You people ARE enablers! LOL

[Chevoner]

When I first found BYH, I had about a dozen guineas, and was mainly interested in getting a few meat goats (Kikos, and Tennessee Meat Goats, mostly), and some meat rabbits.
After browsing the site (read: voraciously reading ), I'm now also considering adding a small herd of sheep, maybe a mini cow, and perhaps a donkey or other equine or two!
I know enough not to expect anyone here to discourage me. I just wanted to let you know this truly is infectious!
Keep up the great work!

 

[Ruus]

I do that too, lol! I read through this forum every day going "Ooh, that's a pretty sheep, I should add that breed to my flock! Ooh, look at the pretty goat! I wonder if I could get some of those! Ooh, look at the cute donkey! I could claim it was a guardian animal for the sheep..."

 

[elevan]

 

[AshleyFishy]

Guilty

 

[Chevoner]

Haha!
So, rather than start a new topic I thought I would just continue my random rambling here. As I've been reading more on the forums I was wondering more about sheep and mini-cattle...
There are a few breeds that have taken my interest. At the moment, with cattle I've been thinking of Mini Zebus and Dexters. With sheep, Jacobs and Icelandics. (I guess I trend toward the 'exotic' )
I'm also curious about crosses of both (sheep x sheep, cattle x cattle ) and would love to hear from others more knowledgeable.

 

[BrownSheep]

Haha!
So, rather than start a new topic I thought I would just continue my random rambling here. As I've been reading more on the forums I was wondering more about sheep and mini-cattle...
There are a few breeds that have taken my interest. At the moment, with cattle I've been thinking of Mini Zebus and Dexters. With sheep, Jacobs and Icelandics. (I guess I trend toward the 'exotic' )
I'm also curious about crosses of both (sheep x sheep, cattle x cattle ) and would love to hear from others more knowledgeable.

Jsut a warning exotic = $$$$ especially for cows! I don't blame you though I wanted Icelandics when I was younger ( a rude breeder threw me off them) and still love the idea of Jacobs! We've settle for Ramboulliet and horned Dorset so I still get my awesome horns! Although both of those dwarf your breeds. Even my short little horned Dorset ram!....and as for cattle....I raise yaks so I really can't talk ......I know I said I was going to bed but I had to comment!

 

[Chevoner]

I'm not sure what your experience was, but you can't blame the breed for the breeder. There I go! Even the enabling is infectious!
Are Ramboulliet and Dorset a larger breed?
Yaks?!? Tell me more!

 

[BrownSheep]

Ramboulliets rams are pretty large ( and incredibly strong) while the ewes ( at least in my flock ) are just a bit taller than the average mutt meat ewe. Polled dorsets are freakishly large while horned are short. In my opinion they really are starting to become to separate breeds that have descended from the same stock. If you look at this link http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/sheep/dorset/ you'll notice the man is knealling to show the horned ram. While if you look here http://rwfarms.net/dorsets/ you'll see how tall some of those rams are coming up to the men's chests. However both the horned and polled dorsets pretty much dwarf the Icelandics and Jacobs that I have seen.

As for yaks I love them ! They are pretty small while most people think of them as larger than cattle. Even our newest ones who were wild are docile. They produce lean ( healthier) meat with less feed than beef. Ours eat about a 1/3 of what a regular cow would eat. Their calving weights are very low (20-30 lbs) so they very very very rarely need help calving. Our original cow let us look her baby over while she ate minutes after it was born.they can be crossed with cattle for fertile females and sterile males.They actually grow a cashmere like undercoat that can be harvested for spinning....The list goes on and on....They also have some awesome horns which could be an issue for some people.
I will add some photos!

 

[Chevoner]

LOL! Now you have me considering yaks! I'd love to see your pics.

 

[Andrei]

Get some bee hives.
Sweet agriculture.