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Alaskan

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Except for my question

Is it OK to run sheep and goats together? I'm not going to wind up with a goatsheep or sheepgoat am I? Maybe this is how the chupacabra got started?

Thanks

Jesus is Lord and Christ 🙏❤️🇺🇸
Perfectly fine to run them together.

Only issue is make sure you set out minerals designed for sheep.

Then give your goats a copper bolus (goats need more copper than sheep do)

And no, they can't breed each other.
 

Medicine Woman

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I wanna piggy back on your post as I consider it related.
So I read once something like this.... so they need equal amount of area to graze but they have different diets so say you have 10 acres you need to manage and some of it is clear and grows grass and the rest is in brambles, you buy the amount of Head equally between goats and sheep. The goats will eat blackberry vines, ragweed, small trees and bushes and poison ivy and the sheep will eat grass.
Okay... I took that to heart and had my heart set on fencing in my orchard and getting a few sheep to maintain the grass and provide me with wool I could learn to spin into yarn but I am now hearing they actually eat a lot more like goats than I was originally led to believe. People have told me they will in fact eat the orange trees.
So I would appreciate some advice here because I still have the orchard and I am getting older everyday. I would love a sustainable way to manage the orchard. Something that hates citrus and loves grass and weeds.
 

frustratedearthmother

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Medicine Woman

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Ducks and chickens would be great but I would have to totally cover everything against predators….including the orange trees. Sounds like a lot of work and expenses. It would be fine if I could just open a gate by morning and gather everything up before nightfall with a bit of grain and lock them up tight for safety. Oh well I should probably just work on setting up the camper and move there. I don’t mind having the old shotgun house DH grew up in but deep down I know I am home in the orchard.
 

Mini Horses

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I don't have sheep but, they are more interested in grass than goats!. Aerial predators are deterred but strips of fishing line...maybe you could use that in limited areas. They like clear areas to swoop in and out. 🤷
 

tortoise

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I wanna piggy back on your post as I consider it related.
So I read once something like this.... so they need equal amount of area to graze but they have different diets so say you have 10 acres you need to manage and some of it is clear and grows grass and the rest is in brambles, you buy the amount of Head equally between goats and sheep. The goats will eat blackberry vines, ragweed, small trees and bushes and poison ivy and the sheep will eat grass.
Okay... I took that to heart and had my heart set on fencing in my orchard and getting a few sheep to maintain the grass and provide me with wool I could learn to spin into yarn but I am now hearing they actually eat a lot more like goats than I was originally led to believe. People have told me they will in fact eat the orange trees.
So I would appreciate some advice here because I still have the orchard and I am getting older everyday. I would love a sustainable way to manage the orchard. Something that hates citrus and loves grass and weeds.
Geese might work better. There is a picture in this old book of geese in a citrus orchard. https://www.nap.edu/read/1831/chapter/11 (click the X at the top right corner to read the chapter)
 
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