eliminating bills - homesteading

[NH Homesteader]

I looked up Marmalade recipes and everything that came up said Southern cooking or something similar . More stuff to try I suppose!

I can't watch videos on my phone but I'll check it out later when I have "real" Internet. I milk my goats so I would think it wouldn't take much to do sheep too. We have 4 acres of brush and some grass that we are trying to reclaim. They do well with brush? We have an acre of grass also. I'm investing in electrified netting for my goats in the spring, I could get an extra run of it for sheep... Hmm...

 

[Beekissed]

They LOVE brush and do better when they have browse to mix with graze. They are like a combination sheep/goat in that regard, as they can stay fat on poor graze and thrive well on rough brush scenarios.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Sorry for the thread hijack...

We also have access to the 35 acres next door to us for graze/browse. It's my parents' property. I also can get edible but not great quality hay for super cheap for winter! They sound perfect. Now I must find some!

 

[Beekissed]

Sorry for the thread hijack...

We also have access to the 35 acres next door to us for graze/browse. It's my parents' property. I also can get edible but not great quality hay for super cheap for winter! They sound perfect. Now I must find some!

They LOVE poor quality hay....I'll tell you how I know. I got mine wonderful, wonderful high quality hay~green, leafy and tender~ their first year at my place and noticed they were pretty much "meh" over it, wasted a lot, etc.

Meanwhile, I had a huge stack of moldy, 2 yr old nasty stuff full of trash weeds, thistles, etc. underneath tarps in a separate area that I was going to use for mulch in the spring. They kept getting their heads under those tarps to eat that nasty stuff and just kept at it, ignoring my lovely, fresh, fragrant and more expensive offerings in their feeder. The neighbor's cows also thought that moldy stuff was prime, as they kept breaking down the fence on that side to shove their heads under the tarps too. Go figure.

The second year I got them year old hay of second cutting, fully of woody stems and browse and they LOVED it. Cleaned up every little stitch and kept their heads buried in it all winter long. Got that stuff for $1 a bale. I also saved my corn stalks for them and stored them on top of the hay stacks and they kept pulling those down and eating them like they were chocolate.

Better yet? They stayed FAT on poor quality hay.... VERY little waste.

This is Mo' Fat, eating at my self feeder setup. Loved that setup! Didn't have to lift a bale all winter long.

 

[NH Homesteader]

How cool! I love it. My husband is thinking about it... I have all winter to convince him! He hasn't really liked sheep in the past. But maybe they're different enough he'll change his mind. He loves my goats! And the pigs. If I can find friendly sheep that will earn their keep he'll be happy.

 

[Beekissed]

Oh, these are friendly...and they are that way without being bottle lambs. Very moochy, sweet and docile. Follow you around like a dog, want to have their noses in everything you do, snuffling your hair, etc.

And no sheep stink...they smell like horses do. Hair sheep have way less lanolin in their fur, so they don't have that rank smell like a woolly breed does. It also sweetens their meat in the same way...no strong flavor, no matter how old the sheep. I've had woolly sheep meat and then hair sheep and there's really little comparison....one was greasy and strong in flavor and the other so mild and sweet, so tender it barely had to be chewed.

 

[Britesea]

I wonder if they are different enough from regular sheep that I could eat the meat? I am allergic to lamb and mutton apparently-- throw up if I try to eat it-- but I can eat goat just fine.

 

[abigalerose]

Whoa.. that conversation has about convinced me to get some! I might look into it in the spring. Not sure if I already asked this/if it's been answered, but how many sheep per acre would you say? (Without them ruining the ground or needing a ton of feed)

 

[Beekissed]

Whoa.. that conversation has about convinced me to get some! I might look into it in the spring. Not sure if I already asked this/if it's been answered, but how many sheep per acre would you say? (Without them ruining the ground or needing a ton of feed)

That's very hard to say without knowing the quality of your pasture and your general weather patterns. Any given year you could have a drought and be stuck feeding hay all year round to give the pasture a rest. Or you could have pasture that is very low in nutrition and unable to support the normal/average stocking rates. Or if you'll be doing rotational grazing(always recommended if you want to keep parasites low).

The usual answer to that is "it depends". Recommended stocking rates are anywhere from 4-15 per acre for sheep....but that's a wide range due to all the mitigating factors one would have to factor in. I've had 3 per acre and felt it wasn't really enough when a hard drought hit, even with good pasture.

When considering stocking rates, it's always, always a good idea to err on the side of too low rather than too high. I'd try 3 per acre sheep at first, realizing that in that second year you'll be supporting an additional lamb crop and breeding ram for a period of time. I'd wait until you get past that second or third year before I'd make any decisions on adding more or even decreasing the stocking rate.

You'll also need a way of separating male lambs on that pasture if you don't castrate(they bring a higher price at market from the ethnic groups if they've been uncut and undocked in any way) as they can start breeding their mamas by the 3rd month of age.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Yay no sheep stink! Sorry but wool sheep are kind of gross. Katahdins sound a lot like goats! And I LOVE my goats!

I might start with two ewes and go from there. I kept goats as pets for a while before breeding, might get some ewe lambs in the spring and go from there.

This is exciting! Lol!