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Northwest Iowa | I really enjoy the thought provoking question and numbers you prepared. I will say, I think some of your numbers are a tick off but I wont beat that up because I love the outside the box thinking. I think your dead on, we want to row crop everything and the livestock have a great argument on providing a fantastic way of providing opportunity to a family or kids that want to come back.
I will just comment on the sheep side of things because that is a huge part of my life and finances. As far as running 500 ewes on 160 acres. Maybe your thinking grazing but when it comes to actual feed or infrastructure for 500 ewes you can feed way more than 500 off of 160 acres. Let me put it this way their are plenty of operations around me that chop 20 acres silage, have 40 acres of their alfalfa and feed 900 ewes. They supplement other feeds also but point is you can make a lot happen on 160 acres, regarding the number of ewes you could have. One of my statements that I say all the time is, "It is the best, known, secret in production agriculture." Infrastructure needs are on the low end to get into it, does not take much feed (in the big picture), it doesn't take much land base to provide that feed either, you can return dollars in less than 12 months from start to finish, and the fact is we consume more lamb in this country than we produce. Their is room for more American lamb production!! People need to get by the status quo of being a sheep farmer, the jokes you will receive, and the intensive labor it requires at certain times. The sheep industry screams opportunity all over it. People just have to want to do it. | |
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Are we doing it wrong?
