As a youth in New Jersey, I recall summers when we would purchase two feeder lambs in June and grazed them through the summer, putting them in the freezer in the fall, this was my first direct experience with sheep. The idea for sheep and grazing as a viable ag enterprise for me began with a graduate course in farm management. I had the opportunity to run a series of 5 year farm computer simulation models, trying different combinations of farm enterprises. My initial plan was to have a beef herd with a few sheep, each time I increased forage production, profit increased, every time I added sheep over beef cows, profit increased. I knew some point in my life I’d have to try this out and see if it worked.
The farm we rent has 105 acres of permanent pasture. There are two spring fed streams which converge on the property, one section of which has a livestock exclusion fence, creating a "waste" buffer zone on either side of the stream, both stream beds are filled with coarse sedges that are not particularly palatable/desirable for grazing, and these will flood in very heavy rains, resulting in about 95 useable pasture acres of varying quality. Currently this supports over 300 ewes. There is also 135 tillable acres, of which 25 are kept for hay production and grazing lambs, the rest is subleased to an area dairy producer.
Because of the topography of the region, this property is highly erodible, I feel the majority of the land needs to be kept in permanent or long rotation forage and grass production. The major issue for us then is converting this fixed forage base into a saleable product. As managers we are trying our best to utilize the available resources which include: land, crop production, crop aftermath, existing facilities, labor, skills, outside income, market access, breeds, selection, and species mix. Some resources are fixed, some I would consider variable or changeable depending upon the choices made.
The questions I ask myself are:
The very first year I sold lambs, I received 42 cents/lb, it became QUICKLY apparent that that if I expected this to become a fulltime occupation to not only to survive but to earn a profit I’d need to work very hard on controlling costs relative to production. There have been barriers or road blocks over the years limiting the expansion of the flock, we're constantly evaluating these and looking for solutions.