More sheep coming next week! (was: need encouragement)

[lupinfarm]

Yeah thats what I was going to say, breed your gals and keep a ewe lamb, sell the other (s).

We're verbally comitted to 2 boer/nubian/sanaan doelings, I'd like 3 but we decided to breed in the Fall 2011 and keep a doeling if we get one, sell the rest.

 

[lupinfarm]

Pat, I don't know if you've seen this... but I found this website last year when looking for goat supplies, and thought you might enjoy the breeders directory...

http://www.seregonmap.com/SCM/index.htm

 

[hwillm1977]

OK, so I am now verbally committed for 2 ewe lambs - the breeder wants to sort out her Easter lambs first, then look at the pedigrees etc of the keepers so she can decide what she wants herself, and will call me back in 10 days or 2 wks so I can come up then and pick two out.

Here's a somewhat interesting article on getting started in sheep on a shoestring.

I want to start an icelandic sheep herd, but with average ewe lamb prices $500-1100 each around here I was in a little sticker shock... so we're waiting a year and then will start with two ewe lambs, similar to what you're doing now

http://www.frelsifarm.com/article_flockshoestring.htm

 

[Farmfresh]

hwillm1977 are you planning on milking your sheep as well? I was really enamored with the Icelandic sheep as well and their milking ability is one of the main attractions to me. I just wonder how well they would do in extreme heat and humidity conditions however. That is one reason why these days I am more interested in a hair sheep. Now if I could find a breed of those that are bred to be dairy and usually twin or triplet then ......

 

[hwillm1977]

Milking is the reason we initially looked at the Icelandic sheep... I wanted fiber to spin and felt, boyfriend wanted milk and we both love lambchops So we looked for a triple purpose breed, and stuck on the icelandic. Really the boyfriend wanted goats, but I like sheep a lot better and because they're less likely to be escape artists, the sheep won

We live in a colder climate though, so I'm guessing they'd be more suited to living up here than down where you are Farmfresh...

 

[Farmfresh]

Yes they sound like they would do wonderfully well in cold areas.

It gets cold around here to, we had a few days with -25 windchill this winter, but it also gets HOT and humid. Sometimes we have weeks at or near 100 degrees with 80 or 90 percent humidity. I am afraid woolies would suffer.

 

[hwillm1977]

Not to keep plugging the Icelandics, but here's a list of North American Breeders, and there are several in Missouri... you could always chat with them to see how well the sheep do there

http://www.isbona.com/breeders.html

 

[patandchickens]

Just thought I would update y'all:

I have still not got any sheep but if I don't hear from the dairy sheep woman by this weekend I will phone her up.

But I have also now contracted for 2 shetlands, a ram lamb with short horns (naturally scurred, i.e. heterozygous at the polled locus) and a 2 yr old black ewe. I will not be getting them til lambs are weaned this summer, but will go and meet the seller and see the sheep on May 1 when I am out thataway picking up chicks and poults I've ordered. In a weird coincidence, some of the poults are actually from the shetland sheep guy's eggs that he sells to the hatchery guy LOL

So by the end of the summer I should have *4* sheep, two dairybred ewe-lambs and two shetlands (one of them a ram-lamb), and I am hoping that the ram lamb will hold off on sexual maturity til close to when the dairy ewe-lambs are old enough to plausibly be bred. I suppose I will work SOMEthing out, no matter what happens, though

Hopefully my next update on this thread will be next week with ewe-lamb pics ,

Pat, who is starting to suspect I would have been better off just getting a pair of nigi dwarf does and be done with it, but, oh well <g>

 

[patandchickens]

The sheep lady just called -- I will be picking up the two MilksheepX lambs on Thursday morning. Expect pics Thursday night!!

And the UPS guy just delivered the two sheep books I ordered from Amazon.

Woo hoo,

Pat

 

[Henrietta23]

Yay!!!!! I get to live vicariously through you!!!!

The sheep lady just called -- I will be picking up the two MilksheepX lambs on Thursday morning. Expect pics Thursday night!!

And the UPS guy just delivered the two sheep books I ordered from Amazon.

Woo hoo,

Pat