thinkin about gettn' me some sheep

[Ky hills]

I had some sheep for a few years, but sold them all about 7-8 years ago. Coyotes were devastating, tried guard dogs, llama, and donkeys, each came with downsides. Kept them up close on the last and finally in barns. I liked sheep, but they were harder to deal with than cattle in my opinion. Had mostly Suffolk and Suffolk/Dorsett cross ewes, and used Suffolk rams.
If I were to have another run with sheep, I believe it would be with hair sheep. One of the traits that I liked about the Suffolk sheep is that they didn't have as much wool and their legs, heads and bellies were free of wool. Had some foot rot issues at first, and then some severe parasite/worm problems, once I realized about the worms I wormed them more frequently.
I feel that I should warn anyone thinking about getting sheep that are not familiar with them, that some rams can be EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. I think on average they are more aggressive than bulls. I had two rams that I had to get rid of sooner than I wanted to. Some rams that I had never gave any problems at all.

 

[callmefence]

I had some sheep for a few years, but sold them all about 7-8 years ago. Coyotes were devastating, tried guard dogs, llama, and donkeys, each came with downsides. Kept them up close on the last and finally in barns. I liked sheep, but they were harder to deal with than cattle in my opinion. Had mostly Suffolk and Suffolk/Dorsett cross ewes, and used Suffolk rams.
If I were to have another run with sheep, I believe it would be with hair sheep. One of the traits that I liked about the Suffolk sheep is that they didn't have as much wool and their legs, heads and bellies were free of wool. Had some foot rot issues at first, and then some severe parasite/worm problems, once I realized about the worms I wormed them more frequently.
I feel that I should warn anyone thinking about getting sheep that are not familiar with them, that some rams can be EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. I think on average they are more aggressive than bulls. I had two rams that I had to get rid of sooner than I wanted to. Some rams that I had never gave any problems at all.

Parasites are not much of a issue with hair sheep. Very much like bimmer cattle.
Worst injury we've had on place. A very severe concussion and fractures when my son was blindsided by a mature ram.

 

[Rafter S]

Rafter, I'll bet you butcher your deer, but not your sheep. I'll also bet you ain't give lamb a fair shake
There's a difference in lamb and mutton. . I've had horrible venison , beef and lamb. We eat venison at least 3 nights a week and used to eat lamb weekly when we had em.
I don't have a dog in this fight.( no sheep) but I speak from experience. There's certain topics here that seem to draw response based on hearsay or following the popular opinion. This is one. I'll invite you to dinner rafter , we'll fix lamb. Well also fix venison or catfish as a backup. Anyone else wanna come, come on.

Respectfully..
FENCE

Fence,

You're right about me not butchering a sheep. I've butchered just about everything else that has hair, but never a sheep. On the other hand, most of the sheep meat I've eaten has been lamb, not mutton. My mother-in-law, who was a very good cook, used to fix leg of lamb on a smoker when we'd visit. As I think I said above, the longer I'd chew it the bigger it seemed to get. It's not a personal prejudice against sheep, or from something I've heard from someone else, I just don't like it.

And I'll take you up on that offer, and I promise to try the lamb with an open mind.

 

[Muddy]

Lamb is very good and so are venison. Mutton.....not so much.

 

[Dave]

You don't shear hair sheep. They have hair not wool. Crop/hail is in the Texas hill country. There is nothing wrong with a man getting the most out of his land. And hair sheep fit that bill. They also eat browse and many weeds before grass. Now you know.
Texas is the number 1 producing state of lamb. Texas is also the number one producing state of beef. Sheep are a valuable crop in all western states.
There's not many in the east. They are to busy raising beneficial crops. Like tobacco

Fence, I was replying to Best's question/comment on wool value. The vast majority of the sheep I see have wool. The people I have known in my life who own thousands of sheep all have had wool sheep. As for sheep being an important crop in all western states, they don't even make the top 25 as far as dollar value in Washington, Oregon, or California. And it is tough to get more western than those states unless you count Hawaii. As for the other western states sheep are sheep rank #5 for dollar value in Wyoming, #7 in Nevada, #8 in Colorado, #9 in Montana, #12 in Idaho, #13 in New Mexico, and #21 in Arizona. But in all of those states they are less than 3% of the agriculture income.
I have no idea what they raise in the east. I have only been east of the Mississippi one time in my life.
And yes we all know that Texas is number one in lamb and also in beef. Any time we forget what a great state Texas is there is someone sure to remind us.

 

[callmefence]

Rafter, I'll bet you butcher your deer, but not your sheep. I'll also bet you ain't give lamb a fair shake
There's a difference in lamb and mutton. . I've had horrible venison , beef and lamb. We eat venison at least 3 nights a week and used to eat lamb weekly when we had em.
I don't have a dog in this fight.( no sheep) but I speak from experience. There's certain topics here that seem to draw response based on hearsay or following the popular opinion. This is one. I'll invite you to dinner rafter , we'll fix lamb. Well also fix venison or catfish as a backup. Anyone else wanna come, come on.

Respectfully..
FENCE

Fence,

You're right about me not butchering a sheep. I've butchered just about everything else that has hair, but never a sheep. On the other hand, most of the sheep meat I've eaten has been lamb, not mutton. My mother-in-law, who was a very good cook, used to fix leg of lamb on a smoker when we'd visit. As I think I said above, the longer I'd chew it the bigger it seemed to get. It's not a personal prejudice against sheep, or from something I've heard from someone else, I just don't like it.

And I'll take you up on that offer, and I promise to try the lamb with an open mind.

Come on. Just give me enough heads up to secure the lamb. :cboy:

Lamb is very good and so are venison. Mutton.....not so much.

X2

You don't shear hair sheep. They have hair not wool. Crop/hail is in the Texas hill country. There is nothing wrong with a man getting the most out of his land. And hair sheep fit that bill. They also eat browse and many weeds before grass. Now you know.
Texas is the number 1 producing state of lamb. Texas is also the number one producing state of beef. Sheep are a valuable crop in all western states.
There's not many in the east. They are to busy raising beneficial crops. Like tobacco

Fence, I was replying to Best's question/comment on wool value. The vast majority of the sheep I see have wool. The people I have known in my life who own thousands of sheep all have had wool sheep. As for sheep being an important crop in all western states, they don't even make the top 25 as far as dollar value in Washington, Oregon, or California. And it is tough to get more western than those states unless you count Hawaii. As for the other western states sheep are sheep rank #5 for dollar value in Wyoming, #7 in Nevada, #8 in Colorado, #9 in Montana, #12 in Idaho, #13 in New Mexico, and #21 in Arizona. But in all of those states they are less than 3% of the agriculture income.
I have no idea what they raise in the east. I have only been east of the Mississippi one time in my life.
And yes we all know that Texas is number one in lamb and also in beef. Any time we forget what a great state Texas is there is someone sure to remind us.

I was referring to the ops topic of hair sheep. Am different market, that wool plays no role in
Hair sheep are the most common here.
As far as reminding you how great Texas is, ....anytime, tickled to do it ;-)

 

[Backbone Ranch]

We bought our first bred ewes in February. Most are Dorper and Katahdin/ Dorper crosses. We have a little over 30 ewes now. We bought two small groups. The first group was about 2-4 months bred. And then we bought some that were really heavy bred (due to lamb within days of delivery to the ranch). We had a handful of the heaviest bred come down with pregnancy toxemia which was not a fun experience. Those few ended up dying on us. Since then, raising the sheep has gone on without any problems. We have 22 lambs on the ground right now and are a little over 1/2 way through lambing. From what I have heard from other people who raise sheep, it is nearly impossible to keep up with the demand for lamb.

 

[Bestoutwest]

You don't shear hair sheep. They have hair not wool. Crop/hail is in the Texas hill country. There is nothing wrong with a man getting the most out of his land. And hair sheep fit that bill. They also eat browse and many weeds before grass. Now you know.

I knew about hair sheep. My wife was all excited about Katahdin sheep as they eat the things cows don't and are from Maine (we both are). We have a coyote issue here, and I'm not a huge fan of sheep so I nixed that plan. I was just curious as I know most things are not made with wool any more but cotton b/c it's so cheap, and well, we all like our clothes cheap (allegedly).

One more for you, though. Is Texas really the best state in the union? :hide:

 

[Philip-TX]

... As for sheep being an important crop in all western states, they don't even make the top 25 as far as dollar value in Washington, Oregon, or California. And it is tough to get more western than those states unless you count Hawaii. ...

That might be because WA, OR, CA, HI, have Alpaca, Llama, emu, pot bellied pigs, snail darters, spotted owl and fainting goats, etc. as things listed 1-24 above (livestock) sheep. :cowboy: :cowboy:

 

[Ky hills]

You don't shear hair sheep. They have hair not wool. Crop/hail is in the Texas hill country. There is nothing wrong with a man getting the most out of his land. And hair sheep fit that bill. They also eat browse and many weeds before grass. Now you know.
Texas is the number 1 producing state of lamb. Texas is also the number one producing state of beef. Sheep are a valuable crop in all western states.
There's not many in the east. They are to busy raising beneficial crops. Like tobacco

Years ago a lot of the farms around here in KY had some sheep. In recent years with the decline in number of folks raising tobacco, a lot of emphasis has been placed on agricultural diversification to offset the lost income from tobacco. Sheep and goats have gained in population. I don't know for sure but I understand that KY is one of the larger goat producing states.
I can attest to sheep clearing out weeds, they will eat a lot of things cattle won't.

 

[Ky hills]

I can't imagine anyone who likes venison, not liking lamb or even mutton

There's no comparison. I like venison, but the longer I chew sheep meat the bigger it gets.

I had a lamb processed, like lamb burger, also a lot of the barbeque places in the western part of the state do a lot of barbequed mutton.

 

[callmefence]

You don't shear hair sheep. They have hair not wool. Crop/hail is in the Texas hill country. There is nothing wrong with a man getting the most out of his land. And hair sheep fit that bill. They also eat browse and many weeds before grass. Now you know.

I knew about hair sheep. My wife was all excited about Katahdin sheep as they eat the things cows don't and are from Maine (we both are). We have a coyote issue here, and I'm not a huge fan of sheep so I nixed that plan. I was just curious as I know most things are not made with wool any more but cotton b/c it's so cheap, and well, we all like our clothes cheap (allegedly).

One more for you, though. Is Texas really the best state in the union? :hide:

allegedly

One more for you, though. Is Texas really the best state in the union? :hide:[/quote]

I agree it's a crying shame the decline in the use of wool and mohair. Not so much for cotton but synthetic fibers.
I do believe texas is the greatest state in the union. Definitely in the republic. ;-)

You don't shear hair sheep. They have hair not wool. Crop/hail is in the Texas hill country. There is nothing wrong with a man getting the most out of his land. And hair sheep fit that bill. They also eat browse and many weeds before grass. Now you know.
Texas is the number 1 producing state of lamb. Texas is also the number one producing state of beef. Sheep are a valuable crop in all western states.
There's not many in the east. They are to busy raising beneficial crops. Like tobacco

Years ago a lot of the farms around here in KY had some sheep. In recent years with the decline in number of folks raising tobacco, a lot of emphasis has been placed on agricultural diversification to offset the lost income from tobacco. Sheep and goats have gained in population. I don't know for sure but I understand that KY is one of the larger goat producing states.
I can attest to sheep clearing out weeds, they will eat a lot of things cattle won't.

Didn't know that about Kentucky. Good to hear it. Didn't hardly need a sprayer when we had sheep around. Hair sheep or goats will eat greenbriar before grass every time.

 

[crop/hail]

thanks for all the reply's and thanks fence for the livestock weekly article. By the way, for those of you who dont subscribe to livestock weekly, YOU NEED TO!!!! Best danm livestock magazine availabe. Ill admit it is more for the southwestern states but has a lot of great articles every week. ok, i digress, anyway, no one has brought it up yet and here is the biggest draw for sheep to me: A good young ewe cost 150 to 250 on average. she will lamb 3 times in a 2 year period if you leave the bucks on em year round. the lambs bring 125 to 225 on average. she pays for herself with her first lambs, show me a cow in todays market that does that!!!! you can run 3-5 sheep for every 1 cow and they will eat weeds brush whatever. are they in some ways a P I A? yep they are but so are cattle in a lot of ways especially grain field stocker cattle like i mess with in the winter (doctoring sicks), im used to PIA stuff.

There is kind of a stigma with sheep among cattle people "range magots" or whatever and i used to be the same way. But i can tell you this, everyone that i know that has cattle and sheep will tell you that the sheep are always profitable while the cattle are not (always profitable). An old rancher told me that back in the droughts of the 50's and cheap cattle prices throughout the years that he "Always had cattle around so he could look like a rancher but the sheep always paid the bills"

 

[Dave]

Back in the 50's wool was worth money. There was also a government wool subsidy. And there was lamb which wasn't worth near what it is today. But the three sources of income made sheep pretty profitable. The wool subsidy was discontinued some time in the 70's I think. Wool price has dropped over the years to the point where the actual income from wool is only about a dollar or two per ewe. lamb price has gone up and in fact about 3 or 4 years ago it was through the roof but it has dropped back a lot from those highs.

 

[crop/hail]

the sheep i will be getting are dorpers, they are hair sheep that were developed in africa, wool is not a factor with these because they dont have any. and yes wool is pretty much worthless. The lambs bring good money though about 125 to 150 per lamb on average.

 

[callmefence]

http://www.millscountycommissioncompany ... tory/c21e3

 

[Pep Union]

We can work together if anyone is interested in sheep farming and is confident in his abilities. I will buy the sheep and will cover all expenses, I want a lamb a year and your profit is the other lambs. You will raise my lamb up to 1 year old.

 

[MurraysMutts]

This again....

 

[Lee VanRoss]

Pep Union> How do you say 500 head in Ivrit? Be careful what you ask for!

 

[FungusProudKY31]

I think he is trying to pull the wool over our eyes!