# anyone have barbado sheep



## bucknercrestfarm (Jul 5, 2011)

Anyone have barbado sheep i just got them i dont know quite what to think i wanted kats but i couldnt pass up this trade 6 weaner pigs for 16 head of barbado sheep any tips?


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## aggieterpkatie (Jul 5, 2011)

Holy cow, that's one hell of a trade!


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## carolinagirl (Jul 5, 2011)

That was a great trade!  I have a similar sheep....Barbados Blackbelly sheep.  I also have Katahdins.  So far I am seeing that the Barbados BB sheep are hardier and slower growing.  They are also leaner, producing a leaner carcass.  It's kind of a trade off.  The more commercial a breed is, the more meat they produce, the more care they require.  I saw it when I raised goats too.  The tough rangy Texas Meat goats and briar goats were smaller and slower growing then the Boer goats, but they also didn't get sick as often or need frequent deworming.  If you can rotate pastures, you may find it possible to raise your barbado sheep with no chemicals at all which may really appeal to some of your meat buyers.


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## bucknercrestfarm (Jul 5, 2011)

Oh it was an awsome trade! the two trophy rams are soo gorgous! there is one lamb shes sooo small  and fine boned so far as meat gose do you advertise as bbq lambs? or do the dress out ok but just smaller?


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## rockdoveranch (Jul 5, 2011)

bucknercrestfarm said:
			
		

> Anyone have barbado sheep i just got them i dont know quite what to think i wanted kats but i couldnt pass up this trade 6 weaner pigs for 16 head of barbado sheep any tips?


What kind of Barbado do you have?  Barbados Blackbelly Sheep, American Blackbelly Sheep, or what we down here in Texas call Texas Barbado, an unrecognized breed originating from Barbados Blackbelly sheep which were crossed with Rambouillet and mouflon?

Thanks.


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## bucknercrestfarm (Jul 5, 2011)

we have the texas barbado. they have alot of the majestic(sp?) line. got to say when i first got them your web site was one of the first ones i looked at you have got a beautiful herd!


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## boothcreek (Jul 6, 2011)

Majestic Mouflons has THE best European moufs in the world(or at least north america) when it comes to horngrowth and colour. So by the sounds of it your texas barbado have a lot of mouflon blood in them.

I keep some of the basebreeds to the texas barbado in pure form, the american black bellie and the european mouf and love those breeds. I am actually getting a pure Mouf ewe shipped up from texas from the Majestic Mouf line in August!!!!!! Up here in Canada we only have basically 1 line of moufs and that is toronto zoo stock so I want to give myself a treat and bring in new blood. Her name is going to be - the $1000 sheep-!!! She better be one of those odd mouflons that twins! lol

I was wondering tho, do the texas barbado with high percantage mouf blood only single? Moufs extremely rarely twin so I was wondering how strong that trait is.


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## bucknercrestfarm (Jul 6, 2011)

Yeah the guy said the herd he traded for my 6 pigs had bloodlines that would make you cry. he gave them up because of a death in the family and it was a hard reminder. the two trophy rams are so reagle looking but one is red?  other it your typical tan and black


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## rockdoveranch (Jul 6, 2011)

bucknercrestfarm said:
			
		

> we have the texas barbado. they have alot of the majestic(sp?) line. got to say when i first got them your web site was one of the first ones i looked at you have got a beautiful herd!


Thanks Buckner!  We kind of lucked out with The Old Man, the ram in my avatar.  He was under a year old when we got him and there was no way to know what his horns would do when they grew.  Just be cautious with your boys.  They can be very dangerous.  If you are put in a position where you have to bottle feed a ram lamb, handle him as little as possible.  As an mature ram he will have no fear, respect for humans, and is potentially more dangerous than a ram lamb raised by his mom. 

A month or so ago our January 2009 bottle baby ram lamb somehow got out of the ram pasture.  He was running towards me and I though, OMG I am dead and my husband will not hear my screams as Trouble charged me.  Turns out he was looking for a food hand out and he did not hurt me, or want to hurt me, but when he was climbing on me he very well could have injured me with one bad turn of his horns.  

Where are you located?  Texas?  Post pictures when you can.  I would love to see your herd!

Boothcreek,

Whose ranch are you getting your Mouflon ewe from?

Our herd looks to have a high percentage of Mouflon.  I will find and post a full body photo of The Old Man.  We rarely have twins.  However, we had an accidental breeding with a ram lamb this year.  Of the 5 ewes that lambed, 3 had twins.  One rejected her very tiny ewe lamb.  Another set of twins died in the birth canal.  The 3rd set are doing well.  Right now we are waiting for babies from the right ram.


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## rockdoveranch (Jul 6, 2011)

Here is the ram in my avatar.  He is 7 years old.  (He does have a neck.  It is not see well in the first two pictures.


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## boothcreek (Jul 6, 2011)

> Boothcreek,
> 
> Whose ranch are you getting your Mouflon ewe from?


She is coming from "Hi lonesome Mouflon" Ranch, he has a lot of blood from Majestic mouflons(Rickey Hunt) in his flock, and he just purchased a 5 yr old euro mouf ram from Majestic lines that looks to be a world record already. I only picked this breeder since most only look at the rams horns and colours(nothing looks bolder then black mane and butt, white saddle and white legs and belly and some red highlights in the shoulder and hip) and totally ignore the ewes. In old paintings you can tell that mouf ewes use to be quite marked and colourful compared to todays.  He breeds for both ram and ewe colour!

Buckner, with texas barbado being basically heinz 57 crosses containing mouflon and american black bellie blood they can look like basically anything.


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## rockdoveranch (Jul 6, 2011)

Boothcreek,

I just looked through Hi lonesome Mouflon Ranch's website and LOVED what I saw!  WOW!   I did not realize their horns curled as much as our ram's horns curl.  I assume that the Rambouillet in our rams are responsible for the lower arch from there head.  I am sure there must be technical terms for what I am saying, but if there are, I do not know them.

Is there a lot of red tape you are going to have to go through to transport your ewe through state to state and then into Canada?


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## bucknercrestfarm (Jul 6, 2011)

Im in washington state! yes i will try to get pics up kinda hard were building our home and every thing is done by cell phone but ill show my herd. going thru my paper work the red ram "tall boy" is 7th gen red stock from hawii and some are from british calumbia. I made the mistake of walking thru there pen with a bucket of grain for my horses and i got very uneasy due to rams surrounding me i dropped the bucket and backed off to have a ewe with a lamb at her side to go kung fu on me and did a wird jump kick! needless to say i wont cut thru there pen agin..but it is cute when they stomp there feet....just not close up and my aussie who rounds up 800 pound pigs rather go thru a hot wire then go near the sheep


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## rockdoveranch (Jul 6, 2011)

Buckner,

Hope I did not scare you.  Just be cautious.  I have never had a ewe butt me, but I have had some paw me. 

We have a few ewes that will come up to me to sniff my fingers and take food from my hand, but the rest are pretty wary with the exception of when I bring a bucket to put them up at night.  Our past and current bottle ewes are all over me, climbing and knocking into me, but when I dump a tiny bit of grain in the buckets they all do not think twice about knocking into me.  The rams, when fed, are fed over the gate.  When we need to check them over or are selling them, we put them in a small working pen.  The smaller and more crowded the pen, the better.    

Funny, or maybe sad, about your Aussie.  In time she will get used to them.  In truth, the smallest of dogs will scare the sheep into a panic.  Years ago I looked out into a pasture and the sheep where flocked and running madly.  Turns out our Beagle had dug out and was chasing them.  You would think the rams would have put an end to her.  Wait until you are moving them from pasture to pasture.  Sometimes they hesitate and other times they go wild running and jumping over fences that are not there.


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## boothcreek (Jul 7, 2011)

rockdoveranch said:
			
		

> Boothcreek,
> 
> I just looked through Hi lonesome Mouflon Ranch's website and LOVED what I saw!  WOW!   I did not realize their horns curled as much as our ram's horns curl.  I assume that the Rambouillet in our rams are responsible for the lower arch from there head.  I am sure there must be technical terms for what I am saying, but if there are, I do not know them.
> 
> Is there a lot of red tape you are going to have to go through to transport your ewe through state to state and then into Canada?


From what I was told the paperwork for going to canada is plenty enough to get it from state to state. Ewes are much harder to bring across then rams. Rams just need a "yep, the flock appears healthy" certificate and ewes need tattoos, scrapy tags and the breeder must have been in the scrapy program at least 5 yrs before you can get a ewe across the border....... Thats why the ewe is coming from texas because the Scrapy program is mandatory there for anyone buying/selling sheep.

The breeder has been oh so parient and helpful with getting this all figured.


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## rockdoveranch (Jul 8, 2011)

boothcreek said:
			
		

> rockdoveranch said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Interesting.

The scrapie voluntary program is much stricter that the mandatory program in Texas.  I will have to start a thread about it because I have no idea what it is like in other states or other countries, and it would be interesting to know.


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