Dairy Sheep can be a self sufficient wanna-be's dream come true

[Old Sew'n'Sew]

Hi,

New and coming out of the shadows just now. I confess to rocking Bee's world for a bit. Ask her about me.
I used to change her diapers, and I am proud of all of her accomplishments. No stalking intended!

I find the subject matter interesting, beginning in 1980 I homesteaded in the Mtns. of WV, for about 6 years. I built up a herd (13) Sanaan milk goats, during that time. I'm still here but I live in town now, no livestock allowed.

 

[big brown horse]

I think you did! And I miss you as well.

I'm still having trouble with being stalked by my family on here...just got a mysterious PM tonight and don't really know which one it is from, so I'm still lying low on here and trying to mind my own beeswax.

I love it when you all talk sheep! My girls are mad at me right now because I have restricted their movements to rotational paddocks. They keep giving me dirty looks and keep their heads down when I approach....in other words, in sheeple language, I am the new enemy.

Are you moving them daily?

 

[Beekissed]

BBH, I tried the smaller paddock for a daily move and they got scared of the electric line and wouldn't graze. This is where a few more sheep come in handy so one can do a mob grazing of a larger area. So, for now, I have larger paddocks than they can clean up in a day...this one lasted 4 days and they still didn't clean their plates.

They are, however, getting used to the rotation and it only took this little while. I had to tie the ram out at night because he was too stupid to respect the fence at night and would run right through it...and the girls would follow.

Now he has learned about the lines and I don't have to tie him in the paddock. This evening they moved to their new paddock just like Joel S. described in his book...eagerly and with intent on the new, fresh graze. It was really a good feeling.

It is also a good feeling to not have sheep bumping me in the butt every evening during chores!!!

 

[Beekissed]

Hi,

New and coming out of the shadows just now. I confess to rocking Bee's world for a bit. Ask her about me.
I used to change her diapers, and I am proud of all of her accomplishments. No stalking intended!

I find the subject matter interesting, beginning in 1980 I homesteaded in the Mtns. of WV, for about 6 years. I built up a herd (13) Sanaan milk goats, during that time. I'm still here but I live in town now, no livestock allowed.

This is one of my sisters, folks! She lives in the next county with a little higher altitude. She actually homesteaded right next to ours during my younger years. She is not one of the Toxic Twins.

 

[big brown horse]

Whew! I was a little scared there for a moment!

Ok, hello Old Sew and Sew!

Hey Bee, how tame is your ram? How did you tie him, by the neck or in a harness?

 

[Beekissed]

I had this great adjustable show halter and I just placed him on a shortened dog tie out...you know the kind with the swivel fasteners? I tied it to a limb of my apple tree that is in the paddock and he couldn't really harm himself in this manner. Couldn't hang himself or cut off a leg by getting tangled. He had enough slack to get water and lie down comfortably and do a little grazing.

Only had to do that for 2 nights before he decided to behave. He is really tame and easy to catch...he REALLY hates to be tied up!

I'm leaving the halter on him, just in case, but I think he has learned his lesson. No more breaking through the electric wire for now, which I count in the success column!

He looks awfully cute in his red halter....but my new little black ram will look so much better when he grows into it. Can't wait to make a ram exchange in the middle of this month!

 

[patandchickens]

From the info I've read, the traditional dairy breeds have some difficulties with lambing and more general health problems. In an purely economical point of view, sheep breeds that require much vetting and do not reproduce well would be a poor trade off for increased milk yields to a backyard grower.

In general I agree with you, in the sense that for one's own use it is quite possible to have "high survival" and "low maintenance" be more important that "vast quantities of milk".

OTOH if a person happens to have time and energy and feedstuffs TO devote to higher-input dairy breeds, for their own use, I don't see anything wrong with that either.

I have high hopes for my British Milksheep X's, they are supposed to be easy lambers with robust lambs and healthy udders; but I only have two of them, and if they end up requiring more feed for their milk output, that is okay with me. I would rather milk two rather than four or more sheep per day, for a given amount of milk I was kind of leery of East Friesians, from what I have been told and read of them, but someone with fewer small children around and more interest in Animal Husbandry might be fine with them, and in fact *I* might've been fine with them too, who knows

I'm hoping that the shetland ram will a) be very low-maintenance and healthy, b) sire smallish lambs that birth easier, and c) the progeny will have some possibility of sale to people like me, and if not, well, they're still good eatin'


Pat, sitting down with pencil/paper planning sheep setup this evening (they can't stay in the current temporary paddock forever) and noticing I seem to be planning for "just in case I ever wanted to have more than five sheep"...

 

[big brown horse]

Got cha!


Ram exchange? Are your two little ewes bred yet? (How old are they now?!) Did you write about this over at BYH? If so I missed it b/c I don't go there much.

How are you dealing with potential ram aggressive-ness? My little guy a bottle baby ram, 5 days old now, is not to be touched anymore unless bottle feeding. He also spent the whole day yesterday and today outdoors with the other animals and the two dogs. I think I am going to make him spend the night in the shed too tonight and then from now on.

He is very tame already, no need to get any closer. We don't touch his head either. It is very hard to resist, but I want him to respect us...especially if he is going to be here a while. Do you have any more advice?

Oh, btw, I officially said "no thanks" to the E. Friesian (cross) ewe. I think out of my Border Cheviot and Kat ewes and this little guy the 50% Icelandic x 40% E. Friesian, and their offspring, I'll get plenty of milk.

 

[Beekissed]

Pat, I think its so neat that you have fallen captive to the sheeple nation!!! Sweater larvae!

I, too, would love to have more land and add more sheep. They are like Doritos...ya just gotta have one more!

BBH, I believe this fella already bred my gals....they really started showing heat signs after he arrived but not on their usual cycle, so I'm thinking they were more or less teased into a heat. Their tail heads were very mussy and sticky and then they stopped being so antsy. Now it is the time for their usual cycle and they are calm and not being so flirtatious.

The farmer told me to keep him for 30 days and it should be sufficient. I will be taking him back probably next weekend and picking up my little ram lamb born this year. He is almost all black but has a few white speckles on one side. He is a big and sturdy fellow and will probably be just as flighty as my girls....he is half Dorper, half Katahdin.

This visiting ram is very friendly and only gets aggressive about food...and even then he just pushes up too close and shakes his head if you try to push him away. A bucket of water in the face doesn't really faze him either...I've taken to tugging on an ear to get him to back away but he comes right back in, invading my space. One day he gently bumped my butt and I just happened to have a stainless steel pan in my hand.....BONG! BONG! on the head!

The stupid thing backed up and shook his head at me and just walked up, trying to get food again...and my good pan had two huge dents in it! Darn big pig of a sheep!

He really is kind of harmless, though, as he has to take about ten steps backward to get ready to run and butt someone....it is the most comical thing to watch in the world! By the time he gets ready to butt the Bettys, they evade his charge! Big dummy head!

I don't anticipate any problems with the new ram lamb, as I can train him to know who the alpha sheep really is here. I plan to halter train him to lead and stand. I don't really like to move a ram with feed buckets....I'm finding this out the hard way with this big dummy headed ram.

BBH, I've heard many stories about bottle lamb rams becoming aggressive but I think that happens most when folks treat them like people instead of like sheep. Kids have a tendency to be the most guilty about that. I think you are doing the proper thing and, while he is young, it wouldn't be a bad time to halter train him to lead and stand.

I have more success with this ram now if I use a white fiberglass slender rod that I keep here....all I have to do is touch his shoulder with it and he moves away, touch a flank to move in this direction or that. The biggest problem is that I don't always remember to carry my white stick!

 

[Old Sew'n'Sew]

Buck goats are much more aggressive than sheep rams, i had a 250 lb. registered Sanaan buck with horn scurs( regrowth after disbudding, or horn removal), one day DH was working in the barn minding his own business and BAM! Big mistake! DH body slams the buck to the ground and sits on him til he is whining like a kid. After that whenever DH entered the barn the buck reteated to the darkest corner til the coast was clear. Maybe this will work for rams too?