk (or getting into another venture altogether). Otherwise, the farmer will burn out quickly. Another option is to pay someone else to do the value-adding if possible, and then the farmer spends their time on marketing and distribution and accounts receivable. This is generally an expected practice when it comes to processing meat, or pelts, or fiber, but has not generally been done for dairy products. However, at least in Vermont, there are some opportunities to do this. In the future, I expect that these opportunities may increase. Another consideration for those wanting to sell value-added products is that the farmstead dairy product market is currently growing very rapidly relative to demand. Competition is becoming greater in this area. Like any agricultural product, there is a risk of market saturation. There will likely be a downward pressure on price over the next few years, especially if the economy declines. The farmers that will make out the best in this situation will be those that are producing the highest quality products; those that are efficient enough or well enough established to compete on price; those with special niches such as organic producers; and those that have the most direct relationships with the consumers, where the buyers feel a loyalty to support these farmers. Principle 7: Know your goals and your motivations. Plan based on “quality of life”. One of the biggest mistakes that I see people make is that they get into sheep dairying for the wrong reasons. For instance, there are people who jump in because they “really like the cheese.” But, if they aren’t committed to farming, they would be better off setting up a cheesemaking facility, and buying the milk from, or custom processing for, someone who wants to farm. Most people underestimate the time commitment of sheep dairying, and farming in general. This can lead to family stress and a diminished quality of life. A few years ago, Mary Falk, a Wisconsin sheep dairy farmer, wrote up a very thorough list of questions that people should ask themselves before jumping into sheep dairying. Among them were, “Who is going to do the laundry?” and “Who is going to watch and care for the children?” It is important for people to come to this venture with their eyes wide open and to structure their business and farm with a set of family goals (financial, personal, spiritual) placed out in front. 5
Page 1 and 2: Proceedings of the 11 th Annual GRE
Page 3 and 4: Table of Contents Program of Events
Page 5 and 6: Program of Events Thursday, Novembe
Page 7 and 8: Speakers at the symposium site in B
Page 9 and 10: Gold: Sponsors Babcock Institute fo
Page 11 and 12: “YOU WANT TO MILK WHAT?” IMPORT
Page 13: already have their milking faciliti
Page 17 and 18: production doubles. However, there
Page 19 and 20: Total production (pounds) Percentag
Page 21 and 22: Milk production (pounds) Average mi
Page 23 and 24: Percentage of ewes in each system 1
Page 25 and 26: 5. Ice Cream and Butter: • raw mi
Page 27 and 28: 3. Fresh Cheeses made from pasteuri
Page 29 and 30: The Vermont Cheese Council (www.vtc
Page 31 and 32: 1 x Brine Tank (10’ long x 3 ft.
Page 33 and 34: LAMB REARING STRATEGIES: FARMER PAN
Page 35 and 36: BONNIEVIEW FARM’S LAMB REARING ST
Page 37 and 38: REARING LAMBS AT 3-CORNER FIELD FAR
Page 39 and 40: PROFITABILITY OF SMALL RUMINANT FAR
Page 41 and 42: Table I. General Farm Description L
Page 43 and 44: Table 4. Business Balance Sheet Ass
Page 45 and 46: Table 5. Income Statement Income Av
Page 47 and 48: Lifestyle is a definite reason for
Page 49 and 50: Grossman et al., 1999). Animals wit
Page 51 and 52: Physiological Factors Affecting Lac
Page 53 and 54: Recently, it has been hypothesized
Page 55 and 56: (co)variate in the genetic model us
Page 57 and 58: show that milk production increases
Page 59 and 60: Figure 6 - Lactation curves of ewes
Page 61 and 62: milk yield (g/d) 3000 2500 2000 150
Page 63 and 64: a genetic potential to produce more
Page 65 and 66:
when compared with the control grou
Page 67 and 68:
probability (%) 70 60 50 40 30 20 1
Page 69 and 70:
considered “healthy” if every S
Page 71 and 72:
Finally, udder health has to be con
Page 73 and 74:
De Maria Ghionna C., Dell’Aquila.
Page 75 and 76:
Manalu, W., Sumaryadi, M.Y., Sudjat
Page 77 and 78:
Rupp R., Boichard D., Barbat A., As
Page 79 and 80:
Introduction MILK FAT SYNTHESIS AND
Page 81 and 82:
The variety of fatty acids allows t
Page 83 and 84:
Germany); we have shown previously
Page 85 and 86:
Manipulating Milk Fatty Acid Compos
Page 87 and 88:
increase in rumen output of vacceni
Page 89 and 90:
Luna et al., 2005; Nudda et al., 20
Page 91 and 92:
Cabiddu, A., M. Decandia, M. Addis,
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MANAGING YOUR OWN RETAIL SHOP: MARK
Page 95 and 96:
The Reality our feta demonstrates t
Page 97 and 98:
Meat and meat dishes: 1. Legs: whol
Page 99 and 100:
5. We have daily visits from chefs
Page 101 and 102:
HOW TO GRAZE DAIRY SHEEP AND SUPPLE
Page 103 and 104:
significantly increase milk product
Page 105 and 106:
All parameters are significantly di
Page 107 and 108:
Table 6 - Dry matter intake and mil
Page 109 and 110:
animals can reduce intake, as they
Page 111 and 112:
Milk fat and protein concentrations
Page 113 and 114:
fat concentration can be used as a
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(1998), working with adult Sarda ew
Page 117 and 118:
equirements. The relationship found
Page 119 and 120:
that there have not been enough stu
Page 121 and 122:
Grazing methods Grazing methods are
Page 123 and 124:
How should the number of paddocks b
Page 125 and 126:
Table 16 - Description of four past
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a) concentrates supplied during mil
Page 129 and 130:
References Arnold G.W., and Dudzins
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supplemented with corn grain. Optio
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succeeding add on pastures smaller
Page 135 and 136:
diverse forage have much to do with
Page 137 and 138:
dairy farming. In fact, Vermont agr
Page 139 and 140:
thermized (holding at a temperature
Page 141 and 142:
speaking, the risks associated with
Page 143 and 144:
FARMER PANEL ON LABOR HOW TO ATTRAC
Page 145 and 146:
• Animal Health Products • Spec
Page 147 and 148:
Cultivating Healthy Communities UVM
Page 149 and 150:
139
Page 151 and 152:
Hudson Valley Camemberts Pure Sheep
Page 153 and 154:
Premier Dairy Service, LLC Argyle,
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www.vermontagriculture.com 145
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