Backyard Sheep Cost & Payback Calculator
For sheep kept for both wool and meat. Feed, treatment, and grocery prices, all editable.
Defaults are sourced Australian figures as of mid-2026 - not guesses. Change anything below to match your own flock and prices.
Your flock
Offsetting feed cost
Pasture growth varies a lot by Australian climate zone, especially over winter. Set your zone above (or use the Find My Climate Zone tool) for guidance tailored to your own area.
Feed & treatment costs
Grocery comparison prices
Initial setup
Your results
How This Works
Every ewe's daily feed cost is calculated from hay/feed pricing and typical daily intake, then reduced by whatever share you set for pasture grazing and kitchen scraps. Unlike the bird tools on this site, pasture isn't capped at a small supplement here - it's a sheep's primary diet, so the cap is much higher, while kitchen scraps stay capped small since they're a minor part of a sheep's diet either way. Routine worming and lice/mite treatment, plus an annual shearing cost, is added as a small daily amount based on annual costs, not vet visits, which are too unpredictable to estimate honestly.
On the production side, your flock's yearly wool clip is valued directly at your comparison price, based on Australia's Eastern Market Indicator for wool. Lambs born each year are split between those kept or sold as future breeding stock and those raised for meat, using your own slider, then a survival rate is applied before valuing the meat at your grocery comparison price, with the extra feed needed to raise them subtracted.
If you've entered a setup cost, the payback period divides that figure by your net yearly result. If your flock is running at a loss under the current settings, no payback period is shown - it wouldn't be an honest number to give you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do the default numbers come from?
Sourced Australian figures as of mid-2026: wool priced around $12/kg based on the Eastern Market Indicator, lamb meat retailing roughly $16/kg, and routine worming and lice/mite treatment plus annual shearing costing around $22/year per ewe. Every number is editable — these are honest starting points, not fixed facts about your flock.
Why is pasture allowed to offset so much more than scraps?
Because it's how sheep eat. Unlike a chicken, where kitchen scraps and home-grown fodder are a limited supplement to a balanced feed, pasture and grazing are a sheep's primary diet — a healthy ewe can get most of its intake from good pasture, with hay or pellets as a top-up for reliable wool and lamb growth. Kitchen scraps stay capped small here since they're a minor part of a sheep's diet.
How does the meat side of the calculation work?
Sheep lamb once a year, usually with singles or twins, entered as lambs per ewe per year. A share of those lambs are raised for meat rather than kept or sold as future breeding stock, using your own slider, then a survival rate is applied before valuing the meat at your grocery comparison price, with the extra feed needed to raise them subtracted.
What does the payback period actually tell me?
It divides your entered setup cost (housing, fencing, shearing equipment) by your net yearly result once feed, treatments, pasture, and scraps are all accounted for, alongside the value of wool and meat produced. If your flock is running at a loss under your current settings, there's no payback to show — the tool says so honestly rather than showing a misleading number.