The Lazy U Ranch is a sheep operation in the mountains of Colorado. They run 1500 head of ewes in a range flock operation utilizing a mixture of public and private land. They typically lamb in April of each year and wean the lambs off of the ewes in early October. Each year they choose one of three options for marketing their lamb crop:

• 1) forward contract weaned lambs to a feedlot for October delivery;
• 2) sell weaned lambs to a feedlot on the October cash market; or
• 3) retain ownership of the weaned lambs through the feedlot and sell them on the February cash market for slaughter.