Talk to me about sheep

[farmchix]

Over the years, I have raised all kinds of livestock from cows to chickens to llamas, etc.  I have never raised sheep, but I have wanted sheep.  Hubs has never been on board.  Tonight, he came to me and told me to start doing my research.  Next Spring, we are getting sheep.  That gives us the summer to work on fencing and shelter.  What kind of shelter do they require?  More importantly, what sheep is best for meat?

I have an intolerance to pork.  It makes me sick, with the occasional exception of bacon and ham.  Chops just don't agree with me....  Hubs has in intolerance to beef.  He was told by a holistic doctor that he shouldn't be eating anything from a cos (cheese, milk, beef).  We later found this to be more on the dairy product side than the beef side.  (As a point of reference, read the book "Eat Your Blood Type".

We eat a lot of chicken and some seafood.  I use ground turkey in the way that most of you use ground beef.  We will be doing Aquaponics for fish (trout and perch), but we do eat a lot of lamb.

Thanks for all the help!  You guys are always so helpful!

[Maura]

Sheep prefer to have shade in the summer. This could be from trees on the perimeter of the pasture, or in it. They like to have a wind block in the winter. Other than that, they don't really need a shelter.

Three strands of Wire is sufficient to keep them penned. They will only leave their containment if they are terrified.

What worked well for us was to fence in the pasture, then use electric netting to keep them on an area until it is eaten down, then move the net down a few feet so they eat the fresh area. I'd move the net every few days, or couple of days depending on the time of year.

The best sheep for meat depends on what you like. I do not like katahdin, which I find to be bland. I thought our Corriedale was tasty. It depends on if you want a lamb taste or bland taste.

If you have wool sheep they have to be shorn, but your shearer may be willing to buy the wool from you.

[farmchix]

Maura, thank you!

[tenbusybees]

We've had katahdins, Barbados, and black-bellies. All are meat sheep and have short hair, no shearing. They are fairly disease and worm resistant (not proof but resistant), and very heat tolerant. I prefer the black-bellies or Barbados. They just seemed to have a stronger constitution and a little more personality than the kats, though they're all kind of skiddish and stand-offish.

Meat-wise I didn't really notice any differences between the breeds we had.

Btw, the difference between black-bellies and Barbados is the rack. Barbados have a really cool curl horns and black-bellies don't have the racks. They are the same other than that.

Our sheep hated to be wet. Something they could seek shelter from the rain would be appreciated. They lamb twice a year, triplets are not uncommon. They birth really easy, I never had to play midwife, and they bounce back better than goats.

Though they look kind of like goats, personality-wise they are nothing like them. They are stand-offish and respect the fence. They are not as loud and chatty as goats either. Rams are called rams for a reason. We had one crazy guy who kept bashing the fence out and barn wall. The ewes would never go near the holes; they'd stand at a distance and just stare in curiosity. Never turn your back on an intact ram either. Just saying. Also, I think the sheep were more efficient at clearing land than goats. Also, no copper.

We're planning on getting more Barbados or black-bellies this fall.

[farmchix]

tenbusybees, is it better to get them in the fall or the spring? How do they winter? Where are you located? We are in the Midwest and winters can be pretty bad....

[tenbusybees]

Jun 7, 2019 11:33:42 GMT farmchix said:

tenbusybees , is it better to get them in the fall or the spring? How do they winter? Where are you located? We are in the Midwest and winters can be pretty bad....

I don't know that one season is better than the other. It's whenever we can find them for sale. Around here it's mostly dorpers but they are big commercial flocks.

I'm in Texas and our winters are really mild, maybe once every three or four years we'll get a "bad" winter where we have a day or two day of ice/sleet. But most years we hit the freezing mark a couple of times for a few nights and that's about it. On those cold nights we'd put extra hay in the barn (really just a glorified lean-to) for them to bed down into but we don't have lamps or heat out there and they did fine.

[Ozarks Tom]

We started with Barbados, four ewes and a ram, but after our first two rams turned dangerously rank on us we got a Katahdin ram as they're a good deal more docile. As has been said, even if they're docile, never turn your back on them.

Hair sheep do fine in cold temperatures, they grow heavy coats that insulate just fine, then lose the coat in spring (looking really scraggly for a month or so).

Also as has been said, Barbados are more skittish than Katahdins, but over time can become very socialized. We have several who would rather have their backs scratched than eat. Barbados are beautiful animals, and very athletic. One jumped right past my shoulder one time when spooked, and I'm 6'3".

The meat yield from a sheep in ratio to its weight is very good as compared to beef. We usually yield about 50% or better from a full grown animal.

We have 20 animals grazing about 3 acres, and they still have plenty of tall grass they haven't gotten to. We feed ours grain (50-50 mix sheep pellets & whole corn) every evening in the barn for two reasons. One for nutrition, and two to train them coming into the small sheep barn for handling. My wife didn't latch the big gate back properly one time and a half dozen walked out. I just got the grain bucket and shook it, they came right back in.

Since we're raising them for meat we're not interested in registered or pure bred stock. We sell the excess animals on Craigslist. As opposed to cattle, most processors charge a flat rate ($75 in our case), so it behooves a person to grow an animal out fully.

You'll find a big difference between the lamb you buy in the stores vs hair sheep. Nearly all the lamb in the stores is from Australia and New Zealand, and are wool sheep. It has what's called a "mutton" taste, where hair sheep in our opinion has a more pleasant, sweeter taste.

[farmchix]

Jun 7, 2019 13:20:03 GMT Ozarks Tom said:

We started with Barbados, four ewes and a ram, but after our first two rams turned dangerously rank on us we got a Katahdin ram as they're a good deal more docile. As has been said, even if they're docile, never turn your back on them.

Hair sheep do fine in cold temperatures, they grow heavy coats that insulate just fine, then lose the coat in spring (looking really scraggly for a month or so).

Also as has been said, Barbados are more skittish than Katahdins, but over time can become very socialized. We have several who would rather have their backs scratched than eat. Barbados are beautiful animals, and very athletic. One jumped right past my shoulder one time when spooked, and I'm 6'3".

The meat yield from a sheep in ratio to its weight is very good as compared to beef. We usually yield about 50% or better from a full grown animal.

We have 20 animals grazing about 3 acres, and they still have plenty of tall grass they haven't gotten to. We feed ours grain (50-50 mix sheep pellets & whole corn) every evening in the barn for two reasons. One for nutrition, and two to train them coming into the small sheep barn for handling. My wife didn't latch the big gate back properly one time and a half dozen walked out. I just got the grain bucket and shook it, they came right back in.

Since we're raising them for meat we're not interested in registered or pure bred stock. We sell the excess animals on Craigslist. As opposed to cattle, most processors charge a flat rate ($75 in our case), so it behooves a person to grow an animal out fully.

You'll find a big difference between the lamb you buy in the stores vs hair sheep. Nearly all the lamb in the stores is from Australia and New Zealand, and are wool sheep. It has what's called a "mutton" taste, where hair sheep in our opinion has a more pleasant, sweeter taste.

Super helpful!  We will be processing ourselves.  (We processed 3 last weekend with the neighbor.)  That's crazy that they can jump that high!  We were thinking we at least need to build them a little lean-to for shelter.  Another concern we have here is the coyote population - thus the need for a more structured fence.  What we have now was used for horses back in the 80s.  There are a couple holes in it.  LOL

[feather]

I don't know sheep except these two things.

Sheep milk is much harder to come by than cow or goat milk. The volume is much less and the cheese more precious. The rare sheep farm that milks their sheep is a labor of love.

From our garlic selling site we met a woman that raises sheep in Wisconsin. As you know Wisconsin has hard winters. You might want to ask her about shelter during the cold weather or if that is necessary. This is her website: www.asylumfarm.com/

[Ozarks Tom]

farmchix, One other thing to consider with sheep is the right LGD. Our preference is for Great Pyrenees, there are several other breeds, including Anatolian which we've tried, buy Great Pyrs have a couple instinctive attributes we appreciate. One is their naturally watching the sky as much as the fence line. I thought this was just quirk of our first Great Pyr, but talking to other owners it appears is born into them. During lambing season, when you have 4-5 pound lambs on the ground, a big hawk or eagle could carry them off easily. We have hawks and eagles here, but whenever they come gliding close the dogs start barking just like the would a coyote approaching. We've never lost a lamb or chicken to a bird of prey. Also, the don't seem to have a need to "play" with the lambs like our Anatolian did. They're very calm around the stock, but would have no problem tearing a coyote to pieces.

The one drawback to Great Pyrs is their long coats, which require brushing out to keep from matting, and springtime shedding can fill a garbage bag. One of ours has an unusually heavy, almost curly coat that matts no matter how many times we brush her, so we shear her back to about 1/2" in the spring. She doesn't like the sound of the clippers, so the vet gave us some tranquilizer pills that nearly put her to sleep.

[AD in WNC]

I have Great Pyrenees as lgds too. Love them! Calm, protective and intelligent. My large male great Pyrenees, at age 4 mos, raised an orphaned angora goat. Poor goat got carried around by the scruff of the neck,like a puppy. When I switched to Shetland sheep, the great Pyrenees adapted to them easily, although he does prefer goats to sheep.

The Shetlands are small fiber animals. I sold a lot of the meat, too. During our worst winter weather, they would be outside with ice coating their fur. Very hardy. Never had any birthing issues either. I liked them because the adults are small enough for me to lift without help.

[dustawaits]

Ozarks Tom, has excellent advice about having a LGD.
But all dogs are not LGDs even if they are born of excellence parents.
The fence needs to keep the dog in as well as the sheep.
Please stay away from Anatolians, too many have been imported that
are nothing but fighting dogs which are a danger to man and beast.

Yes sheep can jump. I love Cheviots, excellent little sheep that have a lot
of density. Small though they be, and me 5’10”” one sailed over my head.

[shellymay]

farmchix ,  Hi lady............

Love me some sheep, lol.......

You lacked a lot of info in your post, as for the fence please use woven wire , as for the shelter I need to know what your intensions are? how much land will they have to graze? are you interested in breeding or just raising for meat? here is my opinion on some of the above.

Katahdin's are a good breed especially if you plan to breed your own ewes and lamb them out and eat their babies, this can take some time to grow them to butcher size though, so I would if I was you have a secure woven wire fence, build a simple 3 sided lean-to for shelter and go purchase a couple of 5-6 month old lambs and raise them up to eat, I would do that in the spring when your ready and raise them until they are 11 months of age and slaughter at that time, lamb is 11 months of age or younger, anything 1 year old or older is considered mutton, you know aged like an old deer or cow or something  

By doing the above you won't or shouldn't have to worry about purchasing any hay (based on land size we can advice how many to stock on said land) they will have grass and you can feed grain like Ozarks Tom , said....by purchasing lambs that are 5-6 months of age you are better off your first time with this because it can take lambs sometimes that long to build an immune system to better fight things like parasites, you will want to make sure that who ever you purchase them from has given them their 1st and 2nd set of CDT shots and possibly wormed at least once, if anything arises later we can advise you of treatments, but lets hope all goes well and you wont need to put anymore unwanted drugs into your lambs, if raising a few was a great experience and all went well then maybe down the road breeding pair?

Meat for you freezer is great, but less labor and expenses is also great, as I said no hay cost is a savings, also breeding pairs need their hooves trimmed at least once a year, shots for the ewe/ram and lambs every year, more worries about parasites and the cost of feed and a separate pen for ram are or can be an issue,  ect ect  ... in my opinion if you don't plan on breeding and just want to raise them up and butch and then have the winter OFF of all and any worries/labor which includes frozen drinking water issues, then I would purchase Dorpers if you can get some at a good price, or Dorper/Katahdin cross, the muscle mass of the Dorper is unreal and they are so much thicker and more meat for your money so to speak..

What I don't care for much with the dorpers is that they leave a wooley wide streak down their backs and it makes them look awful and most folks end up shearing it just like they would a wool breed even though they are a hair sheep, but if you purchase and slaughter dorpers at the end of each grass growing season it won't be bad at all to look at, it is more of an eye sore on or at their second year of age or older, lol 

We have a few Dorpers and lots of Katahdins, love the meat of either breed, some will say that the wool breeds because of the lanolin in the wool breeds folks can taste that in the meat, some folks swear they can smell it when the meat is cooking, hair breeds really help eliminate all that in my opinion.....Also most Katahdins/Dorpers that are from good breeders are hornless and that is sooooooooo great not worrying about an animal getting their horns caught in fences   Trying to give you good easy FIRST TIMER advice, over the future years you might want to try other things? 

Also the first year if you just try to raise a few for meat it is cheaper to run hot wire at bottom of woven wire fence verse the life long commitment to have a LGD, also LGD need room and are not happy in a small space

Feel free to ask ALL of us anymore questions......  

[Maura]

When I have sheep again I will get older lambs that I can raise all summer, then butcher. Much easier than taking care of them in the winter.

My advice for shelter was for wool sheep.

[wally]

My Tennant sheep arrived today, I let a neighbor put sheep in a small field. Included with the sheep is a donkey, named della. The grandkids love to hand feed them. And yes mr. Tom training them to a bucket rattling has worked for me on just about every animal. .

[farmchix]

Jun 7, 2019 19:06:04 GMT shellymay said:

farmchix ,  Hi lady............

Love me some sheep, lol.......

You lacked a lot of info in your post, as for the fence please use woven wire , as for the shelter I need to know what your intensions are? how much land will they have to graze? are you interested in breeding or just raising for meat? here is my opinion on some of the above.

Katahdin's are a good breed especially if you plan to breed your own ewes and lamb them out and eat their babies, this can take some time to grow them to butcher size though, so I would if I was you have a secure woven wire fence, build a simple 3 sided lean-to for shelter and go purchase a couple of 5-6 month old lambs and raise them up to eat, I would do that in the spring when your ready and raise them until they are 11 months of age and slaughter at that time, lamb is 11 months of age or younger, anything 1 year old or older is considered mutton, you know aged like an old deer or cow or something  

By doing the above you won't or shouldn't have to worry about purchasing any hay (based on land size we can advice how many to stock on said land) they will have grass and you can feed grain like Ozarks Tom , said....by purchasing lambs that are 5-6 months of age you are better off your first time with this because it can take lambs sometimes that long to build an immune system to better fight things like parasites, you will want to make sure that who ever you purchase them from has given them their 1st and 2nd set of CDT shots and possibly wormed at least once, if anything arises later we can advise you of treatments, but lets hope all goes well and you wont need to put anymore unwanted drugs into your lambs, if raising a few was a great experience and all went well then maybe down the road breeding pair?

Meat for you freezer is great, but less labor and expenses is also great, as I said no hay cost is a savings, also breeding pairs need their hooves trimmed at least once a year, shots for the ewe/ram and lambs every year, more worries about parasites and the cost of feed and a separate pen for ram are or can be an issue,  ect ect  ... in my opinion if you don't plan on breeding and just want to raise them up and butch and then have the winter OFF of all and any worries/labor which includes frozen drinking water issues, then I would purchase Dorpers if you can get some at a good price, or Dorper/Katahdin cross, the muscle mass of the Dorper is unreal and they are so much thicker and more meat for your money so to speak..

What I don't care for much with the dorpers is that they leave a wooley wide streak down their backs and it makes them look awful and most folks end up shearing it just like they would a wool breed even though they are a hair sheep, but if you purchase and slaughter dorpers at the end of each grass growing season it won't be bad at all to look at, it is more of an eye sore on or at their second year of age or older, lol 

We have a few Dorpers and lots of Katahdins, love the meat of either breed, some will say that the wool breeds because of the lanolin in the wool breeds folks can taste that in the meat, some folks swear they can smell it when the meat is cooking, hair breeds really help eliminate all that in my opinion.....Also most Katahdins/Dorpers that are from good breeders are hornless and that is sooooooooo great not worrying about an animal getting their horns caught in fences   Trying to give you good easy FIRST TIMER advice, over the future years you might want to try other things? 

Also the first year if you just try to raise a few for meat it is cheaper to run hot wire at bottom of woven wire fence verse the life long commitment to have a LGD, also LGD need room and are not happy in a small space

Feel free to ask ALL of us anymore questions......  

The intent is woven wire.  That is what is there now and will need fixing/replacing.  We were thinking about a 3-sided lean-to.  We thought about starting off with 3 breeding stock.  We have to butcher at 5 months.  There is a theremone (sp?) that they release at that point that is the same that beef has, which is what Hubs can't have.    I forgot about hooves.  I remember what a pain that is.  Trimming llama toenails was a pain...  We really don't want a LGD right now.  We had considered buying them from the same Amish lady we got the lamb from to eat, but now you have given me pause.  I doubt they give them any of the needed shots.  They will have about 2 acres to graze.

[dustawaits]

We had a sizable flock., and only trimmed hooves as needed. Some never had their hooves trimmed as
long as we owned them. They do not need trimming as often as goats.
If you have wet pastures you will have problems with hoof rot .Zinc is a must for sheep to prevent this more
than the government says is sufficient. Do not buy a sheep with rot. There are two kinds and one is contagious
If you bring a diseased sheep on the property it stays in the soil indefinitely

[Maura]

One major reason I got Black Welsh Mountain sheep is because they are known to never get hoof rot. They are black sheep with black hooves, so maybe that has something to do with it.

[Melissa]

I agree with good fences. Lambs can escape through the smallest hole! With sheep you really have to watch over them. They can look perfectly fine one day and almost dead the next. All those Bible references to sheep needing a good shepherd are very true-in more ways than one~

[katievt]

Jun 9, 2019 0:35:14 GMT Melissa said:

I agree with good fences. Lambs can escape through the smallest hole! With sheep you really have to watch over them. They can look perfectly fine one day and almost dead the next. All those Bible references to sheep needing a good shepherd are very true-in more ways than one~

And the Bible passages referring to us as sheep are NOT a compliment!

[Melissa]

Jun 10, 2019 17:10:59 GMT katievt said:

Jun 9, 2019 0:35:14 GMT Melissa said:

I agree with good fences. Lambs can escape through the smallest hole! With sheep you really have to watch over them. They can look perfectly fine one day and almost dead the next. All those Bible references to sheep needing a good shepherd are very true-in more ways than one~

And the Bible passages referring to us as sheep are NOT a compliment!

Well the sheep are better than the goats!

[snoozy]

T is my understanding that sheep must be grass-fed, that they are not grain-finished or confinement farmed. Is this true?

[grannyg]

We only have two barbados...use them to keep the grass/weeds down and have the donkey to protect them....plus they do not need sheared at all...ours are very stand offish, not friendly...LOL...they do eat some of the donkey's grains...

[Maura]

Sheep don't have to be grass fed. They can have grain added to the diet. Grain is cheaper to feed than hay.

They finish much younger than cattle. One reason sheep are raised is because they do just fine on poor pasture. Some people finish them on grain the last month before butchering. This is to put fat on them for a higher selling price if they are being sold by weight. I never finished my sheep on grain. I think you get a better, higher quality meat if they go from pasture to freezer.

I don't think they are confinement farmed. There is really no reason to confine them. And you would not feed them a large quantity of grain or they will bloat.