How many are currently raising hair breeds of sheep?

[Sheepdog]

Hi from Ga. I'm going to look at some katahdin on the 23rd. but can't decide if I want to mix my herd. My friends are telling me to keep my herd pure.

That is entirely up to you. I personally like a pure herd, well full bloods actually, but I am big on pedigrees, line breeding etc. In saying that we still put a dorper ram over our Katahdins and St Croix ewes. I have toyed with the idea of getting a full blood Katahdin ram and a full blood St Croix ram, but it is just extra messing around having to divide the breeds of sheep into different pastures etc. I love the St Croix and Katahin ewes but I personally don't like the big mane that the rams get, so another reason I prefer the Dorper... then again we have had some Dorper that don't shed their wool all that well too, so we looked again into bloodlines and tried to get the sheep that are better for shedding their wool. Don't have any trouble with the Katahdins or St Croix with shedding though, they have more hair and it falls out very easily in most cases. So it really depends on what you prefer. You could always get yourself a good Dorper ram and try him over your Katahdins.... but buy a decent ram to start with. If you like what you see then great, if not, sell him and buy a Katahdin ram.

If you are wanting to build up your herd of Katahdins, you could get yourself a good quality Katahdin ram and then keep all of your ewe lambs that you produce.....and then if you wanted to experiment with a cross such as a dorper or whatever breed you decide you could get another ram (Dorper or whatever breed you decide) and breed him to the Katahdin ewe lambs that you keep (when they are old enough obviously) and yet still breed the Katahdin ram back to the original Katahdin ewes. If you didn't like what you produced with the crosses, sell off your crosses and your Katahdin ram and buy another Katahdin ram that you can then use to breed your original ewes as well as their daughters that you keep. Many ways you can go with this. And its a lot of fun experimenting and waiting to see what the lambs turn out like. Just always try to buy good quality to begin with... you might pay a little more for them, but they are worth it in the long run and if you get a good ram, you won't have any trouble re-selling him or even swapping him with someone who is ready to swap out their ram. Good luck.

 

[wava1vaughn]

Hi from Ga. Our main business is rare birds the sheep are just extra animals we have on the farm. The Barbados are so flighty but we are starting to make ground on getting them used to us. In the past my wife has been attacked by our big male goats so we end up getting rid of them. Luckily Ramsey our beautiful Ram is turning into a big baby wanting to be petted. This new trait is probably going to keep him out of the freezer. I really would like to have a whole herd of friendly sheep. Is this to much to expect?

 

[Sheepdog]

Hi from Ga. Our main business is rare birds the sheep are just extra animals we have on the farm. The Barbados are so flighty but we are starting to make ground on getting them used to us. In the past my wife has been attacked by our big male goats so we end up getting rid of them. Luckily Ramsey our beautiful Ram is turning into a big baby wanting to be petted. This new trait is probably going to keep him out of the freezer. I really would like to have a whole herd of friendly sheep. Is this to much to expect?

Yes the Barbado can be flighty compared with other breeds, but personally I think if you cull heavily and only keep your quiet sheep, sell off or eat any overly flighty sheep, then I don't think it is too much to expect to have a whole herd of friendly sheep.

You can have the quietest breed of sheep or cattle and have one or two that are a little crazy and they upset the whole flock/herd. Any cow that is a fence climber, or one that when we gather the cattle... we have about 300 head but in Australia we had 2500 head.... and anything that sees us or the dogs and runs, head up and tail up in the air... I give it a couple of chances and then..... it's gone I will not tolerate any animal which is half wild.... it upsets everything, including me LOL.... makes for extra work and stirs up the rest of the animals.

Obviously you need to give the Barbado a little more slack as they are naturally a "wilder" breed..... I bet they would survive in the wild a darn sight better than the dorpers

I love the look of the sheep such as the Black Bellies, Painted Desert, Barbado, etc... we have a ranch that my fiance does a lot of hunting on and where we run our cattle (don't live there, we live on our other ranch which is where I keep my sheep and the rest is hay meadows).... so those type of sheep look appealing... but for me for the meat and for training working border collies, I prefer the quieter less flighty breeds. In a perfect world we would have some of these other breeds on the hunting ranch....with lovely big horns etc.... but it is hardly fenced appropriately for cattle.... the river runs straight through the middle of the ranch and washes away the fences every time it floods..... so we could never keep sheep there successfully... and the coyotes would have a feast.

I think if you persevere and eat the wilder ones LOL... you should have a flock that is quiet and easy to handle.

By the way, what sort of rare birds do you raise?

 

[wava1vaughn]

Hi from Ga. We deal in rare breeds of chickens. If you click on my website you will see some of them. We are changing all the time.

 

[carolinagirl]

When I first got my Barbados Blackbelly sheep I wanted them to be tame. I tried....really I did! But I have since decided to let them be. They are very close to wild animals and I appreciate them for what they are. They don't want me to mess with them and really don't need it, so I just enjoy them from the other side of the fence. When they start lambing, I will weigh and tag the new lambs but that will be it.

I do like my Katahdins and enjoy petting them. But if I decided to get rid of one breed, I think I'd keep the Barbados and get rid of the katahdins. the Katahdins are much more susceptible to internal parasites. I have had to deworm them twice this past summer, and never had to do the Barbados. The Barbados have a much higher resistance to parasites.

 

[Beekissed]

For a pasture-raised hair sheep, the SC and BB being flightier is, IMO, a desirable trait. The need to flock well and the flightiness to avoid predator attack is something I would not change. If I had sheep out on large areas of pasture, the flightier and more independent breeds would be something I would stock.

Katahdins seem to be more docile and complacent, on the whole, than the other breeds and respond better to hand taming and backyard lawnmower type raising of sheep. The Dorpers come in a close second on that.

 

[carolinagirl]

yep....in the pasture, these sheep are always together. At night, they sleep in the middle of the field, all facing different directions. I put them in my front pasture. I am not worried about anyone catching and stealing one. No one can get their hands on them. I am going to build a paddock in the pasture so I can catch them when I need to. The ram is very defensive of his girls. If I walk one of my dogs past their pasture, he is always right there at the fence, stomping and snorting at the dogs. I enjoy this wild behavior. It's almost like having a herd of whitetail deer. They are also much more active and playful than the katahdins. They hop and jump and chase each other around (most are lambs, coming up on a year old). My DIL has a good view of this pasture from her porch and says it's like having National Geographic right in her front yard.

There was a time that I considered getting rid of these sheep because I wanted animals I could handle. But they have really grown on me and now I adore them. I can't pet them, but I do love having them around. I have not eaten one yet but I understand the meat is delicious.

 

[Beekissed]

CG, I think that more wild behavior also contributes to their parasite resistance. I think they more readily eat browse that the more domesticated breeds do not and some of those weeds/shrubs work as a natural dewormer and help to keep better rumen health. Like you said, they are sort of like deer...and when was the last time you saw a deer die of intestinal parasites? My family have been living and eating off the land/woods for over 35 years and we've yet to see a deer dead in the woods without it being trauma related.

 

[carolinagirl]

I think they just have a resistance to parasites....more than domestic sheep have. During the summer, I ran the Katahdins and the BBs together in the same pasture. There was just grass there....no browse. The Katahdins needed deworming (pale eyelids) and the blackbellys never did. I may breed a couple of my katadhins to the black belly ram to see if their offspring are hardier than the katahdins.

 

[Beekissed]

That's interesting....it would be great to know what, exactly, creates a state of resistance to parasites...they are both mammals, both hosts to the same type of parasites...what physiological component is it that would create an environment that would discourage parasite growth/thrive in one mammal as opposed to another?

I've done a lot of research on the matter and can never find any studies that explain why one animal can thrive with parasite loads and some cannot, some can shed parasite loads and some cannot and all the physical reasons for that. Have you found anything at all in your studies or readings?

Maybe one of the answers lie within this thread? Maybe different breeds of sheep have been conditioned to choose and eat different grasses within the same pasture situation and maybe those different grasses/weeds create a different environment for the parasites? I know that preds in the wild will chew sawtooth grass when they have digestive problems, which scientists believe could be a discomfort caused by worm loads, and the sharp edged grasses, unable to digest/dissolve in a pred, actually cut and destroy the parasites in their intestines.

http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=15906

Maybe the different wilder breeds, down through the years, have passed on the habit of eating weeds/grasses that aren't normally consumed by ruminants in a more domestic breed. Maybe those rougher grasses are just as indigestible to ruminants and perform the same action as they do to preds?

Maybe this is also why free ranged chickens carry less parasites than do chickens confined to a run, though they try to convince backyard chicken owners that it is the exposure to pasture/grass that actually causes more parasite exposure?

I'd sure like to know all these things....