Ina on the road

How the lamb’s childhood sets the path for its future „Breeding sheep must be your passion if you do that“, says Ants. He must know, he has been in the business for almost twenty years. „The first years it cost us more than it brought in. And still a large portion of our income is from the state supplements that we get as organic farmers.“ After years of learning and trial, this breeder eventually chose the Dorper breed. They have good mothering qualities, do not require much birthing aid and, for a breeder of meat sheep very importantly, they have mostly fur instead of wool. This means that they don’t need to be sheared, as they lose their winter coat by themselves – a lot less work. So I learn that the breed has a huge impact on the financial stability of the sheep breeder. A sheep sold for slaughtering will bring in approximately 80€, as they are usually slaughtered when they reach 40kg and over the last couple of years, the price was at around 2€ per kg of live weight. Sellin...