Click here to listen to Ken’s Money Matters report on a new sheep producer lending tool.
The sheep industry wants to loan money to serious producers who want to develop sheep production as an enterprise on their farms and ranches; there are several farm sheep flocks in Iowa. They’re not as large an enterprise as beef or pork, but in some years, they can be more profitable. To that end, the American Sheep Industry Association has put a revolving fund in place to encourage producers to expand. It’s geared toward the purchase of breeding stock, with a minimum $35,000 loan at a 5-year payback and a 5% interest rate, as ASI Executive Director Peter Orwick explains.
People may not be coming from agriculture. They may have done their career outside of agriculture, or outside of [raising] livestock, but they have access, particularly if it’s grazing land, and they want to do something in agriculture.
Sheep tend to be a very natural fit, because they’re a smaller animal, you don’t have to have a thousand dollars per animal to get in them – not even anywhere close to that – and if you’re will to do a hundred, if you’re willing to do two hundred head, that makes it worthwhile to put your time and energy into managing those animals and taking care of them, and to give you enough return that, in a lot of areas of the country, it’s worth your effort.
Read more by visiting SheepAndGoatFund.com.
