Another breed?

[secuono]

I'm thinking of adding another breed of sheep. I don't want to deal with two rams, separate paddocks, fighting, breeding all year round and that stuff. So hoping to find a nice purebred to keep with my current flock. Lambs from the cross will be sold for food or eaten by us. I really need more sheep eating the pasture I have and have more lambs so we can send some to the freezer.

I still want naturally polled sheep, will never accept anything with horns, far too many possibilities for horror and vet bills we wouldn't be able to afford. I'd also prefer them to be hair sheep, since they aren't my staple breed, I don't like the idea of paying for them to be shorn. But at the same time, if there was a breed that had fast growing, quality wool that was naturally polled, I might consider it.

My current sheep are very nice, they don't try to escape, they don't challenge fencing, haven't needed de-worming and the such. At this point, I may be asking too much. But if they are half or partly these things, that would be nice. I'm not sure if any size breed ewes would still easily be bred by my mini ram, any insight on that?

I don't want a pricey breed, my current breed costs too much, I'm struggling hard to buy an unrelated ewe lamb. They sell out fast and cost too much than I can easily afford.

Can anyone help me?


Found some California Red Sheep, can't find much else around me. They seem nice, but I don't know.

 

[SheepGirl]

You could probably get a couple Romneys or Coopworths. Both are long wool breeds that shear a heavy, long-stapled fleece that you can sell to handspinners for a good price to pay for shearing. Or you can even get some production Dorsets...they will pay all their feed & shearing bills with the sale of slaughter lambs.

We bred a Babydoll ram to Montadale ewes and we had lots of lambs born every spring! So any breed would be okay. (You can see below how big the ewes are!) And you know how short Babydoll rams are....barely come up to your mid thigh!

 

[secuono]

Wow, that's huge...Don't think I want miniature horse-sheep. haha, ever had a kid ride one of those guys??
Looks like it might eat a ton of hay during winter, too. =/

 

[purplequeenvt]

I agree with SheepGirl, a Romney would be a good option. Around here, handspinners LOVE Romney fleeces. If you got some natural colored Romneys and kept them really clean, you should be able to sell for a pretty decent price to the fiber artists in your area.

I would imagine a Romney/BD Southdown would be a nice meat animal too.

 

[secuono]

Anything polled and hair instead? I won't be coating sheep to keep the wool extra clean.

 

[purplequeenvt]

Katahdins and Dorpers are both polled, hair sheep.

You don't have to coat the Romneys to keep them clean. It's all in the feeding strategy. You have to feed in a way that the sheep aren't eating over each other.

 

[Ruus]

Lots of hair sheep breeds are polled. Katahdins are polled, as are Dorpers/White Dorpers. Dorpers are short and heavy muscled, the Katahdins are somewhat larger framed. Barbados Blackbellies (not American Blackbellies!) are also polled, but they're rather rare, so they might be too pricey.

 

[bcnewe2]

I raise Black headed Dorpers and Katahdins and crosses of both. I love my fast growing easy keeping sheep.
I have mixed them with North Country Cheviots and loved the mix till it came to shearing. Anything hair mixed with wool makes a horrid shearing sheep the first generation. after that it gets better.