# small homestead breed



## lacasse farms (Sep 9, 2013)

We just purchased a home with an acre of land and would like to add a few sheep to our hobby farm. We currently have californian rabbits and a flock of chickens. We would like something that is easy to care for, meat and wool, and not require a ton of space. Is there a breed that meets these requests? any advice would be great.


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## bonbean01 (Sep 9, 2013)

Open a post by Sheepgirl...at the bottom is a link for sheep breeds...it's great!  Good luck on finding the perfect sheep for your new farm


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## BHOBCFarms (Sep 13, 2013)

Although they are hard to find, and can be a bit costly, I really like my breed as a small homestead breed.  I raise Miniature Cheviots.  They range between 19 and 24 inches tall, weigh between 50-100 pounds, twin, have good wool, light meat type (dual purpose), and are very easy to handle.  They come in white, black, dillute (tan to chocolate), and paint.  There is a breed registry http://www.minicheviot.com/ which can help you find breeders near you.  Some other small breeds that are popular are Shetlands (great wool for spinning) and Babydolls.


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## lacasse farms (Sep 17, 2013)

Thanks for the replies. I have looked at the mini cheviots and thought that it would be a good choice but im also thinking the soay would be a good one from what i have read. Or maybe both lol.


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## Ruus (Sep 17, 2013)

Well I'm always happy to sing the praises of Soay. ;-) They're very easy care, the wool sheds naturally, the tails don't need docking, and if you give them a gravel corridor or something to walk over, they'll wear down their hooves enough that they won't need their hooves trimmed either. They're not monster-huge meat animals, but will yield enough for your own family's use. The downside of their wool is that it only comes in small quantities (small sheep= small surface area) and only in shades of brown and black, so unless you have a market for naturally colored wool it's not much good. But they're very efficient little sheep, and are a lot more fun to be around than the big sheep I used to work with.


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## norseofcourse (Sep 17, 2013)

What area are you in?  Some breeds are easier to find in some areas than others.  Of course, road trips are always fun, too!

I don't know all the breeds, but the ones mentioned already are good choices.  Gotta throw in a vote for Icelandics too    They come in horned or polled, don't need to dock tails, come in white, grey, black, brown (moorit), medium size, lots of wool (not as fine as Merino, but you can separate their undercoat and outercoat, and the undercoat is fairly soft), and since their wool grows over an inch a month you can shear them twice a year (and if you don't want to shear they shed in the spring).


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## lacasse farms (Sep 18, 2013)

Ruus I have read many of your posts about soay and you are actually the one who made me think about getting them. Norseofcourse thank you for the reply. I am in Rhode Island and surprisingly we have a lot of sheep breeders around here. plus Mass. and CT. are right next door and i also own 19 acres 3 hours north of me in Maine. (i know, why am i not living there?.... Can't convince the wife yet). Icelandics have interested me I'm just not sure i will have the space.


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## SheepGirl (Sep 18, 2013)

Whenever someone says they want a breed for meat and wool, I say you can choose any sheep with wool on it and get both. However, you need to determine the quality of the products you want. You can take a Suffolk and get meat and wool--meat is great, wool is crap. Or you can take an Icelandic--wool is long and luxurious, but there's little meat on their bones. You can also go for a dual purpose breed such as the Corriedale...you get meat and wool, the quality of both isn't great, but it isn't bad, either.

However, when you're choosing a breed for wool, you need to decide what you want the wool for. Based on that option, you can choose between fine, medium, long, and carpet wool breeds. You can eat any sheep. So if you find a breed you like for their wool and are okay with their carcass size, then by all means choose that breed as long as it fits your other needs (hardiness, prolificacy, feed efficiency, etc).

Bon mentioned my sheep breed selector -- you can try it, click the link in my signature.


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## Ruus (Sep 18, 2013)

Lucky you, you're actually closer to good Soay flocks than I am!  I dread the epic journey I'll have to make to get a replacement for my current breeding ram. 

There are actually two different varieties of Soay, although both are practically identical. If you're just interested in meat, wool, and backyard pets, and aren't ready to invest in high-priced breeding stock, you might want to consider doing what I did, and "test-driving" some North American Soay to see if you like them before buying expensive pure British Soay. The NA Soay are much less expensive because they can't be registered, and registration automatically adds a lot to an animal's value. There was some crossbreeding of NA Soay on other breeds years ago, and thus they're usually around 10-20 lbs heavier than British Soay, but it's not too hard to find NA Soay that have been graded up to carry 75-90% British genetics. Registered British lambs sell for a lot more, obviously, but I know it's been a lot less stressful for me to make my beginner mistakes on animals that weren't quite so rare and valuable. 

Now that I have a bit more confidence in both my desire and ability to raise sheep, I definitely see some British breeding stock coming to live with me in the next year or two.


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## Bossroo (Sep 19, 2013)

Some reality things to consider in owning soay as well as some other breeds especially in this economy... sheering a small number of sheep is not going to be cheep and/or even if one can find a sheerer to even show up at your place. Too , it is very hard to sell the wool.  Around here in SW  Washington a soay flock owners finally advertised to give away their  flock of 30 after trying t sell them for 2 years as there is NO market for them ( I got 2 yearlings for free to butcher ) . The yield of meat was pitiful compared to many others that I have butchered at 5- 6 months ( I owned flocks numbering in the hundreds). They are also very skittish as well as escape artists as told to me by the owners as well as personal experience when I saw the flock, and then later,  when I picked up the 2 yearlings. One will need very good fencing.


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## larryj57 (Sep 19, 2013)

lacasse farms said:
			
		

> We just purchased a home with an acre of land and would like to add a few sheep to our hobby farm. We currently have californian rabbits and a flock of chickens. We would like something that is easy to care for, meat and wool, and not require a ton of space. Is there a breed that meets these requests? any advice would be great.


Never having lived in California, I'm just wondering, how many animals can you have on 1 acre? Here in the south with one acre we are looking at chickens and maybe a few rabbits.


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## Ruus (Sep 19, 2013)

It is certainly true that you should do research into your local market. Some places there's a good market for grass-fed whole carcasses that will fit in a smaller freezer, other places there's no market for lambs of any sort. The fact is, there is no breed of sheep I'm aware of that will turn a profit on what an acre will support, which around here would be 3 regular sheep and maybe 6-8 Soay. Profit margins are such that you need a large operation to make a profit with sheep. Soay as a breed are primarily suited to people trying to live a more self-sufficient lifestyle with animals naturally selected to be healthy and able to get along without supplements, rather than operations that want to churn out lots of lambs and wool to sell for profit. Soay (like any other breed) are not going to meet the needs of every producer.

They are naturally shy, but they're also extremely nosy and curious. If you're calm and consistent, and spend time just sitting or walking around the field without chasing them or trying to catch them, it's not at all hard to train them to come for grain in a bucket or a trough and get them pretty tame, although they're not going to be extremely tame pet sheep you can walk up and hug unless they're bottle raised or at least handled/petted extensively as very young lambs. Sheep in general are not as cuddly as they look.

No shearers need to be hired for Soay; they shed out in the spring. You can collect the wool by rooing, but the wool is more suited to felting than spinning. Also, as I said before, it's brown, which is harder to sell than white. I do know someone who makes very cute little felted sheep from the wool and sells those, rather than selling the raw fleece, but if you don't want to bother with the fleece, you don't have to. They'll just shed it off in the pasture and the birds will use it as nesting material. If you want a breed similar to Soay that have a nicer fleece and you don't mind shearing yourself or paying a shearer, you might look into Shetlands. They're a good bit bigger than Soay, but still a small breed, and their wool seems to be very popular with handspinners.


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## lacasse farms (Sep 19, 2013)

i'm not looking to do this for any profit. simply just for our own use and to be ready to be self sufficient if the time ever arrives.


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