Sunday, October 14, 2007

The breeding fee confusion

I have been working on setting my breeding fee for Hyde and Gunner and am just confused as to how to set it up.

I know I can't go for the big buck right now even though their pedigrees are fantastic as they haven't reached the show ring yet. But I also don't want to get it too low.

I am thinking of setting it at $750/mare. This will be broken down into $150 for booking fee (non-refundable) - $100 for chute fee (will be paid to Dale) - $500 for actual breeding fee.

What is the consensus? Is that too much? Too little?

Now my next question is: how do I pick the mares that will be bred to them? With their pedigrees, I am thinking we may get more interest in them than what we have decided on for numbers actually being bred. Dale and I talked this over and decided on a maximum of 10 mares each.

HELP!! LOL

4 comments:

MicBel QH said...

I think it sounds about right for the first year, but is it US $$ or Canadian? But I don't really know on the fees, I do think limiting the first year to 10 mares is a good idea.

Lazy A Ranch said...

I guess it depends on what stallions with simular breeding and training in Canada are charging. I have the booking fee included in the breeding fee, it is their good faith deposit/commitment to breed to my stallion. And I would make it clear to mare owners that you are breeding live cover only, which is not in my opinion a good choice for outside mares with unknown breeding habits, I will only do AI on outside mares. You have invested a lot of time and money into these two as stallion propects and it only takes a well placed kicked to end it all. As far as picking the mares, I would choose mares who are super quiet and easy to breed because a mean mare can really scare a first time breeder and make sure that the boys receive good ground training on how and when they are allowed to approach a mare and when they are allowed to mount. This is vital because stallions without proper training will learn to be aggressive and rush the mare. It is harder to me to hand breed because the stallion is never allowed to learn from the mare when it is acceptable by the mare, so we have to teach him.

Carrie said...

Hey Belinda,

It is in CDN funds. Which is actually worth more than US funds right now. AMAZING.

Dale had originally said 5 mares each but changed her mind with how their brains worked through this year. I have left the numbers up to her but said I needed to know before I started accepting mares - even advertising for that matter.

Carrie said...

Hey Melissa,

I have tried to keep the fee lower than most up here with similar lines just because they haven't shown and are young. I also did that because, in my research with trying to breed Semi, there weren't many stallions out there that were really strong pedigree wise that were in my "budget". So I wanted to help others get good lines - not just the rich people.

Dale is doing the breeding - and she only live covers. Plus with all my extra costs with 2 showing and training - well, by the time breeding season rolls around, it will be THREE in training - I need to also keep my costs down. AI up here means hauling to a vet - and that will cost me because Dale will be doing it. Plus paying the vet to do his job - the training on the boys etc.

Dale is going to help me screen the owners that voice interest. She has some already that have been asking. All mares will have to be quiet as Dale does the majority of the breeding by herself. She has a nice little set up so that will help too.