Wool/Meat

Wool:

Wool can be an added bonus. Last time I looked, raw fleece sold for $30 to $60 on Etsy. Hiring a professional shearer now runs around $100 for up to 10 sheep, and good electric shears cost anywhere from $100 to $500+. We grabbed a refurbished Oster electric shearer for about $170 locally.

After Shearing: What Next?

You can either:

• Sell raw fleece,

• Process the fleece yourself (time-consuming but cheaper), or

• Send it to a processing mill.

I won’t get into processing details since there’s tons of info online.

Heads up: it can take a couple years of shearing to be able to get quality fleece that brings in top dollar. Shearing is a skill worth learning if you want a few fleeces, and there are plenty of how-to videos out there.

Meat Costs & Butchering

In 2024, I took a medium-sized wether to the slaughterhouse. The bill came to $150, and we got back 33 pounds of mostly ground meat. That works out to about $4.55 per pound.

Add in feed and care costs ($50-$60), and you’re looking at roughly $6.20 per pound. Not bad when grass-fed ground lamb at the store runs $7 to $10 per pound.

Smaller sheep cost more per pound because of flat-rate slaughter fees and disposal costs.

I’ve butchered quail, rabbits, sheep, and pigs on my farm, and sheep are pretty straightforward—especially smaller lambs.

Biggest challenge? Waiting for a cold snap so the meat can hang for at least 24 hours without temps rising above 40(ish)°F. If it warms above 45°F during the day, I’ve had to put the carcass iced in a cooler until it cools off again in the evening.

Some say lamb doesn’t need to hang, but I’m convinced the quality improves with a day two of hanging.