I am looking into sheep and have questions.

[Baymule]

You guys drove 1400 miles for a ram?

Sure did. Once I take a notion, there ain’t no stopping me. Once @Mike CHS said he was going to replace Ringo, I claimed him and waited a year for him. BJ griped all the way to Tennessee but he fell in love with Ringo too. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I drag that man around, sometimes kicking and screaming, in my wild and crazy schemes and dreams. He married a tornado but he loves the storm.

And now I’m talking with you on SS about turkeys...... BJ has already voiced his opposition. Come spring, I’m getting turkeys and he can complain till the cows come home. I’ll shove a bite in his face and after that he’ll be on board. LOL LOL

 

[Sheepshape]

Only just caught up with this thread.

Nobody with sound mind thinks "It would be nice to keep a few sheep.....they'll keep my grass down'..... Time consuming contrary things that lie around in fields trying to think of a fun way to die....or something similar said my vet.

Like Baymule I'd trawl the country for a 'sexy, long, desirable' ram....but am blessed with a neighbour who is a real sheep expert and buys very expensive rams and lets me BORROW them. Now I'll only hint at what I have to do to return this favour....but it involves dragging sheep around in his 'shed' and persuading them to jump in dips, get scanned or just 'behave'.....oh and I make bread, too.

Sheep are amazing though......intelligent, (yes you read that right), friendly (ditto) and very rewarding to keep...but darned hard work.

Good Luck.

 

[Ridgetop]

The more you read and learn the better prepared you will be for the actual thing. Start small and grow with your sheep. As you keep sheep and go through the various routines and seasons you will start to realize that they are not as much trouble as many people think. Proper preparation is the key to successful livestock keeping.

Proper fencing and housing are essential, followed by feeding, nutrition, vaccines, and being able to judge condition. Most sheep are able to lamb by themselves. Stories of pulling lambs are not the norm. Most of the time the ewe handles everything herself and you come out to find a new lamb happily nursing.

Some of us have had many years experience but we continually learn more from others. You never stop learning. Learning more is the fun part of livestock keeping.

One thing, do not get a livestock guardian dog before getting your sheep. Read all articles about getting an LGD before getting one. They require lots of research into the type of LGD that will be suitable for your situation. The wrong dog can be more trouble than the predators. The right dog will be worth 10 times what you pay.

 

[Baymule]

Sheep are Sexy?

Durn sure are!

 

[Mike CHS]

I am not sure how I missed this thread but I will go back to the start and catch up. I didn't drive as far as @Baymule did but I drove almost 650 miles to northern Missouri to get the ram that replaced the one she got from us. Every ram within 500 miles of us had the same pedigree and I had to go outside that 500 miles to find new blood.

 

[Sheepshape]

Please show me a picture of sexy sheep.

Well....observe the 'look' in the eyes of those two rams and the lovely Minnie on the near side of the fence....they see she is oozing allure. Looks like a morbidly obese old ewe to me...hey, but who am I to judge?

So you may not exactly see what the attraction is, but try to put yourself into the hooves of those rams.

Oh, and the girls like big, strong, sturdy rams......but they'll accept 'any port in a storm'

 

[Baymule]

Only need 1 ram unless you send the rest to freezer camp.

I have a set of twin lambs a few weeks old. The ram lamb was humping his sister and standing on his tiny back legs trying to hump the ewes at less than a week old! Maybe not sexy, but sure is sex crazed! And that is why ram lambs get whisked away and weaned at 2 months old.

 

[Ridgetop]

By self sustaining do you mean no need to import new blood?

You need to know that you can breed the same ram for 2 generations without problems but the 3rd generation will show problems and should all be terminal or slaughter lambs. Keeping sons of the original ram for breeding stock is not the answer either unless you have a lot of rams servicing a lot of ewes and can separate them into separate breeding groups. Any son of the original ram will also be a half brother to all daughters of the original ram. It gets more inbred by the second generation which is the reason you need to replace the flock ram with an unrelated ram.

If you are breeding sheep for your own freezer and have a market for freezer lambs for others, then keeping one ram for the flock is fine. If you are interested in breeding better stock and improving your flock genetics, then you need to buy stud rams that will give you what you want or need.

Baymule bought a top quality ram from MikeCHS to improve her flock's genetics, both for meat and also parasite hardiness. She has been replacing lesser quality ewes with better ewes to ugrade her flock. MikeCHS has been breeding for parasite hardiness for several years and replaces his rams with a view to better parasite control as well as better meat, temperaments, etc. Sincere sheep breeders know that their sheep are not only for brush/pasture control, but for meat or wool. When we replace stud rams (half the flock genetics) we look for the best ram we can find.

If you buy a ram for better meat production, you look for a long bodied ram with heavy muscling and thick rear legs carrying meat down into the twist.
If you buy a ram to produce better ewes for the flock you look for one that will carry genetics for heavy milk production, ease of lambing and strong maternal traits.
If you raise a lot of meat for the commercial market, then you want a ram that will produce lambs that grow fast and gain weight quickly since the faster they go to slaughter the more economical your operation is.
Sheep that gain well and produce on forage alone are more desirable for commercial operations than breeds that require higher protein diets or diets high in supplements.
If you are raising wool sheep, you need to produce lambs with strong genetics for the specific type of wool you wish to produce. Australia has a made breed that is reserved for the Australian wool market just for carpet wool. Certain wool breeds carry wool for specific spinning. Depending on your market and buyers, you would buy a ram that would produce that type of wool in your flock.

Buying a stud ram means knowing your own sheep and knowing what you want to produce for your purposes. Your ram will contribute half the genetics to the future flock. There is no faster way to better your flock than by using top quality rams. There is also no faster way to ruin your flock than to use a poor ram just because he is available or cheap.

Know your breed, know what you want to produce, and choose a stud ram carefully.

 

[secuono]

You guys drove 1400 miles for a ram?

I hired someone to pickup sheep from Cali, I'm in Virginia. So...

 

[Mike CHS]

Our fence is a mix of Red Brand 330' rolls of wire and Gaucho High Tensile woven wire. The Gaucho is half the weight of the Red Brand and considerably lower cost at $179 - $189 depending on height. I prefer the Gaucho since it is light weight enough for me to put it up by myself if necessary. Besides being lighter, you can stretch it tighter and use a lot less T-posts. We use poly electric rope and netting on the interior and would never think about using it as a perimeter fence. That being said, I know people that use netting as a temporary perimeter fence but their sheep are already trained to it. I have had a few that would routinely go under but they can't go anywhere. Keep in mind that your fence needs to be able to keep animals out as well as keep yours in.