The sheep you feed for six months
Is it cheaper to buy mutton at the bazaar, or to keep one sheep for the winter? I asked a family in the village of Kyzyl-Adyr to show me their notebook.
Zholdosh A. · 12 Dec 2021 · Issue 72 min read
The sheep was bought in June at 380 som. Hay and barley for six months: 290. The share of the neighbour's boy who took it out to graze with his own: 40. A visit from the vet: 15. In December the sheep weighed about 52 kilos on the hoof and produced 24 kilos of meat, plus fat, plus the skin.
At the bazaar price of mutton, 24 kilos of meat is worth about 840 som. So the family "earned" 115 som on top of what they spent, plus the fat. But they also spent the whole summer and autumn: the walk every evening, the cutting of hay, the winter fear that it would fall sick. If a family counted its time at the minimum wage, the sheep lost money.
They told me: "You don't understand. The sheep is not meat, it is the thing you can offer to a guest." And that is the other half of the arithmetic.
1 Comment
This is the best thing I have read about money this year. I am not a family, I am a tenant with a balcony, but I read it twice.
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