Sheep for sale: 5 tips for marketing and selling sheep
If you are a sheep farmer, part of your operations includes putting your sheep up for sale.
Where and how do you sell your sheep?
• Public auctions.
Putting your sheep up for sale at public auction is convenient and easy. There are regular weekly sales and special dates where graded sales take place before various religious holidays that observe the consumption of sheep. Plus, putting your sheep up for sale at public auction means you get prompt payment. However, the downside is that you cannot determine the sale price of your sheep before the auction. This is because at public auctions, “price discovery” or pricing your sheep is based on supply and demand factors.
• Direct sales to Ethnic/Religious groups.
A consistent majority demand for sheep comes from Muslims, Jews, and other ethnic/religious groups who consume sheep as part of their religious celebrations, such as Ramadan and Passover. As a producer, you can take advantage of this by selling to these groups directly or through an intermediary.
• Sell directly from your farm.
The advantage of selling your sheep directly from your farm is that your profit margin is higher. This is because you don’t have to go through a middleman who gets a percentage of your income. Also, you will not pay transportation costs because your sheep will be picked up at the farm. There are many ways to market your sheep for direct sales from your farm: through word of mouth; placing classified ads in newspapers; post flyers before major holidays; sending advertisements to magazines, newsletters, radio and television stations of ethnic groups; you can even use the internet to sell your sheep; or hand out free samples at your local farmer’s market.
• Sell your sheep to meat processors.
The advantage of selling to a meat processor is that you will know the price of your sheep in advance. You can also expect this price to remain constant, but you can also renegotiate it periodically when necessary. However, in this type of setup, it is required to produce a constant number of sheep at a certain level of quality, periodically.
• Hiring an intermediary or sales manager.
If you don’t want to go through all the hassle of putting your sheep up for sale, you can hire a broker or sales manager who will do the work of finding you the most profitable way to sell your sheep, but of course on a commission. How paid
As you can see, there are many places and ways where and how to put your sheep up for sale, thus increasing the profitability of sheep farming. Just remember to use all the information and possible options available in your area before choosing the sales method that will give you the most profit.