Off they go

[malleefarmer]

Let ya know how they go sheepwheat $7.90 per kilo dressed

[Sheepwheat]

Last couple auction sales here have been just under 6 bucks a kg live. Our store sales have been brisk and it is hard to keep up with orders. When restaurants reopen we may have to adjust prices to reflect that. We sell every animal direct to customers in a box, so we kind of charge what we want. So different than commodity grains, I pinch myself every time we make a delivery to people who want and are willing to pay our prices for our lamb...

Half done lambing our little flock, lots of girls this year so hopefully expansion can gear up.

[farmaholic]

You WILL meet "resistance", you just haven't found it yet!

And in some cases it's better to feed a market and grow it, than starve it and kill it. (Read, price yourself out of it)!

But seriously, good for you. If you're willing to do all the footwork etc it takes. Best of luck Sheepwheat.

[Sheepwheat]

You WILL meet "resistance", you just haven't found it yet!

And in some cases it's better to feed a market and grow it, than starve it and kill it. (Read, price yourself out of it)!

But seriously, good for you. If you're willing to do all the footwork etc it takes. Best of luck Sheepwheat.

Thanks. It is a slow process, ten steps forward twelve back at times, and covid threw a colossal wrench into a lot of our expectations. But it is something we love to do, from lambing to marketing we feel rewarded and I appreciate this. And meeting new buyers is a lot of fun. And I am the furthest thing from being a people person!

Yes we keep our prices a bit lower than most other people. It is still fair for us and we want to maintain and grow our share. Great point on pricing. With lamb, we find there is a very specific market. For people who love lamb, they are willing to cough up the cash.

Same goes for most anything grown in a traditional manner. I spoke before about how ridiculous I think supply management is, and how it stifles people like my family. We have a market for turkeys that would be enough for us to make an entire living off of, except that we can only have 99 on our farm at a time. I guess we’re too big a threat to the 9 or ten turkey farms in Saskatchewan.

[farmaholic]

I live close enough to Regina where there could be a market for Halal slaughtered goats, I don't know if they eat much sheep. If you could supply the Muslims with the animal, facility and could tolerate the process.....there might be some money to be made.

[Sheepwheat]

I live close enough to Regina where there could be a market for Halal slaughtered goats, I don't know if they eat much sheep. If you could supply the Muslims with the animal, facility and could tolerate the process.....there might be some money to be made.

Muslims eat a lot of lamb to be sure. Trying to be sensitive here, but they aren’t a high priced market, they haggle on price, they want to butcher on the farm, and once they show up, they can be hard to keep away. Meaning they will start showing up and demanding a lamb unannounced, at THEIR PRICE! We have friends who were supplying them with halal on farm butchering, and it DID NOT GO WELL. I am sure there would be fine groups who would be respectful, but it simply isn’t our market mostly just based on pricing. Let alone the other hassles that seem to come.

I would be more than open to ship live animals to ethnic folks, but then they would have to be paying our regular price, and I pretty well know that they won’t; there is plenty of lamb available from people who don’t care about price so much. (We are actually currently discussing with a cultural grocery store, but again, price factors in more than with other options.) We will soon see where this goes, or maybe not. We have learned that if interested parties seem excited initially, then see our price list and don’t get back to us, that it is not a fit for them. And we are ok with that. There are many markets that do pay our price happily.

We want value added pricing, not auction barn pricing. We are more than happy to let others supply this market.

And again, I do not mean to disrespect an entire religion/culture. But cultural differences are real, and can become a hassle I don’t desire to expose ourselves to.

Meant to add as well that often these markets require year old uncastrated males, which is a huge management hassle seeing that Ram lambs can breed at four or five months old!

Good thinking though farma!!!

[farmaholic]

I can respect that, you have the experience or know of people who did/are doing it. You did the research, it was just a thought.

If they are that chisley, I probably wouldn't want to deal with them either. Nothing wrong with pursuing a higher value market.

You may have had to be real firm and drawn a line in the sand so to speak. AKA, not be pushed around by unrealistically demanding people.

I heard the slaughter is a bit barbaric without any stunning before slitting the throat. I asked a guy what sets Halal apart from non-Muslim slaughter, he said the animal needs to face a certain direction(east????) and a prayer(of offering????) is said and the throat is slit. There may have been some other traditional rituals that he left out. I don't know. DYODD.

[Sheepwheat]

I can respect that, you have the experience or know of people who did/are doing it. You did the research, it was just a thought.

If they are that chisley, I probably wouldn't want to deal with them either. Nothing wrong with pursuing a higher value market.

You may have had to be real firm and drawn a line in the sand so to speak. AKA, not be pushed around by unrealistically demanding people.

I heard the slaughter is a bit barbaric without any stunning before slitting the throat. I asked a guy what sets Halal apart from non-Muslim slaughter, he said the animal needs to face a certain direction(east????) and a prayer(of offering????) is said and the throat is slit. There may have been some other traditional rituals that he left out. I don't know. DYODD.

Yep, no stun throat slitting, prayers etc. Not a huge fan personally.

[malleefarmer]

Yep gotta face mecca

[GDR]

In regards to Muslim slaughter Sheepwheat may have had a bad experience, but from what I've seen and been involved with that's not a fair description. The whole point of the Halal slaughter is to be stress free for the animal, all the ideas in your mind are wrong, I had different expectations until the first few times I seen it too. They will hold the animal still with a bunch of guys and slit the throat while facing the proper direction and say a short blessing while it bleeds out, after that down to business as usual. When us white guys do it the biggest difference is we Chase it around the pen for a while until we can get a good shot (and sometimes miss), then you slit the throat, same deal I'm afraid. Most interesting part is they use more of the animals than we do, not a bunch of waste.

I also feel that most Muslims are prepared to pay more for their food than most westerners as they are more specific about what they want.

[Sheepwheat]

I’m sure as I said there are decent folks out there. Just like every group has them. Unfortunately, in many instances, there are issues, big issues.

Now, regarding how you slaughter sheep, that is a bit of a shame if you chase them around like that. Every sheep I have butchered never had a foggy clue what was transpiring. I guess we’re all different! Lol

Point being, why would I chase down a risky market, when I have access to markets I KNOW are fair and happy to pay our price without the hassle of halal on my farm?

I am more than happy others provide for this market. We all need to eat!

Cheers

[malleefarmer]

Dressed at 28.5 kg

Live weight 61 so very good %

$7.90 per kg packer sells for 18 to 20 that’s the way it is world wide sadly