Profit from sheep

Farm365

I posted this under another thread but I'm interested in what people
think is achievable from the following system farming part time.

Stocked at 4 acre
Lowland sheep either Mules or first cross Belclare LLeyn off a mountain ewe.
Lambing 1st March
Weaning 1.6 lambs per ewe
Replacement rate 20%
Indoor lambing
Sheep housed for 3mths approx
All ewe lambs bred in first year
All silage made on farm by contractors
Concentrates only fed to ewe lambs 6wks before and 6wks after lambing and twin bearing ewes 6wks before lambing.
No debt or rented land
20 % of lambs finished on concentrates
Minimum fencing every year replacing 200 stakes.
Soil PH good lime spread every 3yrs at two tonne acre.
5 acres reseeded every year costing €250 acre
Excluding SFP

Username John

Farm365 wrote: »

I posted this under another thread but I'm interested in what people
think is achievable from the following system farming part time.

Stocked at 4 acre
Lowland sheep either Mules or first cross Belclare LLeyn off a mountain ewe.
Lambing 1st March
Weaning 1.6 lambs per ewe
Replacement rate 20%
Indoor lambing
Sheep housed for 3mths approx
All ewe lambs bred in first year
All silage made on farm by contractors
Concentrates only fed to ewe lambs 6wks before and 6wks after lambing and twin bearing ewes 6wks before lambing.
No debt or rented land
20 % of lambs finished on concentrates
Minimum fencing every year replacing 200 stakes.
Soil PH good lime spread every 3yrs at two tonne acre.
5 acres reseeded every year costing €250 acre
Excluding SFP

Was this not answered a few weeks ago? I think Roosky (or maybe razor) gave you a figure?

have you looked at the Teagasc numbers - see what they say is in top 1/3 and bottom 1/3 and judge where you fit into that?

Cran

Farm365 wrote: »

I posted this under another thread but I'm interested in what people
think is achievable from the following system farming part time.

Stocked at 4 acre
Lowland sheep either Mules or first cross Belclare LLeyn off a mountain ewe.
Lambing 1st March
Weaning 1.6 lambs per ewe
Replacement rate 20%
Indoor lambing
Sheep housed for 3mths approx
All ewe lambs bred in first year
All silage made on farm by contractors
Concentrates only fed to ewe lambs 6wks before and 6wks after lambing and twin bearing ewes 6wks before lambing.
No debt or rented land
20 % of lambs finished on concentrates
Minimum fencing every year replacing 200 stakes.
Soil PH good lime spread every 3yrs at two tonne acre.
5 acres reseeded every year costing €250 acre
Excluding SFP

Would you have to house? Would ground make it possible to run on forage instead up to 6 weeks before lambing reduce stocking rate little and incorporate into reseeding rotation? Reduces work a lot when part time...

davidk1394

It costs €87 to produce a lamb according to Teagasc. Ours is roughly €85 with 6 ewes to the acre

farawaygrass

davidk1394 wrote: »

It costs €87 to produce a lamb according to Teagasc. Ours is roughly €85 with 6 ewes to the acre
You are fairly intensive. I think I read ye kept cattle too. Do ye mix graze?

WexfordFarmer

sheep farming is not a get rich quick money scheme but try and tell all the young lad's that no better than td's with heads up there hole :D

rangler1

Just doing the accounts here, net profit €40/ewe, wool sales down 30%, lamb price down €3 lamb, ewes didn't scan well, however just after scanning the first bunch here at 1.75 so an improvement on that bunch last year......still not great but won't be until we get rid of all the present bunch of ewes out of those last rams.
Happy new year, onwards and upwards eh

adam14

rangler1 wrote:

Just doing the accounts here, net profit €40/ewe, wool sales down 30%, lamb price down €3 lamb, ewes didn't scan well, however just after scanning the first bunch here at 1.75 so an improvement on that bunch last year......still not great but won't be until we get rid of all the present bunch of ewes out of those last rams. Happy new year, onwards and upwards eh

That's a good financial result given the year we've had. Scanning is back a good bit around our way this year.

Username John

rangler1 wrote: »

Just doing the accounts here, net profit €40/ewe, wool sales down 30%, lamb price down €3 lamb, ewes didn't scan well, however just after scanning the first bunch here at 1.75 so an improvement on that bunch last year......still not great but won't be until we get rid of all the present bunch of ewes out of those last rams.
Happy new year, onwards and upwards eh

Jesus Rangler, you don't let the grass grow under your feet do you

1st Jan, 09.30am and you have the profit monitor done for 2016

rangler1

Username John wrote: »

Jesus Rangler, you don't let the grass grow under your feet do you

1st Jan, 09.30am and you have the profit monitor done for 2016

Not great profit though, you'd be at nothing only for the subsidies.
Eu would need to thread carefully in the next CAP review or there'll be no farmers.

Username John

rangler1 wrote: »

Not great profit though, you'd be at nothing only for the subsidies.
Eu would need to thread carefully in the next CAP review or there'll be no farmers.

Yeah, tis sickening enough all right...

I did a few calculations there over the holidays, and I'd say the SFP will be my only profit next year... which makes you wonder what all the work is for?

arctictree

I have no SFP. Barely making a profit. I wonder why I bother except for the gra of it...

charolais0153

rangler1 wrote: »

Just doing the accounts here, net profit €40/ewe, wool sales down 30%, lamb price down €3 lamb, ewes didn't scan well, however just after scanning the first bunch here at 1.75 so an improvement on that bunch last year......still not great but won't be until we get rid of all the present bunch of ewes out of those last rams.
Happy new year, onwards and upwards eh

40 *500 ish is 20k .not too bad really?

Green farmer

arctictree wrote: »

I have no SFP. Barely making a profit. I wonder why I bother except for the gra of it...

Would buying entitlements be an option at any stage ? By joining every scheme you can, accumulates over time , and sometimes like the old sheep payment gets converted into permanent payments.

arctictree

Green farmer wrote: »

Would buying entitlements be an option at any stage ? By joining every scheme you can, accumulates over time , and sometimes like the old sheep payment gets converted into permanent payments.

I'm in ANC and just applied for the new sheep scheme. It will be interesting to see how that evolves. It's a disgrace that the national reserve was not opened last year for new entrants. Probably illegal under EU regulations too.

rangler1

Username John wrote: »

Yeah, tis sickening enough all right...

I did a few calculations there over the holidays, and I'd say the SFP will be my only profit next year... which makes you wonder what all the work is for?

That profit figure is doesn't include subsidies, subsidies bring it to a reasonable income alright, but i should be doing better.....long enough at it now

Username John

rangler1 wrote: »

That profit figure is doesn't include subsidies, subsidies bring it to a reasonable income alright, but i should be doing better.....long enough at it now

I know - but tis little enough too for the work put in...

I don't know what the solution to fix it is, it's just very disheartening is all I guess...

Inchilad

arctictree wrote:

I'm in ANC and just applied for the new sheep scheme. It will be interesting to see how that evolves. It's a disgrace that the national reserve was not opened last year for new entrants. Probably illegal under EU regulations too.

Is the anc payment not linked to entitlements? I'm also without entitlements and was told by teagasc advisor that I couldn't get anc either.
Got the forms for sheep scheme but numbers were very small in past 2 years.only had handful of pedigrees.will have upwards of 100 ewes within a month.just my luck 😆

farawaygrass

Inchilad wrote: »

Is the anc payment not linked to entitlements? I'm also without entitlements and was told by teagasc advisor that I couldn't get anc either.
Got the forms for sheep scheme but numbers were very small in past 2 years.only had handful of pedigrees.will have upwards of 100 ewes within a month.just my luck 😆

What will your numbers be on census '16? Think you could use them if you were building up the flock

Inchilad

farawaygrass wrote:

What will your numbers be on census '16? Think you could use them if you were building up the flock

Will still be small enough.have 10 pedigree ewes down.bought 20 ewe lamb before Xmas but there under year old so wouldn't qualify as breeding ewe.be picking up a good share of sheep in the next few weeks.id say for the amount of sheep it'd hardly be worth the paper work.

arctictree

Inchilad wrote: »

Is the anc payment not linked to entitlements? I'm also without entitlements and was told by teagasc advisor that I couldn't get anc either.
Got the forms for sheep scheme but numbers were very small in past 2 years.only had handful of pedigrees.will have upwards of 100 ewes within a month.just my luck 😆

Well I get ANC but no SFP. Just submit the ANC form with your next application.