Ask the Sheep Guy: Sheep PartnershipsQUESTION: What do you think of “sheep partnerships”?
ANSWER:
Sheep “partnerships,” like sheep “leases,” are also typical and customary. Most often the details of the partnership are not addressed or reduced to writing and two “friends” just proceed to buy a ram together.I’ve had two good “ram partnerships,” one with Jeremy Bradford and one with Chad Heisdorffer, and both involving extremely high quality and valuable rams. I’ve benefitted or will benefit from both of these partnerships and would partner with these two producers again if doing so enabled me to acquire an interest in another World class sheep (as it did with the Peters Dorset stud I own with Bradford and the Vance Dorset stud I own with Heisdorffer).
But that said, I strongly advise against “sheep partnerships.”
“Sheep partnerships” are in my view only advisable when they involve a very high quality and valuable stud ram and when they are (a) reduced to writing, and (b) address risks such as the risk of loss which can be covered by livestock life insurance.