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Sunshine

Just your average ninja
Neighbor
Joined
Jan 10, 2018
Messages
250
Location
The Piedmont
I want sheep.i think I'm set on it. I expected dh to nix the idea but he seemed on board when i mentioned it.

In SC. Have about 1/2 acre to give them . thinking 2-3 tunis.

Mainly for family meat and sell lambs?

How hard is it to sell a lamb? Im just now researching but would like to start preparing now for ewes in the spring? Is that a good time to buy?

Talk me out of it ... Or talk me through it.

How much would you set aside per year per animal for vet bills both regular and emergency?
 
Can you make the mental adjustment from sheep to goats? There are benefits to doing so . . . You could read up on it.

My personal experience as an adult is limited to aged goat poop - an excellent soil improver. Grew a bumper crop of turnips one year.
 
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Goats were my want long ago but in the past 15 years or so I've wanted sheep. From that pov is where I say, baaa, get sheep!
I think it would be important to go hang out at a sheep farm, ask lots of questions, observe, ask about medical stuff for them. I assume you've read at least one "care of sheep" books.
I knew a girl who kept her 12 sheep at a sheep farm owned by someone else. She helped at the farm daily.
 
7 days a week 365 days a year.
Predators?
Finding someone to care for them during vacation(s) and during sickness (You and/or the sheep).
Id assume thats the same as for aby animals and we dont go on vacations. But if we had to I know several people in the area that would help.

There is a farm here in my county that i planned on visiting.

I had considered goat. But I've read about them being so hard to contain and that they are desteuctive? But id gladly revisit goats. Or even a mini cow.

Predetors...well we are aurrpunded by cows and they dont seem to be bothered. We did lose 1 chicken in the past year. We had let some brush and treea grow up near the cow pasture fence and something got her ubfer there. Weve since cleared the fence lines and banished the chickens to a more contained area so they were in eyesight of the house.
 
Half an acre is not enough. Sheep will eat the grass right to the roots. If anything I would get a beef to raise. Only one though or you will have to supplement with hay. Get like a dexter or some other miniature beef breed.
 
And im not so much
Half an acre is not enough. Sheep will eat the grass right to the roots. If anything I would get a beef to raise. Only one though or you will have to supplement with hay. Get like a dexter or some other miniature beef breed.
I was reading you can put up to 10 an acre.

What do you think the goats would need. Keeping in mind I'm only tryung to provide enough milk ans meat for a small family and sell any offspring live if at all possible.
 
And im not so much

I was reading you can put up to 10 an acre.

What do you think the goats would need. Keeping in mind I'm only tryung to provide enough milk ans meat for a small family and sell any offspring live if at all possible.

Goats need a shed for shelter, and milkers are apt to need grain to supplement their forage, You can fence in a brushy area, and they'll pretty much clear it for you. Kids are easily sold live, if you advertise ( they will go to a kosher butcher).
 
Goats prefer trees and bushes, sheep like grass. Stocking rates are dependant on where you are. There are places where you can have xx number of cows per acre, here its acres per cow. Your best bet is to talk to locals who have sheep.

Hah. In Arizona I occasionally saw a cow while driving, The land didn't look at all hospitable, and I was informed that stocking was measured in square miles.
 
Well dang. Back to mini cow now. One animal does seem easier . and then i dont have to worry about selling a calf since we can use it ourselves.

For Causing the Calf, do you need the assistance of a mini bull? Or just frozen sperm certified as being from a mini bull? Is the mini calf, um, very mini? Are mini cows on Ms. O-C's hit list?
Questions, questions. Please post your findings, Sunshine; it's an interesting subject.
 
Hah. In Arizona I occasionally saw a cow while driving, The land didn't look at all hospitable, and I was informed that stocking was measured in square miles.

According to NMSU.....
"each steer requires nearly 50 rangeland acres or its equivalent, or roughly a stocking rate of 13 animals per 640-acre section of land"
 
My neigbors. They always come check me out when I'm near the fence. So cute. :) i can pretend their mine for now. None of the responsibility. Of course none of the benefits either. Except eye candy lol
20190408_134608.jpg
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Our yard is a mix of weeds and fast growing fescue. We have cow pasture on 2 sides roads on the other 2. The guy that leases the pasture seeds and fertilized for the cattle. Its one big bull and a bunch of females and I'm guessing he sells off the babies in the fall. I never really asked him.

Anyways. Ive been reading that even a mini cow shouldn't be alone and I dont think I can support two cows with calves. So
Goats or hair sheep is where I'm at.

I really want to go the sheep route guys. I keep coming back to them.

Goats seem like alot more worl
 
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7 days a week 365 days a year.
Predators?
Finding someone to care for them during vacation(s) and during sickness (You and/or the sheep).

GET A DONKEY!

Nothing got past our donkey Rosie including our dogs at first. She would go after ANYTHING that came into our pasture or yard. Rosie had our horse to keep her company but it is best o have two donks. Highly intelegent animals too.
Straw dogs were ran off fast brave ones got a swift kick in the head then ran.



 
I would NOT raise sheep on 1/2 acre, unless you plan on buying lots of forage. You'll have bare dirt real quick. Same with goats. If your pasture is weedy, you *might* get away with 1 goat and 1 small cow together. The cow will mostly ignore the weeds and goat will mostly ignore the grass. You probably won't be able to do that for too long though. Eventually they'd strip it bare. Goats tend to herd up quite well with both cattle and equines. They are also a bit more hardy than sheep. Sheep die if you look at them wrong. Goats can eat poison ivy and not even blink.
 
Based on my casual reading, it looks like your most, um, informative way to decide what to raise would be to hire on somewhere as an apprentice goatherd or shepherd, in circumstances that require you to actually herd the beasties. Maybe ten of them; without canine assistance, or even a bellwether. That would be :great: experience.
 
I got a mini donkey he is a pain in the ass. Do you have any good recipes?


Donks like to think about things for a minute before they act.Rosie checked out things then did what was ask of her. Trust is the key and a little patience.
Mules were used in the mines because a horse would beat himself to death trying to get out. A mule would check it out then trust his master and proceed with his duty.
My Rosie would run to me if spooked where our horse would take off the other way.
A herd of horses came charging at fence when we were riding in a pasture at the rodeo where hubby was penning steers and hubby was on our horse with Rosie following.
I was way on other side of pasture and when Rosie spooked she came at full run to me. A scary site seeing a 600 lb. donk charging at you and nowhere to go. Donks can also stop on a dime so she stopped put her head on my chest and just brayed aka cried.
The fool at the rodeo who had ask me earlier "what do you do with that thing " happened to have seen it. So I told her when we got back , see this is what I like about donks ,one thing I don't have to do is chase her down although a horse would have been in next town by now.
 
I would NOT raise sheep on 1/2 acre, unless you plan on buying lots of forage. You'll have bare dirt real quick. Same with goats. If your pasture is weedy, you *might* get away with 1 goat and 1 small cow together. The cow will mostly ignore the weeds and goat will mostly ignore the grass. You probably won't be able to do that for too long though. Eventually they'd strip it bare. Goats tend to herd up quite well with both cattle and equines. They are also a bit more hardy than sheep. Sheep die if you look at them wrong. Goats can eat poison ivy and not even blink.

I wish I had a goat herder here somewhere. I could borrow them to eat up all these vines and brush we keep fighting.
 
I wish I had a goat herder here somewhere. I could borrow them to eat up all these vines and brush we keep fighting.
When I was down in the Texas hill country I saw how they used the goats to clear brush. Pygmy goats first, to eat all the garbage down low. Then regular goats to eat it off up above waist high. After they were done eating all the weeds and stripping the scrub cedars they'd turn out the cattle. Worked pretty good...
 
When I was down in the Texas hill country I saw how they used the goats to clear brush. Pygmy goats first, to eat all the garbage down low. Then regular goats to eat it off up above waist high. After they were done eating all the weeds and stripping the scrub cedars they'd turn out the cattle. Worked pretty good...

Neat idea Spike.
 
Donks like to think about things for a minute before they act.Rosie checked out things then did what was ask of her. Trust is the key and a little patience.
Mules were used in the mines because a horse would beat himself to death trying to get out. A mule would check it out then trust his master and proceed with his duty.
My Rosie would run to me if spooked where our horse would take off the other way.
A herd of horses came charging at fence when we were riding in a pasture at the rodeo where hubby was penning steers and hubby was on our horse with Rosie following.
I was way on other side of pasture and when Rosie spooked she came at full run to me. A scary site seeing a 600 lb. donk charging at you and nowhere to go. Donks can also stop on a dime so she stopped put her head on my chest and just brayed aka cried.
The fool at the rodeo who had ask me earlier "what do you do with that thing " happened to have seen it. So I told her when we got back , see this is what I like about donks ,one thing I don't have to do is chase her down although a horse would have been in next town by now.

One of my schoolmates, a couple years ahead of me, kept a donkey. He told me that in order to have a reasonably peaceful relationship with a donkey, he had to respect your intelligence. I think he was trying to tell me something.
 
One of my schoolmates, a couple years ahead of me, kept a donkey. He told me that in order to have a reasonably peaceful relationship with a donkey, he had to respect your intelligence. I think he was trying to tell me something.

:LOL::D thats right Vthil.
 
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