- Thread starter
- #2,571
misfitmorgan
Herd Master
That's sort of what we figured. As tempting as it to think just a little longer and you can sell for more, thats a slippery slope we have fallen down a few times. If we want to go commercial we have to have the date set and follow it even if prices might change for the better. The loose plan for the commercial flock is selling at 4-5 months or 105lbs. The 5 lbs is because they usually loose weight in shipping. We also want to mix in polypay for off-season breeding and multiple births. In a few years if things work out we will add in hair sheep, as ultimately we want to have 100% hair sheep but not sure the commercial market here.
The new heifer calf is being delivered this evening, DH tried to pick her up last night but the owner was playing euchre and didnt want to quit to go home and load the calf.
The chicken pickup got delayed a day so DH brought the new chickens home last night. Lots of them but honestly they look good for older chickens raised in a smaller yard. Biggest problem for us is....will our planned chicken fence/yard be big enough with the new additions. The planned yard is suppose to be something close to 40ftx40ft for the yard which supposedly handles 160 chickens but the yard they had at their old place is 36x20 which should also have been plenty but it was nothing but bare dirt...which we dont want! The chicken yard is in the orchard....we want grass there.
We have approximately 75 chickens meaning our new 10x12 shed/chicken coop is a bit small. So going the have to do something a bit creative or give the silkies a separate coop/yard. Not sure what to do as I know we will lose some of the new birds but while they are here they need housing. ATM all the chickens are closed in the 2-story for a week until the new ones accept it and the pecking order is figured out. I believe we are going to build eggboxes on the outside of the coop which will help some with coop space as the inside will only be roosts, food is also going outside under a little shelter until winter. We shall see how things work out.
We are cutting our hay next week which works out well since DH and I have the 5th off paid so we can take a trailer load of hay to the auction. The best year from that field was 1200+ bales in a single cut....this year should be lower. We need just under 500 bales for fall/winter/spring...to be safe. So we plan to sell 400-500 bales, we can do more later if we get a second cut. Average current price we would make around $2,600 which will help cover hay making costs, the new rake tires and the wheel hub, as well as any other parts anything else needs, plus twine, gas, broken teeth/shear pins, and cost of buying and hauling equipment. IF it works that means we will be starting on a clear slate for next hay season for costs.
We finally got rain yesterday, in total we got 0.2", the total since june 1st is 0.9". We need more, forecasting 0.89" thursday and friday which will get us a lot closer to the 2.5" normal. We shall see cause they forecasted 0.25" monday, 0.75" thursday, 1.10" friday, 0.30 next Monday and 0.47" tuesday.....ended up nothing this past monday and 0.20" yesterday, rain canceled monday and tuesday.
