$2K to $1.4 Million With St Croix Sheep on Grass

God’s built-in design for multiplication in creation is astounding! We see it in the seed, the egg, and our animals on the farm. Join me today as we discuss one of our most prolific multipliers - the St. Croix sheep!

In today’s video, I’m running the numbers starting with an initial, modest investment of 3 ewes and 1 ram. Watch and see what their compounding on grass alone can do!

As mentioned, we’re assuming our real world average lambing rate over 5 years at 1.39 lambs per ewe. Yes, this is our actual rate. We’re also assuming the sex of each lamb born is split 50/50, as this is consistently close to what we see every Spring. The hay price used is our current real world price of $100/ton.

In the “how much land does it take” section, I’m using our numbers here on the farm in our specific LOCATION and CONTEXT, which is about 1 animal unit per acre for set-stock grazing and twice that number of animals when rotating. Please note: These numbers are for OUR LOCATION. Please do not message me from Antarctica this summer asking why your 3,400 head of sheep aren’t productive! 🤠🐑Reach out to YOUR local extension office and/or a local farmer to accurately determine your land’s carrying capacity upfront!👍

Also worth noting - Some producers have reported lambing three times in two years, meaning these numbers could be even higher. Personally, I prefer NOT to run my ewes that hard.

[southernstockman]

Brother, let me thank you for your open honesty about how things were rough starting out. Things should only get better from here on out. "My people perish for lack of knowledge."

You're also spot on to buy your hay rather than make it.

[nickschaps]

Some of these numbers are quite aggressive, but it’s very interesting nonetheless! The biggest challenge I have in my area is securing land for grazing, I am working on getting creative by leasing row crop land with cover crops early in the spring and areas with marginal browse such as abandoned acreages, ditch lines, waterways, and tree lines. My wife and I hope to have enough reserve cash by next year to purchase another 20 acres. We have a goal of only running about 250 sheep and selling all lambs direct to consumer. We figure that will put the operation around $200k of gross revenue annually.

[FulbrightFarmstead]

Appreciate you taking the time to figure what you did. There are so many different factors and assumptions that doing something like this is really hard. Where we live for example, the sheep are way cheaper than what you talked about in your video and our hay is way more expensive. We recently came out of a drought where hay was going for $400 / ton. However, sheep are incredibly prolific and one can definitely build a flock quite quickly which is what our goal is right now. I recently sat down and figured out that we can reach 100 head from our original flock of 7 in just 2-3 years by keeping back 50% of the lambs. Pretty cool.

[godricfamilyfarm]

Your child Sam is doing a terrific job with that drone sir. People ask for number breakdowns, you gave it to em'. Hahaha I'm sure you'll enjoy the questions and comments. Thanks for the video.

[crazycoyote]

Your connection to Gods way and nature are a true blessing to you, your family and neighbors.
Your calm and trusting spirit will surely lead you to success, thank you for sharing brother!!

[servihomestead]

What a great video! Beautiful sheep and cows. Looks like y'all have a great system.

[edeancozzens]

Dr. Carey Reams taught us that when the water soluble calcium, phosphorus, and potassium are at high enough levels and in correct balance, the natural height of alfalfa is ten feet! We put in a lot of soft rock phosphate from Florida one year and our first cutting was plugging the windrowers at belt-buckle height.

[ShepherdsCreek]

This is really interesting! I'm admittedly not the best when it comes to numbers but it's really cool to see it laid out like this. Thank you for crunching the numbers for us! My whole family is now watching your videos haha we sit down together in front of the computer and watch together so thank you as well for giving us this opportunity to learn together as a family :)

[jvin]

If you are projecting to build out the herd to fill up the land you have (and why not), you really get to a point you must farm to the edges of the fences (clear out fence rows) and consolidate all the equipment and random materials tight around the buildings. Often when busy the equipment gets dropped where it is and fields converted to huge parking lots suddenly fill up with weeds and non-use. Take a google maps screen shot of your farm and identify unused area or areas you can convert back to production.

[MP-gkjr]

what a blessed, joyful man. Could feel the energy even through video.

[blujen]

Love your Heart, Analysis, and that you are Word Based. Kingdom Principles Out Perform Worldly Processes everytime. The Meat and Pelt ROI on Rabbits is Outstanding too. Exceeding Abundant Blessings for you, the Damily and the Farm!!!

[benburns]

Hi Jason, great Thumbnail photo with the 2 Lambs. Glad that the St. Croix Sheep are working out well Financially.

[Plan_it-Farm]

Great message your content is great. I think you have convinced me to raise up some St. Croix. I have been so focused on meat chickens and Cattle. Time to get into Sheep

[tylers]

We have goats. Started with 3 does and borrowed a buck. Two gave birth and--within an hour--we went from 3 to 8 head. That was exciting. Multiplication in action.
Then we lost three kids and their mother to worms, almost overnight, about 6 months later. At that time I was told that it's pretty normal to lose half your herd at some point in your farming career. At least it was 4 and not 40.
Maybe I should try stripping poplar sticks this time...

[lottfarms]

what a beautiful video. immediately subscribed. we are praying we can bring sheep to our farm in the next year or two. wanting to learn everything we can

[gracelee]

You’re a blessing to watch Jason! Love your videos.

[RedBelleRidge]

Great content and info!!! Thanks for doing your videos!! Been watching for the last year and love them all!

[guyhickson]

That is really cool! I wish we had more land. Just shy of 5 acres and getting started with painted desert sheep.

[soaronwingslikeeagles]

Only just discovered your channel. Love it. New subscriber. Thinking of starting ruminant livestock. Question: If half-half generally male to female and you are not selling, what do you do with the extra males? And how do you stop inbreeding with father to daughter? Thanks in advance for any information. Greetings from South Africa 🇿🇦

[ks_hunter]

We need more videos like this to show agriculture can be a highly desirable income