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

[Beekissed]

That only works if you send your ram slammin' man over to our houses to sit on a sheep! Sorry .... would have loved to have seen that, though!

Sew, did he just respect DH after that or did it apply to you as well? Most of the gals on here are the ones working closely with their goats/sheep, so they are trying to find out what method insures their safety while they are out doing this alone.

 

[big brown horse]

Great information!! I have a fiberglass stick that I use for my horses.

I know how to make halters out of hay string. I'll make one that will fit him tomorrow. He's so tiny!!

 

[Beekissed]

I haven't tried it yet, BBH, but I would imagine halter training a sheep would be much like any other kind of herd animal, wouldn't you?

 

[Farmfresh]

Malcolm Reynolds had his first halter breaking session the other day. I have been on D1 to get working on him, but she has still been scooping him up when she wants to move him.

When I first got it on him he was M.A.D.! He started running around on his knees and trying to rub it off on the ground and then he would pull and finally as a last ditch effort he leaped about 3 feet into the air and rammed into the end of the lead rope!! Good thing his is still a little dinky twit. The pony (his mother) was watching the whole proceedings and kept touching his butt with her nose. "It is alright son." Made no difference he was still mad.

I sat for about 15 minutes holding the rope till he settled down and then turned him loose. So much for lesson one.

I think it is important to halter break all of your animals. It makes moving them easier, you can tie them to administer vet treatments and (this is what sold my D1 on the idea) if an animal is taught to stand tied and they ever get hung up in a fence or a tree, they tend to just stand and wait instead of panic and thrash about until they are injured. Since Mal WILL be keeping his horns he needs this lesson.

I also wanted to mention to the earlier comments about spinning dog fur, you CAN spin and make yarn from it, but it is more difficult to work with than wool since the hairs are straighter. A friend of mine is an accomplished spinner. She has made several dog hair only articles. She warns however that when wet they tend to smell like wet dog!

Another great use for all of that dog hair we sweep up is to put it into the garden with the mulch. It helps keep rabbits and other marauders away.

 

[big brown horse]

Yup, I had to tell my own DD to stop picking up little Oliver!

Ok. Since my little guy is 50% Icelandic shep, I did some research. He came from "milky" Icelandic lines. I found this site about Icelandics that I thought I'd share. Pretty interesting I thought.

http://www.icelandicsheep.com/milking_icelandic_sheep.htm

 

[abifae]

My area rents sheep.

They bring the sheep over to mow your lawn.

They do it in Northern Colo and I think all the way down through to the Springs.

That's my random contribution for the day.

 

[big brown horse]

Abi, they rent goats over in our area too.

Anyhoo, Bee, looks like I totally underestimated my Kathadin sheep!

Look see! http://www.sabinsfarm.com/Kat.htm

 

[Beekissed]

Sally, did you SEE the size of those udders???? Looked like a gallon of milk hangin' there!

Great site and I have archived it for future reference. I'm glad you will be getting offspring out of milky lines and I hope they all have bangin' big udders like the ewes in those pics...man alive! :bun

I can't wait to see how everyone's sheep projects pan out, all the lambs born this year and stories about the milk/wool/meat products. It is so exciting to be doing this along side of you gals and us all learning together! So glad you guys are here....

 

[big brown horse]

I know right??? They should be in an MTV video!

Yup, we all have something a little different. Lets converge back here next year and share notes.

 

[Beekissed]

Sheep gone wild!!! Those girls are ba-a-a-a-aaaaaaaad!

Brown chicken, brown cow-cow, brown chicken, brown cow-cow.... :bun