Rural elderly people often say: "Raise a flock of sheep, build a new house in three years", which is not only an affirmation of the income of the sheep industry, but also a yearning for a better life. So, according to the actual situation in the countryside now, what is the real income of the sheep breeding business? It just so happens that my family now has more than 30 multi-fetal sheep and small tailed cold sheep, which can provide friends with objective and real sheep income data for reference.
In order to make the sheep raising income more intuitive and transparent, here I deliberately select 20 small-tailed cold sheep breeding ewes and 1 excellent breeding ram as representatives, and use my own sheep raising method to see all the real net income obtained in 1 year.
Raising sheep naturally requires the cost of breeding. Since calculating the detailed investment of 20 small-tailed cold sheep breeding ewes and 1 breeding ram is quite troublesome, and different regions and environments and some human factors, the difference in the early investment of sheep breeding is a bit large, so it is simply skipped. Let's just talk about the real net income of sheep farming that everyone cares about most.
According to the previous experience of sheep raising, the net income of sheep breeding mainly comes from the number of surviving lambs, wool and sheep manure bred by ewes. Because the overall population of the flock consisted of only 20 small-tailed sheep breeding ewes and 1 breeding ram, the income from wool and sheep manure was negligible, and only the net profit from the surviving lambs was calculated.
The reproductive performance of the small-tailed cold sheep is unmatched among all sheep breeds, under normal circumstances, three births in two years, and nearly one-third of breeding ewes can achieve two births a year. Not only is the breeding cycle short, but the number of breeding lambs is also relatively large, the number of 2 to 3 is "standard", and 4 to 6 is not unusual. Regarding its lamb survival rate, due to many reasons, the overall can reach more than 85% is already quite good, and the profits of farmers will also rise steadily.
Let's assume that two-thirds of the 20 small-tailed cold sheep breeding ewes are two years and three births, the remaining one-third can achieve the lambing efficiency of two litters a year, the number of lambs per litter is calculated according to 2 to 3 "standard", and the survival rate of lambs reaches more than 85%, and the number of lambs that can be bred into live lambs in 1 year is: 2.5×3÷2×0.85 × 13 + 2.5 × 4÷2×0.85×7≈71 lambs, it seems that the annual harvest is still quite rich.
Although the price of sheep at this stage is not ideal, it is still profitable compared to the price of pigs that have fallen all the way. In the past few days, the Hui sheep dealers who have collected sheep have bid about 800 yuan for the 3-month-old lamb, and about 700 yuan for the 3-month-old lamb, according to this sheep price, assuming that 71 lambs and males and females are mixed, we farmers can get profits: 800 × 36 + 700 × 35 = 53300 yuan. It should be noted here that this is only gross income, not net income, and in order to get accurate net income, you need to subtract all the sheep expenditure throughout the year.
How to calculate the annual sheep raising expenditure? I myself am half-captive and half-free-range, these 21 adult sheep and all the lambs they breed, the grass does not cost a penny to buy, it is all supported by grazing, field mowing and crop straw, just buy a certain amount of corn, bran and other refined feed. I probably calculated that in addition to the purchase of refined feed and other sheep raising expenses, there should be no problem in obtaining a net income of 40,000 yuan in 1 year.
Of course, sometimes unexpected situations occur, which are additional losses to sheep breeding, which cannot be completely avoided and can only be prevented by doing our best. For example, this year, my family's 1 big ewe caused rumen gas assitile disease due to eating too much corn, and finally it was too late to rescue Huangquan, losing thousands of pieces in vain, which is a scene that all sheep farmers do not want to see.