Notice there are no expenses associated with the land cost or labor in this budget. Neither are the market price or feed costs current. Let's update some of the numbers and see what happens to the profitability of this example enterprise.

Your tasks:

1. Download this excel spreadsheetenterprise budget.
2. Change market lamb net price to $3.75 per pound.
3. Change cull ewe price to $1.75 per pound
4. Change hay price to $200 per ton
5. Change grain price to $0.22 per pound
6. Change Feed for lambs to $0.22 per pound
7. Record the "Total Return to Land, Labor, and Capital" (Should be $13,542)

Note that this return is about 3 times the historical average for this exercise, but does not include increased fertilizer costs. Sheep are more profitable right now than at any time I can recall.

What are your general impressions of the economics of a 30-ewe sheep enterprise?

Spreadsheet: chrome-extension://bpmcpldpdmajfigpchkicefoigmkfalc/views/app.html