How are you an expert?

[sumi]

I would love to see recipes and processes (with pics please!) of these homemade products you all are talking about here. And a good pic tutorial on processing meat, making sausages, bacon, etc. If anyone has a pair of clean hand during the process to take pics!

 

[valmom]

@Farmfresh - you have Katahdin sheep? What do you do with the fleeces? Do you sell them? I don't have one of that breed

 

[Beekissed]

Not Farmfresh, but Katahdin are hair sheep, so shed their wool instead of needing shearing. I've had them and they are my favorite livestock ever....sweet, milky, fatten up on just browse, graze and hay and stay butterball fat on it, good mothers, naturally hardy, easy lambing, known for twinning.

Their wool tends to shed in sheets rather than in rags and tags like St. Croix sheep and it has a better wool quality than some hair breeds, but still not fine enough for good fleece.

Hair sheep don't smell like woolly breeds due to less lanolin in their fur/wool and their meat tastes better too....doesn't have that strong flavor or odor associated with wool breeds.

For ease of keeping and all around good qualities, they are my favorite breed.

 

[NH Homesteader]

I really need some one of these days... If we stay where we live right now I have acres of browse for them too!

 

[sumi]

I think you talked me into them @Beekissed! I need to find a place with enough space for some sheep.

 

[NH Homesteader]

My biggest issue is finding sheep that have been tested for all the diseases goats can get, or permanently splitting the property so they never cross paths!

 

[valmom]

I have toyed with the idea of getting cashmere goats- there is a farm in my town that has them. They are supposed to be triple threat goats- milk, meat and amazing fiber.

 

[Farmfresh]

As Bee said they have no fleeces, because they shed like a big old dog. The only thing you can really use their wool for is felting and of course for compost. The Katahdins are mainly used for meat, but they can also be used as a dairy animal. Sheep milk is primarily used for cheeses.

Also sheep aren't browsers like goats are. They are a mid level grazer. It is amazing how God created all of the creatures to each fill a special niche.

Goats browse the brush and low branches up to about 6 feet and higher if they can climb it. Sheep eat a lot of weeds and forbes as well as grasses. For example a sheep can eat poison ivy like a goat does and will eat things like dock weed that most other herbivores won't eat but they require a richer forage than a goat so they also consume grasses and legumes like clovers or alfalfa. When a goat eats too rich a diet they end up with problems. Sheep also have a VERY low tolerance to copper where a goat has a high need for it. A mineral block designed for goats or other animals can actually kill a sheep. Of course horses and cattle are simple grazers eating mainly grass and pigs eat grass as well as roots and animal life they find on or under the surface.

If you get a wooded acreage you should first run a combo of goats and hogs. Between the two they will clear the land. As the land opens up and starts supporting weedy grass sheep are the next in the progression. The sheep will keep down the undesirable weeds and promote growth in the better grazing plants. Finally, the land will be open enough and productive enough to run cattle and with effort horses. Of course fowl play a part all along the way as well. Turkeys and chickens will thrive best running after the goats and hogs because a wooded environment provides them with a lot of the foods like wild berries, seeds and even small acorns that they naturally eat, in addition to insects. They of course also do well following sheep and cattle eating weed seeds and scratching through the manure piles to eat larva.

 

[NH Homesteader]

I do run my goats through brush followed by the pigs. It works well. I am aware of the copper issue, another reason to not keep them together, for me at least, although some do it and say it works fine.

I plan to wether male offspring of my goats and run them through the brush. I don't want my girls out in quite that much brush, and heaven knows what funny milk flavors we would end up with!

My land was unfortunately logged before we ended up here so there is everything from grassy sections to low weeds/brush to small trees. It's a mess, sadly. But all edible to one creature or another!

 

[tortoise]

I have wool sheep. This thread is making me want hair sheep! I like to play with fiber, but I'm not prolific so one fleece every few years is plenty for me.