Loading up the market lambs and some of the market kids to go to the St. Joseph Missouri sheep and goat sale this morning. The market was better than anyone anticipated, especially me. Notice how important it is to have your kids or lambs the right weight.
Lambs 90 lbs. or more brought less money than the ones in the 70 lb. range. The 80 lb. lambs probably netted less than the 80 - 80 lb ones when you consider the extra feed cost. Go here www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/am... for the full market report.
The Kids 55lb. - 65lb.s probably were the best money makers. The heavier ones brought enough less to not be as profitable considering the feed cost also. We had a few light weights that we brought that in our opinion were done growing and they brought less / lb. at 40 lbs. than the 55 - 60. We left more light weights at home to grow more for future sales. They would have brought about $100 less than the 55 - 60 lb. ones and shouldn't cost more than $5 - $10 / hd to feed up to market weight.
Having a $300 scales and using it returned thousands of dollars.
This is of course the most I've ever gotten for market lambs and kids. Will it stay this high?
Goats are hard to raise. It needs to.