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[paxamicus AT earthlink.net]

Please talk to me about selling lambs.

These are my first. I want to keep a steady flock population of 15 or  
so. My plan was to winnow out in the fall and sell/butcher anything  
that didn't work out. And given that at I'm running at 75% ram  
lambs.....

I have had a couple of ewes I had butchered, they got shared out  
amongst various people.  I was stunned at how much meat came from them.

Because I did not enter this as a money making proposition, my kind of  
vague plan was to share out again in the fall with whoever wanted it.  
I have been doing the shopping for a local women's shelter
for some time, last year we bought them a freezer and this year I  
planned to at least put some lamb in there, and when we did dinner  
down there for Christmas, the kids that were
there were tickled with the "fancy pants" on the roast.

My neighbours down the street do a huge hog butchering in the fall and  
we swapped out for some gooooood stuff from them.

Anyway, yesterday at Roy's retirement lunch, two different people  
expressed an interest in actually buying the things off me. Imagine my  
shock. There is a big Middle Eastern population
around here and duh...they like lamb. Roy was just tickled. He thinks  
I'm turning into a sheep mogul. ;-P

My understanding of Virginia laws is that I can't sell meat, I have to  
sell live animals. So how do I figure out how to split up animals,  
sections, relative prices, etc? I am completely out of my
depth here, I never butchered horses.



PS. Don't y'all rag at me for not butchering them myself. My da can  
dress out a lamb faster than you can get dressed in the morning. : )   
I'm learning. : D