Hello. Thanks for having me

[trampledbygeese]

Hi all. I've had rescue llamas and alpacas for some time now, and now am getting into sheep.

A couple of years ago my friend lost her farm and needed somewhere for her Icelandic sheep to live for a few weeks. Well, I thought, we have some fenced pasture. Almost two years, and one lambing season later she finally found a new farm... but in the meantime I was hooked on sheep.

My small starter flock consists of 4 ewes, 2 Black Welsh Mountain (BWM), 2 Southdown x BWM, and 2 Icelandic rams. With a 1 month old bummer wether coming next week.

One of my ram yearling has genetic issues (his twin died of a hernia) so he is just there to keep the ram company for now. In the mean time I'll raise up the wether so that he will be strong enough to be a ram companion next spring.

My flock goals are to breed for..

• Health and ease of birthing
• fibre quality
• milk
• animals that will pay for their own upkeep with either superior lambing, fibre, or milk

I'll probably get a BWM ram in a few years, but my Icelandic is a good boy who knows I'm boss and that I'm not a sheep. Very good qualities in a ram. He knows he can't win a head on battle, so he does sometimes sneak around the buildings and tries to get behind me... I'm thinking a collar and bell should fix this.

I'm also right on the fence about getting some goats. Thinking two girls, one milker and her kid and they could live with the sheep. We really do need some browsers in the flock because the sheep won't touch the brambles. And besides, if I'm milking sheep, what's one or two more animals to the mix?

My neighbor has some registered Oberhaslis for sale, but at prices that reflect the rarity of the breed (something like 75 registered in Canada at the moment). Very tempting, but I need an animal to pay for itself in 12 months... can a goat really do this?

 

[SA Farm]

 

[luvmypets]

Goats can probably pay for themselves. Especially if its a milk goat. Depending on the breed you can get a gallon of milk a day.

 

[elevan]

Welcome @trampledbygeese !

Yes, a goat can pay for themselves. You want them to clear your brambles, they will do that for you. You want milk, they'll give you that. If your milker gives birth to a male then you can castrate and raise up for meat or to sell.

 

[trampledbygeese]

Thank you for the warm welcome.

One of the things I wonder about the goat is I have choice right now:

1. Buy 2 bottle babies at a very low cost, then raise them up from scratch... no specific bred, just generic goat with a bit of saanen and cashmere in the mix for some reason. Disadvantage of this is that I have to travel quite far to get them, adding to the cost, then I have to buy the milk to feed them, and then raise them up for a year, or possibly two until they are strong enough to have little babies of their own. I also don't know the quality of their current owners. But these ones do have handles, I mean horns, which I'm actually quite fond of.
2. The other choice is to pay a very large sum for an Oberhasli milker and her nanny kid who will be just at weaning age. My advantage here is that the current owner is right next door and one of the main goat gurus in the area. I am confident she keeps good care of her animals and won't let a problem goat leave her farm. Also, there is that sense of social responsibility that I feel it's important to help preserve genetic diversity - so having this registered rarebreed will help with that. Having a milker means that right away they start paying for themselves... But it also means that it will strip my savings account to get them. The neighbour isn't willing to sell them for a month or two because she wants to make certain the goatling is weaned or thereabouts. This gives me time to save up a bit. Another advantage is buck service within walking distance to an unrelated line.

It's a really tough choice, but I'm leaning towards number 2. Mostly because I'm still learning about large mammals and when I acquire livestock I tend to pay as much attention to the shepherd as I do the animal. I'm confident in her ability and caring for the animals. But is it the right choice or am I too swayed by my friendship?

Then there is shelter. At the moment I have three sided shelters for the sheep, as well as other wind breaks and places to hide from the rain. I'll be building another shelter later this summer for the milking parlor/jug. But it will be three sided, with a slatted front. We have very mild weather here, usual extremes -10 C to +25C, with the summer occasionally up to +35C. But goats are more sensitive than sheep, so will I need an improved shelter for them?

 

[kinder]

Well a belated welcome is in order. So glad to have you.!!

 

[OneFineAcre]

Welcome from North Carolina