Getting hair sheep, need some advice.

[promiseacres]

HI I'm had some questions about getting my herd of hair sheep (ram and 3 ewes all 2 yrs old). These are used to people, and are motivated with feed though have not been treated as "pets". They are all mixed breed some jacob, katadin, painted desert, churro, and barbados. The ram looks like a painted desert and has 4 horns. He's always been in with his girls and has recently bred them so am told to expect lambs in February. My family had sheep we raised for 4H but that was many years ago. My plan is to raise these guys for meat and maybe horns.

1. I have 4' HOT high tensile fence (6 wire in dry lots, 4 in pastures) and am told this will do unless we need to work with them or they get startled. I am planning on building a shed in their dry lot and can put a small feed/work area there near their shed. Do you think this will work to keep them in? I plan on letting them graze in our pastures (about 1 acre each, til about December then they'll get hay) daily and in at night. If one were to jump out would the others follow?
2. My understanding is they really do not need much feed at all other than grass/hay and access to mineral. (except prior/after lambing)
3. Any advice would be great (especially about our fencing), am hoping to work out details to pick them up within 2 weeks. THANKS!
Dee

 

[bonbean01]

We have Dorper/Kat cross hair sheep and your fencing would be very adequate for our sheep...however with horns that might be different? Ours seem to have no desire to get out and are happily grazing the big pasture with the wire field fence, no electric. When we put them into the small pasture with just two strands of electric wire they do fine also, even when the wires are not hot. We put ours up at night in a "home" paddock with the metal wire fencing and two hot wires outside the fence...that is for keeping predators out. That is also where they have their shelter sheds and a strong light. We move them to the pastures in the mornings and they follow the feed bucket, then in the evening we just open the gate and they all come running home for night. Even when on pasture they always have access to good hay all night.

Again...with horned sheep I have no clue.

 

[SheepGirl]

1. Yes a 4' high fence will keep them in. However, I know most people recommend 5 or 6 strands of electric fencing for sheep, so I would be a bit worried about your 4-strand fence. If I were you, I would lock them in the dry lot for at least a week (to quarantine them from your land so they don't 'infect' your pasture should they be harboring germs) and that also helps keep them close to you when you feed so they get used to you. In addition it helps them establish a 'home base' so they always know to go there to feel safe.

2. My sheep get pasture all year round. When there's snow on the ground, they get hay, but they usually don't touch it. My sheep get grain when I flush them (0.5 lb/hd for 34 days), in late gestation (0.5 lb/day for the last 30 days), and lactation (0.75-1.0 lb per lamb the ewe is nursing for 60 days...the ewes are 'weaned' off the grain 0.25 lb every other day so by the time the lambs are 60 days old the ewe isn't getting any grain), and the lambs get 1-3% of their body weight in grain from 2-3 weeks until they lamb and wean their baby (ewe lambs that are open don't get fed as much grain, though they do get some to grow & meet their nutritional requirements). My ram, right now is under weight (I got him a month ago like that) so I am giving him 1 lb of grain/day. Once he gets back into condition (probably a month from now) I won't give him any grain.

3. A word of advice: Build a catch pen! What I like to do when my sheep were at my neighbor's farm is herd them into the barn yard and herd them into a pen, and in that pen was a smaller 5x4 pen I could herd them in there and close the gate and I could easily catch them to do what I wanted with them. So you basically want it like those Russian nesting dolls--you start with a large pen, and then you have a medium sized pen in there, and then you have a small pen inside that (no wider than 8'--any wider than that and you can't reach your arm out to grab one should it run by you). With my sheep now, they are all getting grain so it is easier to catch them with just them walking up to me and I can just grab a leg, but once they're off grain it's gonna be near impossible to catch them. By then though I hope to have their temporary shelter completely finished so I can build a pen off the front and connect it to our fence so I can catch them when needed.

 

[bonbean01]

Good points Sheepgirl! We like a home night base (coyotes and dogs can be a problem) and the sheep feel safe there and we can see them from the house. I know that if they ever got out of the pasture for some reason, they would head straight home.

Also when building their shelter, make a catch pen. Our sheep through the years have taught us what we need...LOLOL...added onto the shelter twice, birthing pens when needed and a way to separate the ram without him feeling all alone, and a small enclosure for any shots, etc... needed.

Our backs aren't great, so also got a tilt table...works as a chute when drenching for worms and tilts for trimming hooves. Saw one at a local sheep breeder's and took photos and had a local guy weld one for us and saved a ton of money doing it that way.

Good luck and I know you're going to get hooked on sheep! Just love ours

 

[RemudaOne]

"Our backs aren't great, so also got a tilt table...works as a chute when drenching for worms and tilts for trimming hooves."

OMG! I am SOOO jealous!!

 

[bonbean01]

And I'm so jealous of your barn cam!!!! We both need to win a lottery so that we can each have both!

 

[Cornish Heritage]

Also when building their shelter, make a catch pen.

This is vital if you want stress free sheep. We actually built a pen outside our pastures, attached to our barn on the side nearest the house. The main entrance is what we use to go in & out but on the other side we can open the field gate & the catch pen gate & the sheep just think they are coming out to fresh pasture. We can then work with them in there. PLUS we also have a middle section of our barn that leads into three different areas for easy sorting.

We have St. Croix hair sheep & we do not worm or trim nails. We are in the Ozarks so we grow rocks really well down here to trim nails! LOL! If you do not feed grain, the nails will not grow as fast. We do not feed grain BUT if your sheep have been used to grain you will need to wean them off gradually. We did this & ours are looking really good now. Took them a while though but now we just feed grass/hay.

Ours are out 24/7 but we do bring the ewes into a smaller pasture at night for security. Rams stay out in their pasture all the time.

Most of ours respect Hi-Tensile - we have five wire, 4ft high but the young lambs will jump through it. We also have some internal fences of two & three wire polywire & they do respect that BUT if one was to run through you can pretty much guarantee that they all will. That's sheep for you!

Hope you enjoy your new sheep.

Liz

 

[bonbean01]

Wow...no feet trimming? I would love that but we are on soft ground here, so necessary. We don't "worm" ours...don't need to if we keep up with a preventive drenching monthly when we do their feet...garlic barrier with apple cider vinegar...and I add vitamins and molasses and probiotics.

Drove through the Ozarks...that is some beautiful country!!!!

 

[Alice Acres]

Hooves - ours get trimmed once a year, with shearing and vaccinations.
Ours are out on pasture (and on dirt now with the darn drought) and get hay. Sheep are very efficient ruminants and do so well this way.

 

[Cornish Heritage]

Wow...no feet trimming?

Y'know if I saw one with really long nails, of course we would trim them but haven't yet. Our ground is hard, there are rocks everywhere, creek beds etc so they really shouldn't need it. I can remember having to trim our goats hooves every 3-6 mths in MT & boy did that kill my back!

Yep! We are in the rolling hills of the Ozarks - it is very beautiful. Lots & lots & lots of trees. Reminds us alot of England - big old oak trees etc.

Liz