charge for dressing a sheep

[BarefootGoat]

How much should I charge my friend for dressing his sheep? I won't be gutting it, but it died in labor (he drowned it because it was suffering) so it might have a lamb in it, and it's a few days old, so the gutting part of the charge will be the gag factor. including other factors like; sheep are difficult to skin, the skin doesn't seperate from the body too easily, a three day old sheep will be full of oxidized blood, so greenish brown liquid will gush out of its neck when I cut it, and there may be a dead baby inside of it. It also takes a few hours, soo... How much would you charge? $30? $50?

 

[goodhors]

At that time span, undrained, why isn't he just burying it? I wouldn't feed
that meat to my dogs, with possible cross contamination from body fluids!
If he just wanted the hide, that may not be so bad, but using
the meat is bad because it will be tainted after laying that long. Nothing
that is not a "disposal" animal, like find dead animals to eat in the woods,
should be consuming it. I would think possum, racoons, fox, buzzards,
would be OK, but not any pet animals I cared about.

The yuck factor is going to be extreme. Even just saving the hide might not
be worth the work, wool could be falling out, tissues deteriorating as part
of the decomposition factor.

What do you make an hour, might be a good place to start. This will
probably take longer than you think it will, so tell him that. I would
charge by the hour, how long it takes, rather than a flat rate. Glad not
to be you, it will be a nasty job.

 

[BarefootGoat]

It's been freezing at night, and pretty cold during the day, today is the only real warm day. He only wants the hide, I'm not gutting it. I'm going to be 14 in april, I make nothing an hour, but I need $200 to buy a pregnant LaMancha in like a month because two of the three does I wanted to breed didn't get pregnant. I'll just give him a flat rate that's smaller if he cuts the neck for me before I get there. I want to do it, it won't be as bad because it's been freezing at night. But how much would you charge for skinning a sheep? Sorry, but I don't want anymore reasons why it'll be gross, just how much you would charge, thank you.

 

[woodsie]

Well here is costs $60 to get a sheep killed, butcher, cut & wrapped in an inspected facility. I can't imagine you being able to charge more than $20 or $30 for it and only that much because it is something he can't get done anywhere else (being that it has died days earlier). I guess it is whatever you are willing to do it for and he is willing to pay...I'd start at $25 and see what he says.

Hope you get your doe!

 

[BarefootGoat]

Thanks, I'll say like 30 or 40 or 50, and then have it be less if he cuts the neck for me (that was the absolute most disgusting gag inducing awful thing when I did one of ours that died.) Does anyone else know what the price around where they live is?

 

[purplequeenvt]

What do you mean cut the neck?
I'd charge him $50. He wants the skin, you need the money. It can be a dirty nasty job, especially if the sheep has been dead a few days. And skinning a sheep carefully for the pelt is time consuming. I skinned a sheep of ours that had been dead a max of 3 hours on a cold winter day and it was still stinky. It took me about an hour and I also did a quick autopsy, but I also have had a bit of practice.

 

[purplequeenvt]

A tip for after you are done....scrubbing your hands with toothpaste does wonders for removing lingering odors.

 

[BarefootGoat]

To skin any animal you make a cut around each ankle and wrist, and then one around the neck, that's what I mean. When you do that, gallons and gallons of greenish brown blood pour out of the neck. It is currently the most disgusting anecdote I have. Thanks, that was really helpful (not that the others weren't), I'll charge him 50, but maybe I'll charge him 30 (?) if he cuts the neck, or maybe I won't even mention it.

 

[purplequeenvt]

You should only have lots of gross fluids coming out if you cut into the gut. If you slice just through the skin and aren't cutting through the muscle, then you should be ok.

 

[PotterWatch]

Our guy charges us $25 each to kill, skin, gut, and transport lambs to the butcher. He gives us a break though since we do so many. He charges $40 for most people.