In our country, there are many options to make money by living and working in the countryside.
Sheep breeding remains one of the most attractive and stable ones.
If you properly prepare a business plan “Sheep breeding” with calculations, you can minimize the cost of breeding livestock, and at the same time significantly increase the profitability of the farm.
Before lambing and several days after it, the broodstock with lambs are kept in special warm rooms without drafts.
The main diet of sheep is pasture during grazing in summer, as well as hay and roughage of cereals and legumes in winter.
These animals have a short period of growth - by 1 year, lambs gain about 905 weight of an adult. In lambing, one uterus can bring 1-2 lambs, and the survival rate of the offspring is over 95-97%.
For a novice farmer, sheep breeding is beneficial for several reasons, the main among which can be considered:
- unpretentiousness of sheep to keeping conditions
- disease resistance and low mortality in the herd
- rapid increase in livestock due to offspring
- demand for environmentally friendly lamb meat, milk and wool
Most farmers start their business with a small herd of 250-300 individuals. But even such a small farm requires careful preparation and drawing up a business plan with calculations of future costs, payback period and real profit.
Raising sheep - where to start
When drawing up a business plan, you should carefully consider:
- what documents should be issued for your farm
- what kind of breed is better to breed
- where the animals will feed (graze) in the summer
- how and what feed will be stocked for the winter period
- where the sheep will be in the cold season
- how many people will be serving the herd (distributing feed, cleaning the pen, milking and shearing)
For breeding, you must formalize the ownership and register, in fact, the farm itself. A farmer can issue a certificate of an individual entrepreneur, indicating the code of the all-Russian classification of types of economic activities 01.22.1 - breeding sheep and goats (in the case of selling only wool and meat).
If you plan to process or sell milk, you should specify another code - 15.51, which includes a whole group of codes related to the processing and sale of dairy products.
Thanks to the registration of the farm, upon sale, the owner will have all the necessary veterinary documents on hand.
Costs of setting up a sheep farm
When developing a business plan, it is necessary to take into account both primary (one-time) and fixed costs:
- For the normal functioning of the farm, a pasture, premises for the wintering of the herd and storage of feed, and remuneration of workers will be required. However, the main expense will be the purchase of the livestock itself.
- The area of the leased pasture is calculated from the amount of 1 hectare per 1 sheep. The annual rent of pasture for a herd of 300 individuals will be about 100,000 rubles (prices may vary depending on the economic situation in the country).
- Repair of premises for wintering and storage of feed will result in the same amount (building new ones is unprofitable due to the high cost of building materials).
- It is better to buy sheep in proven breeding farms. The wholesale price here can vary from 3,000 to 5,000 per individual, so a little more than 1,000,000 rubles will be spent on the purchase of a herd.
- The salary of a shepherd, milkmaid and handyman, as well as periodic one-time services of a veterinarian and a haircutter, will cost 600,000-700,000 per year.
- The cost of purchasing feed will be no more than 60,000 rubles, provided that the hay is prepared independently. Another 50,000 will be required annually to cover the flow costs.
As a result, in the first year of the farm's operation, the owner will have to spend at least 2 million rubles, which is not a very large amount with a starting livestock of 300 individuals.
Receiving a profit
Meat is considered to be the main source of income in sheep breeding.
Unfortunately, products such as sheep's cheese, milk, wool and skins are in much less demand in our country than delicious and fresh mutton.
Potential customers in this case can be restaurants, cafes and market vendors.
However, in order to have a permanent market for meat sales, it is better to cooperate with wholesalers on an ongoing basis.
The sale of sheep for meat or livestock brings about 1 million rubles a year. The proceeds from the sale of other products - milk, cheese, wool are about 100 thousand more.
As a result, the profitability of sheep breeding is only 15% (maximum 20%). However, a breeding farm is a great start for entrepreneurs with little finances. The minimum investment and quick return on investment will be attractive for novice farmers and small family farms.
A ready-made business plan for sheep breeding is presented in the video:
