This is the busiest time of year for Barbara Banbury. Every two weeks, she is sorting her flock of 400 ewes, bringing expectant mothers inside for lambing. Sleepless nights are a norm right now, but it’s all worth it for Banbury. She’s tapped the growing ethnic market for holiday lamb.

“The hothouse lamb market, the ethnic numbers are increasing at great rates. The market is always good,” she says.

While late winter and early spring are normally lambing season, Banbury and a growing number of producers are switching to offseason lambing to target the premium market for holiday lambs, especially during Christmas.

“That’s the biggest holiday of the year,” she says. “Lambs are worth probably another $100 a head for 45 to 60 pounds.”

But it takes good management and attention to detail to be successful.

Banbury farms in Danville, Ohio, where she raises Katahdin and Dorper ewes, both of which are more heavy-muscled breeds and are preferred for their meat quality. Lamb is popular during the Jewish holiday of Hannukah, and many Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas with lamb.

Higher prices, pleasant weather

Banbury says that she used to be happy getting $180 per head for a 40- to 60-pound lamb at the local livestock auction where she takes her lambs. The past two years, she’s gotten upward of $275 a head this time of year from increased demand and less available lambs for the holidays.

It’s a trend that Susan Shoenian, sheep and goat specialist with University of Maryland Extension, has been noticing, too.

“Less lambs available means higher prices,” she says. “Most sheep are seasonal and give birth in the first five months of the year. The ethnic markets push prices at the key holidays, Easter, Christmas, two Muslim festivals, especially. New-crop, younger, out-of-season lambs will usually bring more than old-crop lambs of similar size.”

Banbury has kept her costs low by not giving the kids shots, not allowing them to overeat, and not docking tails or castrating males. Ewes are “fed hard” so they can milk lambs. They’ll eat up to 2 pounds of feed per day, all free choice.

“We do feed hard, but it shows in our lambs,” she says.

Brian Barkley, owner of Maple Hollow Farms in Manns Choice, Pa., raises 200 Polled Dorsets and Border Leicesters, and is pushing to do more out-of-season lambing.

“We breed for fall lambing. It’s nice having lambs compared to in January,” he says.

It’s also more convenient for him since he has a fencing business, and spring is too busy a time to worry about lambing.

His lambs are larger, averaging between 80 and 90 pounds, but they dress out 50% on average.

“That’s the size that they like,” he says of ethnic buyers at the livestock auction he sells to. “That makes a medium-size carcass to butcher.”

Barkley raises Polled Dorset ewes, a breed that is quick-growing, clean, has a short fleece and is very meaty. These are characteristics ethnic buyers are looking for in lambs.

The work to get his ewes reproducing starts long before they lamb. He uses a CIDR, a vaginal insert that releases progesterone to induce estrus in ewes during seasonal anestrus — the break between reproductive periods. It’s inserted into the ewe for between four and 14 days before a ram is brought to service it.

He estimates that 60% of his lambs go to the ethnic market, while the rest go for breeding stock. His ewes are quick-growing, clean, have a short fleece and are very meaty, he says, which is what ethnic buyers want.

Barkley says he’s been averaging $3 per pound — between $240 and $270 per head — the past couple of years at the local livestock auction, all based on the quality of the animals.

“They don’t like the tall, long-legged sheep,” he says of ethnic buyers. “It’s a food product, and they’re very discerning customers.”

Not an easy animal

But sheep aren’t the easiest animal to raise. Black vultures have been so bad on Banbury’s farm that she can’t lamb ewes out on pasture. The vulchers will literally sit on the ewes waiting for them to lamb and eat the babies alive.

These vultures typically migrate from the South and head back during winter, but with plenty of deer and other food sources in Ohio, Banbury says that more of these birds have decided to stay in her area for longer.

She’s had to bring in noisemakers, dogs and other things to scare the vulchers away.

Vultures also are a problem on Barkley’s farm, although he tries to get his ewes to lamb out in pasture.

Coyotes and wild dogs can also be a problem. Banbury has had to install woven wire fencing on her farm that was quite expensive, but she says it was worth it to keep her ewes safe.

Any producer hoping to get into this market shouldn’t just be thinking about the money.

“You kind of have to like them. They’re not as easy,” Barkley says. “Some people get into them, go through lambing, have a tough time and then cycle out.”

Keys to success

Finding a good niche market is what Banbury says has been the key to her success. Paying attention to details and tending to the animals is also key. She regularly trims her ewes’ feet, invests in a good milk replacer, is constantly deworming her animals, and feeds salts, minerals and protein tubs.

“We’re producing a product people want,” she says. “We do a good job of feeding them. We are detail-oriented so that here at home we don’t lose any. We’re really hands-on. We do everything ourselves, and we spend a lot of time with them.”

Clean water is also key, she says, as is providing plenty of sunshine.

Good nutrition is key to Barkley’s success, too, but finding a breed with good mothering abilities was just as crucial. He uses the National Sheep Improvement Program to identify those sheep. Certain breeds will not lamb out of season, he says, so it’s important to do research on the breeds that will fit your farm.

Having good facilities and room to handle sheep is also key. Barkley has 150 acres and rents additional ground for grazing. He brings the ewes inside for winter.

For those wanting to break into the business, Barkley says that patience is key.

“I think that there’s money to be had in the sheep,” he says. “Prices seem to be pretty good right now. You can add value to your product if you’re willing to put the extra effort into it and pay attention to the details. Start small so you go through a lambing season and see. It can be pretty labor-intensive at certain times.”

Up to 70 lambs can be born in a week, he says, so this isn’t for the faint of heart.

“The biggest thing I would say, get ready to work and start small and ease into it,” he says.