What is the best hair sheep for meat?

[Sweetened]

And carcass weights will vary with breeds and lines and feed style. Lambs are sold signicantly smaller for spring lamb, older girls for mutton and so on. I have no experience with our carcass weights and wont until later this year.

 

[BrownSheep]

Hair sheep in general are bred for meat characteristics since there isn't any usable wool.

I see a lot of Dorpers advertised in Idaho, but as to what does better I couldn't tell you seeing as I raise wool breeds.

 

[FarmersDigest]

Its a marking harness. When the ram mounts the ewes it will leave (whatever color use) on the ewes so you have an estimated due date.

That's awesome, and so smart! Thank you for helping me.

 

[FarmersDigest]

Its crossed out here for higher growth rate, better wool shedding for dorpers (problem with the lines here having been wool crossed so some dont shed well). Honestly, i bought them as bottle babies to get into them on the cheap in case i didnt like having sheep or didnt do well, that way i didnt waste several hundred dollars if something happened. when the lady told me she had one lamb that had romanov genes, i jumped on it for milking and multi birth purposes. Romanovs are known for having and auccessfully raising 6+lambs a year. Our ram is decent quality, i traded chickens for him so didnt pay anything really. I would like more romanov, but they require a stronger and more abundant pasture and summer lambing here.

Oh, that's good to know! Wow, didn't even think of them not shedding correctly because of the cross. Well that's a smart way to getting some sheep! Thank you for telling me what Romanovs was, I was going to look that word up. Thank you for all the great info!

 

[FarmersDigest]

And carcass weights will vary with breeds and lines and feed style. Lambs are sold signicantly smaller for spring lamb, older girls for mutton and so on. I have no experience with our carcass weights and wont until later this year.

So you do your own butchering or do you get a mobile butcher? If you don't mind me asking!

 

[FarmersDigest]

Hair sheep in general are bred for meat characteristics since there isn't any usable wool.

I see a lot of Dorpers advertised in Idaho, but as to what does better I couldn't tell you seeing as I raise wool breeds.

Yeah, that's why I was looking for hair sheep. We want them for meat, and I really liked the idea that we don't have so sheer them! Thank you for your info as well!

 

[SheepGirl]

You said you were relocating to an established farm in Oregon? Or was it another state? Either way, I'm pretty sure it was out West. Shearing is talked up to be a big management task by the hair sheep promoters. Honestly, it really isn't (except for maybe the shearer! ) Out West there are the huge range flocks and there tends to be plenty of shearers to shear these large flocks. Finding shearers in the East is more problematic, though I'm happy my gypsy shearer has her home about 20-30 minutes from my farm. She travels all over the US, mainly the northern East coast to the northern mid West.

All I do is the night before shearing day I pen the ewes up. The morning of shearing I help the shearer set up (just plugging clippers into extension cords), and I hand her sheep one by one. After she's done, I'm able to check over each sheep individually for hoof trimming, weight, their udder, parasite issues, etc. Those management tasks would've been done once a year anyway, might as well do them while they're being sheared. For my shearer to shear my sheep it takes about an hour or two (I have a small flock; last year she sheared 7 and this year she'll be shearing 10-11). With small flocks I've noticed she takes her time, but with the larger flocks I'm sure she goes faster. She's competed in global shearing competitions, which of course measure speed as well as skill.

There is a very narrow breed selection for hair sheep--don't forgo other breeds just because they have wool. Their ease of care as well as their productivity level may be what you desire. Check out my Sheep Breed Selector (link in my signature I believe) and tell us what you come up with.

 

[BrownSheep]

What SheepGirl said is so TRUE.

Shearers are pretty easy to come by. The people I use do most of the Pacific Northwest and do everything from thousands to two. I do a bit more work during shearing but I have 50 sheep. My guys generally bring a crew of 6-8 and do 85 % of the work.

In Oregon there is also a large fiber artist community.

This site provides a ton of information for contacts in the sheep industry. Shearers, Wool Pools and Mills, and even locations for custon processing for wool.

It also has meat processing contacts. Something to think about since your husband is a butcher.
http://www.sheepusa.org/Contacts_IndustryContacts

 

[SheepGirl]

As far as your other questions I forgot to answer...

Tail docking -- Most hair sheep don't need to be docked. However many Dorper breeds dock the tails. The large majority of wool sheep breeds should dock lamb tails for the health of the animal. Rat tail breeds generally do not have this issue. I dock lambs as newborns up to a week old. The sooner the better though.

Grain -- Yes I feed grain to my flock. Flushing, 17 days pre-breeding and 17 days into the breeding season. I didn't flush this year so I'm interested to see my lambing rate and if it changes. I also feed ewes 30 days pre lambing and for 58 days of lactation. The last two days the ewes have no grain and with the grain they have, I decrease the amount by a 1/4 lb every two days until 58 days they get nothing. Lambs get grain at finishing, if I decide to feed them grain.

 

[Sweetened]

Tonne of good information from Sheepgirl! Finding a sheerer here is so hard as of late -- the only guys who do it are the meat sellers and they wont do it for anyone else, just themselves. Last I looked, the nearest guy was 500 km away from me and didn't travel half that. I do like a good looking wooly, but decided against it. Some people cross katahdin or dorper into wool to help shed out in the spring rather than needing to sheer, but from my understanding that's hit and miss?

We kill, gut and skin here and then take down to a butcher (Who's extremely pricy, but very good). Lamb and goat may be different, ultimately, if we could watch someone do the cuts once or twice, we're just not equipped for full butchering (we do everything with a fillet knife). I also keep the hides of my animals (Have like... 40 to do next year), so it's important to me to do the skinning so the only person to blame for a bad hide is myself. Dorper's are apparently well liked for their thick hides.