Selling Tanned Hides from Farm Animals

Just curious, after seeing some videos of people tanning various sheep and goat skins from their butchered farm animals, has anyone tried marketing these products locally? Seems to me it could be a viable small income stream to add to a homestead. To me selling a few tanned skins a year could help offset some costs of raising these animals. You wouldn’t be raising the animals specifically for there hides but creating value in a typically discarded product. Seen some people on this forum make some nice sheepskin goat throw rugs for there homes, I feel someone could offload a few off these locally. Anybody have any experience with this? I know wildlife fur has been in the tank for awhile.

No personal experience, but Polyface Farms is trying it out this year with cowhides. They only have 5 left. I don't remember how many they started with... but I think it was under 20 hides.

I figured Joel would’ve dabbled in it! Wish there was more demand for hides besides decorative. If people only realized how much fake fur winds up in the ocean.

I have rabbits, great fur animals, and my problem is the effort or expense in hide tanning small scale can't compete with the mass market.

I crunched the numbers and it's at LEAST $10 per rabbit, and that's only if I send in at least 75 hides.

While my rabbits breed like rabbits and I could accumulate 75 green hides that's $750 I don't have to invest. It goes up to $16/hide very rapidly at smaller numbers. Cheaper tanning requires me to salt and flesh the hides myself... Which honestly is fully half the tanning process. Some of the places won't even do a garment quality stretch/breaking for you after... What's the point in sending in my hides then!? But doing it myself is backbreaking and takes forever... Fleshing rabbits hides is JUST the worst.

And the funny thing is I have some great markets for rabbit hide products in the medieval reenactment groups, sustainable living groups, and fantasy roleplay groups I associate with. But they all want their hides to be $8 each like the ones they get shipped in from china and mass markets, and I just can't compete that way.

I have a friend that sells squares of cow hides to people with dogs for use on flirt poles, for tugs, things like that.  Just another stream to consider.  Hides 4" x 10" are common and usually sell for about $5.

There is a place near us that raises sheep (which are rare here and not commonly eaten) they sell sheep skins and also horns and other bits of animal from various local sources. They sell their skins for about $150 to $300 per skin! (equivalent) They also sell wool and yarn, at equally horrendous prices.

C Mouse, That’s a disheartening but but right truth; you cannot compete price wise with a massive tannery like that. I cringed slightly when you said the sustainable living groups use the Chinese products over locally made ones. Thank you for your thoughtful reply!

Trace Oswald wrote:I have a friend that sells squares of cow hides to people with dogs for use on flirt poles, for tugs, things like that.  Just another stream to consider.  Hides 4" x 10" are common and usually sell for about $5.

Very thoughtful and creative! Anything in the pocket will help pay the bills in the long run.

Skandi Rogers wrote:There is a place near us that raises sheep (which are rare here and not commonly eaten) they sell sheep skins and also horns and other bits of animal from various local sources. They sell their skins for about $150 to $300 per skin! (equivalent) They also sell wool and yarn, at equally horrendous prices.

Wow! That does seem like quite a bit. Considering most online decorative hides I’ve seen are $15-50, they better count themselves lucky!

Depends a lot on marketing skill,I suspect, and making value added options.


Here are two farms - I have bought wool from one, and keep cheaping out on a hat from the other.

https://www.topsyfarms.com/collections/sheepskin-products

https://eglifarm.com/collections/all?sort_by=best-selling

Anthony Copeland wrote:C Mouse, That’s a disheartening but but right truth; you cannot compete price wise with a massive tannery like that. I cringed slightly when you said the sustainable living groups use the Chinese products over locally made ones. Thank you for your thoughtful reply!

Well, the sustainable living groups I'm in tend to not use furs at all - they'd much rather buy clothes from thrift shops or use hand me downs than make anything new. Animal skins tend to be gifted and bartered in the sustainable living groups around here out of love more than out of need. Nobody "needs" rabbit furs after all, so don't buy what you don't need is a big mantra.... But I like to try to use them.

C Mouse wrote:

Anthony Copeland wrote:C Mouse, That’s a disheartening but but right truth; you cannot compete price wise with a massive tannery like that. I cringed slightly when you said the sustainable living groups use the Chinese products over locally made ones. Thank you for your thoughtful reply!

Well, the sustainable living groups I'm in tend to not use furs at all - they'd much rather buy clothes from thrift shops or use hand me downs than make anything new. Animal skins tend to be gifted and bartered in the sustainable living groups around here out of love more than out of need. Nobody "needs" rabbit furs after all, so don't buy what you don't need is a big mantra.... But I like to try to use them.

Ah I understand better now your perspective. That does make a lot of sense.

I checked his prices,
8x10" cowhides - 5 pack, $35, 25 pack $125
4x10" - 10 pack, $35, 50 pack $125

He sells bungees and flirt poles as well, but I don't really know much about that.

I have no idea how many of these you can get from a full cow hide.  I'm pretty sure he gets the hides free from local farmers when they have a cow die or butcher them.  He sells a lot of them, and has trouble keeping up with all the orders, but he has been doing it a while and has a good reputation.  I'm sure he isn't getting rich, but he definitely makes enough that he thinks it's worthwhile because he has been doing it a long time.

Trace Oswald wrote:I checked his prices,
8x10" cowhides - 5 pack, $35, 25 pack $125
4x10" - 10 pack, $35, 50 pack $125

He sells bungees and flirt poles as well, but I don't really know much about that.

I have no idea how many of these you can get from a full cow hide.  I'm pretty sure he gets the hides free from local farmers when they have a cow die or butcher them.  He sells a lot of them, and has trouble keeping up with all the orders, but he has been doing it a while and has a good reputation.  I'm sure he isn't getting rich, but he definitely makes enough that he thinks it's worthwhile because he has been doing it a long time.

Thank you for the price points! Definitely going in my “what if business ideas” folder in my head. I think many small farmers and homesteaders are overly Dismissive when a new enterprise isn’t as lucrative as they think. As you said, it seems to me it could be a nice additional income stream for a homestead. Many streams build a river.