On Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:28:11 -0400, Dave Smith
> wrote:

>My neighbour called yesterday morning to see if I wanted to go to a
>local livestock auction with him. He has been thinking of getting some
>critters to raise and wanted to see what was available and what kind of
>prices he will have to pay. It sounded interesting so I went, and what
>an experience it was.
>
>The auction had started at 10 am and we didn't get there until 11, in
>time to see them selling off things like odd lots of dog food and cat
>food. Then they started selling the rabbits, chickens, ducks and geese.
>They took an hour break before the sheep, goats and calves.
>
>I could not believe how cheap they were. There was one sheep that was
>sold by the pound and everything else was sold per piece. The auctioneer
>started off asking for $2 per pound for the 170 lb. sheep, then dropped
>it to $1, the 50 cents. It ended up going for 47 cents. The (70lb) lamb
>sold for $45. Hell. I have paid almost $50 for a good sized leg of lamb.
>You would get two of those on this lamb, plus the shoulders, racks and
>everything else. They sold 8 calves for $40-50 each.
>

Talk about livestock selling cheaply, here's one for you.
Back in the 80's and early 90's we raised sheep and had a flock of
about 50 breeding ewes and a couple of rams. Lamb prices were slowly
falling in our usual market so we decided to take one lamb of about 45
lbs. to an auction in a different area to test their prices. We didn't
stick around for the sale, just had them mail the cheque and when it
arrived I could hardly believe it. That 45 lb. lamb sold for $5.00 but
after the auction commission, insurance and OSMA fees were deducted I
received a cheque for the grand total of Zero Dollars & 66 cents! I
still have the cheque right here so I hope it didn't screw up their
bookkeeping too much.
It was just a few months after that when we called a drover, shipped
all the animals and took a job in town.

Ross.