making a profit on raising goats and sheep? (small scale)

[itsasmallfarm]

I should also note, that whichever type of livestock you decide to raise, you will be required to obtain a premise id number, and you will also be required to use the RFID tags for said livestock and they must be tagged etc prior to selling. This is a requirement by law IF you weren't already aware. (Perhaps you are)

i had no idea about tags for them, will have to look into that.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

am in Saskatchewan, we have friends who raise sheep for market and say its just not possible to make profit with a small flock. not sure about goats though.

I suppose with feed costs etc. that's entirely possible. My situation is different where we have an abundance of feed and grain. We're down to only 80 head of cattle from 140, but on our way up again to 100+ head. So we grow our own grains/hay etc AND HAVE THAT advantage. I'm hoping to increase the 7 ewes I have right now to 40 in the next 3-4 years.

i had no idea about tags for them, will have to look into that.

I was just talking to some premise id people on the weekend. I have a link for the tags from the main office in Alberta. I'll look it up and post it later.

You may be able to order tags from the sheep development board in Saskatoon. I'm not sure about goats, but sheep have a checkoff fee (when you sell your lambs to a buyer/auction mart) that goes to the sheep development board. If you have questions about sheep and/or goats...they should be able to give you more information. That's what they're there for. Gordon Schroeder is pretty good for information.

Sheep Development Board
http://www.sksheep.com/

Some information on the tagging programs. I'm not familiar with the goat one at all.
http://www.cansheep.ca/cms/en/CSIPrograms_new/CSIP/CSIP.aspx
http://cangoats.com/

Here's the national sheep breeders site.
https://www.sheepbreeders.ca/

Here's some info on the goats registery
http://goats.ca/

And the CLRC is the body who looks after the pedigrees for most of the breeds of Canadian animals
http://www.clrc.ca/goats.shtml

I'm not sure if there's more on goats, I'm not as familiar with them.

 

[itsasmallfarm]

I suppose with feed costs etc. that's entirely possible. My situation is different where we have an abundance of feed and grain. We're down to only 80 head of cattle from 140, but on our way up again to 100+ head. So we grow our own grains/hay etc AND HAVE THAT advantage. I'm hoping to increase the 7 ewes I have right now to 40 in the next 3-4 years.

I was just talking to some premise id people on the weekend. I have a link for the tags from the main office in Alberta. I'll look it up and post it later.

You may be able to order tags from the sheep development board in Saskatoon. I'm not sure about goats, but sheep have a checkoff fee (when you sell your lambs to a buyer/auction mart) that goes to the sheep development board. If you have questions about sheep and/or goats...they should be able to give you more information. That's what they're there for. Gordon Schroeder is pretty good for information.

Sheep Development Board
http://www.sksheep.com/

Some information on the tagging programs. I'm not familiar with the goat one at all.
http://www.cansheep.ca/cms/en/CSIPrograms_new/CSIP/CSIP.aspx
http://cangoats.com/

Here's the national sheep breeders site.
https://www.sheepbreeders.ca/

Here's some info on the goats registery
http://goats.ca/

And the CLRC is the body who looks after the pedigrees for most of the breeds of Canadian animals
http://www.clrc.ca/goats.shtml

I'm not sure if there's more on goats, I'm not as familiar with them.

thank you will have to look into it.

now am thinking about maybe getting some boer does and breeding them and selling the young or raising them to market age.