SHEEP IN THE BACKYARD?! Here's how to do it
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- Опубліковано 1 чер 2024
- Yes, it's possible. I've done it!
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Considerations for raising sheep in your backyard:
You'll need to keep at least two together because sheep are social animals, they can even die of depression if you only keep one.
Check the zoning for your property. Most cities should have this information available online.
Sheep can be very LOUD so make sure you research your breed A LOT before buying them. We have Dorper sheep and they have so many benefits but if we had a smaller property this breed of sheep would be out of the question because they are so loud. Katahdin may be a better way to go but of course do your research before buying.
You'll probably need to supplement their feed with hay because typical lawn grass doesn't pack as much nutrition.
Don't breed sheep, you'd be better off buying weaned sheep and then finishing them off in your backyard before they head to freezer camp.
I’d say it’s not possible to raise sheep on anything less than ¼ acre, ½ acre is more realistic.
If you keep adult sheep you'll need to shovel poop. Smaller sheep have poop closer to rabbit poop and it just falls into your grass giving you the BEST lawn you've ever seen.
What I would do:
If I had between ¼ and ½ acre, I would get 2-3 Katahdins after they are weaned and raise them to processing weight (usually 6-9 months of age).
I would have one permanent fencing area that it is at least 100-200 square feet, then work with electric fencing to move them to other parts of the backyard, supplementing with hay.
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ABOUT THE HIGH MOUNTAIN HOMESTEAD
Hi! I’m PJ, and my family loves the homesteading life! It’s something my wife and I have always wanted to do, but we grew up with ZERO HOMESTEADING EXPERIENCE!!!!!
We grew up in beautiful southern California, 15 minutes away from the beach. As amazing as that was, we both dreamed of a life closer to land and animals. After getting married and moving to Utah, our family slowly grew. We had become a family of four living in a townhome with a small backyard filled with potted plants.
In 2019 we dipped out feet into homesteading on 1 ¼ acre lot in Utah. In 18 months we were ready to do this for real. So in 2021 we packed everything up (including our sheep) and moved to North Carolina to 12 acres and we love every inch of our homestead!
We raise Dorper sheep and have big plans for:
• grass-fed lamb
• fullblood Dorper breeding stock
• meat chickens
• laying chickens and ducks
• heritage breed pork
• honey
• row crops
• perennial food forest
• and more
I hope you join us on our journey, subscribe and ring the bell if you haven’t yet.
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#backyardsheep #raisingsheep #grassfedlamb
“You’re doing sheep in your backyard you already know you’re doing things a bit different.”
“id like to think of it as the sheep doing me”
You’re accusing him of f***ing the sheep?
DAMN YOU! You beat me to this comment (by three years). 😂😂😂😂 We had to pause just dying of laughter.
So glad that I found your channel. I am moving to a .75 acre lot and plan on getting two sheep in the spring. I can't wait to watch your videos.
You just made my day! It's totally possible to live the dream on a small lot! I think you could do two ewes on that size easily! Stay tuned on the channel, I have a couple of videos I'll be releasing over the next few weeks that I think will be of interest to you.
Same here but in my country we can have around 25 sheep in that space as the forage yields more
Also look into raising rabbits
@@michaelripperger5674 how'd that went?
Thank you for this! Very informative! We just made an off on a few acres here in Texas and I’m considering three Shetland as I’m a knitter and spinner. Thank you SO much. Very encouraging!
So cool! Best of luck!
Get fi e they are small ;)
In Hawaii people have sheep in small areas. Hard to find videos with that. Most videos show huge scale hundreds of acres farms.
Doing a new build in a farm field so we are starting from scratch with a “yard”. So glad to find your channel and very interested in any content about developing/cultivating pasture for sheep.
I live in the border of 100 acres crp land and the deer still come into my yard to eat my lawn grass! Getting a couple sheep this year to pull double duty! Usually have to mow twice a week hoping I can just rotate around!
I got a dorper in my backyard. So cute!!!
Thanks for making this video. We are on an acre and are currently breeding two goat does for dairy production in the late spring. We are heavily considering bringing on two feeder lambs in the spring as well and this really helps!
Sounds like a good set up!
Very nice that you tackled this issue! I want to grow out a couple lambs so bad on my 1 acre.
I'm sure you could do it! Make sure you have everything before you jump in. It's so hard to play catch-up when you realize you're short on supplies (or feed depending on the time of year).
We have a quarter section and most of it has cattle on it through the summer. Our lawnmower broke so we bought some Jacob sheep. They will arrive here this weekend and we have a couple small pastures ready for them. During the day, while we are home, we plan to tether them close to the house to graze down the grass immediately close the house just until our lawnmower gets fixed lmao
Very helpful. I have a 4 acre homestead with a 1 1/4 acre pasture and a separate 1/2 acre pasture. I am leaning more towards heritage sheep rather than a few calves. Trying to do my research now before I make the decision to buy livestock. Thank you for the info!
Good luck! Sheep can certainly be done on this small scale.
Awesome! I'm moving onto an acre at the end of the month and hope to get a couple sheep for wool (typing this with one hand while I hold my current knitting project in the other 😁).
Wow. You're legit! I meet more and more wool enthusists as I have sheep. Love what you do! Best of luck!
We have pasture land for a few sheep (4 ewes, 2 rams, 6 butcher lambs), but we are considering fencing a portion of our yard for our sheep because we don't need that lawn, and we don't want to mow it! We use field fencing and some 4 x 4 sheep and goat fence. The 4 x 4 is more expensive, but it stays looking nice and is more durable. Our sheep are easy on the fencing. So glad to find your channel.
Thanks. My newer videos you'll see that I moved and have 4 x 4 fencing and it looks and works great! Welcome to the channel!
We are on about 3/4 acre and are getting two babydoll Southdown to manage the yard. It was recommended over goats by the folks in the goat group because they’re gentle on the lawn and won’t eat EVERYTHING but will still help with weeds. We were told their manure is good for grass, that they’re used in vineyards and golf courses for this. We will supplement their feed if necessary but I think neighbors won’t mind grazing in their large lot because they’re cute. Ours will be pets also, hoping to train to love people and go for walks.
Babydoll sheep are very cute. They should do the trick for you. I don't know about going for walks, but daily treats fed by hand and lots of time spent with them will make them friendly to humans.
Planning on getting sheep in the yard.cant wait
Awesome video. Very informative. 👍🏼
This is really cool, I'm hoping to learn how to weave and process wool before getting some, we have 6 horses and board 3 others, its good to know they're ok just as a few rather than a whole herd...
Yeah, so long as they have some kind of buddy, they seem to be happy.
Love your channel. We have 5 Orpington hens in our urban backyard here in Pittsburgh. We are seriously considering sheep for our 4 acre ag lot in Hawaii 🌈😃🤙
I've got 2 acres but 1/3acre is dense woods. I'd love to get a couple ewes and a couple dairy goats. Thanks for the info!
Fantastic. You helped me tons.
Enjoying going through your videos on raising Dorpers.
Thank you!
Doing goats backyard moving to sheep. Great video 🤘
Very cool, I learned a lot!
Awesome "how to do it" video! Thank you
I definitely want to do it. Researching “silent” sheep now and costs as well.
Haha! Look into St. Croix sheep. They are supposed to be very docile.
@@homesteadingwithPJ Ok thanks, checking this out.
I definitely want to raise sheep at least for freezer camp. I love the idea of no wool.. ive considered goats for that reason but I didn't know there were hair sheep. So that solves that problem. We live on 3/4 acre... looking to possibly put 3 sheep in our back yard. Most research needed!
Best of luck to you!
Have you tried keeping a few chickens with the sheep to scratch up the poop and ear fly larva ?
Yes! It's a great system.
I REALLY want some sheep! I want three Kataden females. Will try milking them.
Great info, thanks!
Oh, you are amazing!😊😊
Very helpful! I will be a first timer! I need quiet sheep because of a neighborhoods. We have 3/4 of an acre. What’s crazy I have a loud dog, continuously barking.
Dorpers are VERY LOUD! Check out this video of mine to see: ua-cam.com/video/oO9mzbxhv-4/v-deo.html
Mine were consistently so loud in the winter because they expected hay every time I came outside. That was a challenge living in suburbia, but my neighbors said they liked it compared to all of the construction going on. I think Katahdins are quieter. Good luck!
I’m new to your channel and am researching sheep before we purchase any.
Best of luck. Please let me know if I can answer anything for you.
Awesome video
Thank you for sharing.
🐑😷👍
Great info
Do they eat box woods and laurels? I have some of those in my back yard and I’m wondering if I need to fence them off...we just got two sheep! I’m so excited!
Sheep will eat most anything you have out there. I raise Dorpers and they are notoriously happy eaters. They'll eat anything green it seems!
You do have a cool rooster.
I have gotten a young lamb for my birthday. We only have a Shetland Pony as company. The lamb already sees our pony as its herd. It follows the pony no matter where it goes. Do you think that is enough or do we need one more sheep? Thanks for the video, keep up the good work!
I would say it depends, it's hard to say without seeing it interact with the pony. I think it's certainly possible for that pony to be enough.
Great Content.
I have 2 dorper ewes, 5 nubian goats, 2 pigs a boar and sow. Been homesteading 5 years. About dorpers I'm having trouble finding other sheep people to ask questions. I kinds find sheep people a little snobby or flakes.
I've seen snobs and fakes before for sure. But I've really grown to love two Facebook groups for sheep. One is for Dorpers and the other is for hair sheep breeders. Both solid groups with loads of free advice.
We recently bought a property which came with some sheep of which three of them are White Dorpers about 4 years old. Recently two of them fell pregnant to the neighbours Ram which is just your average Australian sheep one of the Dorpers had a miscarriage and the other one had an oversized lamb which unfortunately didn’t make it. Given the effect it had on my family I decided to try and get a few orphans and see whether or not I could foster them to the ewe. By the time this took place the milk from her was just about out so we bottle-fed according to the instructions on the most expensive bag of powdered milk man could ever buy. Three weeks in and one of the boy lambs had a really bad bellyache and now two days later so is the other, my wife decided to reduce the amount of feed in the hope of reducing the possibility of over feeding and bloating. I’m an engineer and work away from home so I’m doing all this remotely in the hope of getting some facts. They’re about 20 odd days old and averaging about 8 kg when they were last weighed so I don’t know whether that’s normal. I seem to be getting a few conflicting stories from the vet’s and others that are involved in sheep some say give me some probiotics to settle the stomach some say don’t do that some say use of powdered milk only design for sheep some so I just use ordinary humans so it’s a little difficult to wade through all this information my greatest concern is for the lambs of course and their welfare and to ensure that they grow well we are not growing them for food they are basically just replacing the lost lamb and they will be living there days in our paddocks happy and free. ( Castrated of cause )
Given that was the short version 🤣 my question to you is what do you think we should be doing to prevent these little guys from getting bellyaches. Absolutely love your UA-cam my wife is actually wanting black head Dorpers so your UA-cam is definitely one that we look forward to
Wow that's a lot to go through. And I'm not the best person to give much advice on bummer lambs (because I've never had them). But i wonder if using some goat colostrum would be closer to what a sheep needs. I've found goat collustrum in the baby food isle at health grocery stores. It's pricey, but helpful for infants with problems.
Again I'm no expert in this subject I wish I could help more.
I've had a few bummer kids (I raise goats not sheep, but most of the stuff is very similar). Probiotics helps regulate the stomach and I found them quite useful. Also just use whole cows milk from the store instead of milk replacer. I works WAY better and and quite a bit easier. If you think the lamb needs more milk fat you can also add a quart of buttermilk (not lowfat) and evaporated milk and mix well. I've used straight whole milk and milk with added fat both with good success.
@@rebeccalindsey1260 great tips, I'm sure that will come in handy for me one day!
Thank you
Love the hat!
Me too!
Hi, thanks fir the info.were do I get weaned sheep of 2 month old from? And how much do one usually cost?
I have had decent luck with Facebook. There's a few sheep groups there, they are easy to find.
Expect to pay between $150-$200 per weaned lamb. Unless it's papered and you want to breed it. Those will cost considerably more. But a weaned ram that doesn't show signs of stud quality, $150-$200 per head.
Would you recommend having a mineral lick tub out on pastured with feeder lambs ?
I prefer loose minerals to a lick tub. But yeah, it's not a bad idea.
I have goats, cows and sheep on less than an acre. My cows are drylot, my goats have a house and their own yard, and I am just in the planning stage of figuring something out for my sheep.(they are still lambs) My animals are for milk and wool.
That’s lovely
Good only for milk and wool , but raise animals in the backyard to eat that's a horrible idea.
Nice video, thanks for the encouragement.
We here at Emmanuel's Promise Farm have Katahdin's, 3 Ewes and a Ram. We have also 2 Kiko/boer does and a 50% Kiko Billy. All were bred in November and we are so excited for the first births. Our Delma is That we have to separate the Billy and Ram from each other right? Well we have two front paddocks with temporary Shelters the Whoop with PVC and tarp and a small enclosure to back of house where we pen everyone separate at night. Moving them when weather is nice. We put all the girls on one side of front paddock and Billy on the other but that leaves Mr. Ram by himself in the back. So Ram and Billy are crying..... Afraid to put Ram and Billy together. We did put our Black lab with Aaron ( Billy) and the 2 Anatolian Shepard's stay with all the girls. They are only 10 months and brother and sister fixed but do not like to be separated. Anyway poor Ram boy gets left in back yard till we have a boy to whether to put with him and Aaron.
We plan to split the one side of front paddock to put both boys in front soon. Hopefully this will solve the situation. Any other ideas are welcome.
I honestly have no personal experience with a billy and a ram together, but I'd imagine a most billies could clean most rams clocks in a head butting contest. But if they eventually give in after a half a day if friendly butting you may be able to house them together.
Keeping a r year round is hard. We eventually have up and now bring a ram onto the homestead each year.
Any experience with Little Bluestem grass? I have a front lawn that I am letting go to pasture that is full of the stuff. I had some Dorset sheep a few years back that would eat it when young and low but wouldn’t touch it in the later part of the summer.
Ruminants will always eat dessert first. I have some patches of it in my pasture and my sheep won't touch it unless I rotationally graze them and keep them in that spot for longer than they want. They'll eventually eat it.
Can you go into the stud program a bit more? I am going to need to do the same and have no idea where to start.
Considering sheep for our little homestead. We have seven acres, mostly wooded that I have steadily clearing.
We just moved to North Carolina, and we are building a pasture and we're leaving about half of it wooded as sheep, especially Dopers, can do quite well there.
That is awesome glad for you. North Carolina is a beautiful state and you can find a lot more properties for homesteading there.
I’m in California with mild winters and irrigated pasture, the pasture is small though, maybe only 0.75 acres, could I have 6 sheep? I’m planning on getting smaller sheep than dorper sheep, mostly Finn sheep. There’s also a cow pasture that’s 4 acres on the property where I live where the landowner keeps about 5 cows, 2 of them calves, if I occasionally rotate my sheep into that area(most likely the weaned lambs) do you think I can raise the year round with very minimal hay?
Ehh.. Maybe...
You gave me a lot of info, but its hard to know without seeing the land. I wouldn't start with six sheep. I would choose to start with 2-4 sheep rather than six right off the bat.
We have 2 acres, probably 1.5 of that is grass. I will probably raise lambs the first year to get a hang of it. But I would like to eventually keep 3 or 4 ewes year round (with some sort of stud program). You mentioned not to try breeding them. Can you explain more why you feel that way?
With limited space it's hard to house rams with limited space and facilities. This video is geared more toward people doing it in a backyard. However with your space, I bet you could easily breed sheep and maybe even keep a ram year round (although with that space, I'd recommend a stud trade). If you have 1.5 acre of grass you could have more ewes if you wanted (depends on the quality of the acreage).
So I have around 4 acres of backyard to use. I was thinking of running 5-7 sheep. If I free range would that be enough pasture or should I still be looking to supplement with hay?
That's plenty of space for 5-7 sheep. If you're asking whether you will need to rotationally graze them on that space, I don't think you do. I don't know your area/growing season/available forage, but I'm less than an acre and so long as it's not winter I can feed 4 ewes easy. I give hay in the winter, cause you know, no grass.
A rotational grazing system or mob graze system will dramatically increase how many sheep you can support on your land.
How much do you spend on hay? I am getting three dorper sheeps I am on .35 of an acre. Most my property is pasture very rich.. wondering if I can pull off 4-5 with some hay
I live in Alaska and we just bought our first house in 2021. We want to be more self sufficient and I've been interested in sheep (but no experience) for a while now. We have 1.3 acres but most of it is trees and maybe 1/3 acre is cleared and just native/wild grass and weeds. We want to clear some trees this year and possibly put in pasture. We can build a barn too. I'm beginning the thought process of how all of this can come together once the snow melts. Any tips for someone who lives where there's snow 6 months out of the year? Would 2-3 sheep be a bad idea? Thanks for any extra help. Going to explore your channel more.
You could get sheep, but be prepared to spend a lot for hay.
question if i mowed my lawn could i use the grass clippings to feed my sheep, I know stupid but still curious
Not a bad question at all! I do it all the time! Although if the grass is very wet, I was told not to feed it to them. I think because you feed them a heaping wet thing of grass it will go bad quickly. But some bagged clipping here and there is awesome! My sheep really look forward to it when I do it!
I'm considering this.....do you have close neighbors and are they loud?......just got my question answered by continuing to watch the video lol
Yeah that's the only downside of these guys. But I'm convinced that I have just one that is abnormally loud. He accounts for 80% of the noise of the 7 that I have.
Any slow growing hair breeds? Im thinking about having some pasture pets in the future.
What about a smaller Chicago backyard? If not, what other farm animal might make sense besides chickens?
Well of course, your legal or CC&R requirements trump what's actually possible to do. A Chicago suburb probably won't let you keep sheep.
You may want to consider rabbits. I know. I know. Sounds weird. I didn't think rabbits would be a very fun animal, but they've grown on me. Rabbits they need very little space, they don't smell, they are not noisy, and you can get so much meat from them.
Of course, you'll have to be okay butchering your own animals, you can't really take a rabbit to butcher.
Ducks are fun! Similar to chickens, but certain breeds are quieter than chickens.
I’m think of getting sheep
For the most part they are easy animals. Stick around the channel, we've got plenty of videos about sheep!
Hello, i was wondering if its possible to leave sheep for 1 to 2 weeks by themselves. I have a house with property that i come to almost every weekend. We have chickens and so far no problem leaving them for up to 2 weeks. I want to enclose an area a little smaller then 1 acre and build a shed on it. I would like to have 2-3 sheep annually for meat. Any suggestions.
Thanks.
Absolutely. Just make sure they have water, shelter, and forage (i.e. grass to eat). But if you live somewhere were parasites are a concern for, it's best to move them to new grass. But if you moved them every two weeks that could work.
@@homesteadingwithPJ Thanks for your reply. 👍
👈 this is my very first 2week old dorper lamb. She's beautiful. Great info about dorper btw. I have 2 ewes. Lunar is a Great mum to moonpie. And Hermione is due soon. 😍
You have one named hermione too!?!? My daughter named one of mine Hermione, good name for a sheep I suppose.
Yes, these are great mothers.
You said not to breed them on small acreage but do you say that because having a ram on small acreage is hard or breeding them in a small space is bad? I ask because we live on a half acre and plan to get them for dairy. So to keep the milk coming i will have to breed them. I was planning on renting out my friends ram for that. Would something like that be okay? Then i was planning to sell the lambs. Also we will have a portion fenced off for the 2 sheep that is about 30x100 to keep them in along with shelter but for rotating can they be tied in different spots daily to our fence that goes around our whole property? Or is that not safe for them and i should get portable electric fence. Sorry so many questions but i can hardly find any advice on having sheep on small acreage.
Wow! Let me see what I can get to:
I lean toward no breeding in small acreage because when rams need to be separated it's too hard - not enough space.
Renting out a ram would work to keep it off your property but you'd have to schedule it pretty well to make sure it's not on your property for the most amount of time. I think a better alternative (something that my old neighbor did) would be to NOT have a ram at all (if the goal is to do dairy) and you yourself rent one from someone else. One less thing to worry about and on small acreage you can't afford having things you don't have room for.
I don't know about tying sheep to the fence line. You'd probably have to keep the line super short so they don't accidentally strangle themselves. They scare easily so it'd be easy for them to freak out and strangle themselves on accident. And if the line is short then you'd have to rotate them at least twice a day, another chore that is probably not worth stacking on your plate. I'd rotate with electric fencing. But you know your layout and trial and error is the best learning. Good luck!
Thanks for the reply! Renting a ram from someone was kind of the route I was thinking. Also I think you are right about the electric fence route. I am very excited to get started and will be watching all of your videos to prepare 😊. Also we are big on carnivore so I have enjoyed your video regarding that as well. I am a new subscriber!
Why is it so much of a pain to keep a ram? Thanks for the video, I'm also headed to NC pretty soon.
An intact ram is usually the most deadly animal on a farm.
@@homesteadingwithPJ you mean it attacks people and other animals?
@@kevinilg2657 People.
I'm buying an 8.5 acre piece of land and will use at least 3 acres to have either sheep or goats(maybe both) to keep the grass cut and poison ivy in check. I hear goats LOVE poison ivy.
Anyway, with that amount of acres will 2 sheep and 2 goats be enough to keep grass cut down?
Any other thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.
Hard to say without seeing it. I think the will eat what they like, but I wouldn't expect to have everything eaten down evenly. There will definitely be seasonal patches of stuff that grows that the sheep won't touch until they absolutely have to. But that's the plus of goats. Maybe they will eat what the sheep don't. Even still, 2 goats and 2 sheep will have plenty to eat on 3 acres of pasture. Best of luck! Sounds awesome!
Cow can be loud too
Especially if you sleep in instead of feed them on time
And your room practically next to them
I can imagine!
How they doing now?
Can sheep live in woodland if the floor is covered in grass because I own an acre and a half of woodland but it’s covered in grass also I live in England.
Absolutely! Go for a hair sheep, because they will eat rougher forage. My sheep LOVE fallen tree leaves. Look up silvopasture and there's a whole classification of pastures that suite the needs of sheep. Greg Judy, another UA-camr has St. Criox on silvopasture and they do quite well. I think he is south east US.
I’ve been offered a free bottle fed lamb... I have never owned a sheep nor know what I’m doing. I live on 1.25 acres a d have chickens but that it. Also my property is not fenced in. Thoughts?
For me the deal breaker would be the bottle feeding and the fencing. I personally don't have the time to be bottle feeding a lamb multiple times a day with a full-time job and all the other farm chore. But my neighbors bottle feed their goat kids without a hitch. But they are empty nesters, so they have more time.
Fencing will be a problem, you'll need a good fence which would cost hundreds or dollars with permanent or electric netting.
Also consider the fact that sheep are social animals. Keeping just a single animal could be hard on the animal if you're not close with it. But chickens could help alleviate that. Best of luck in any direction!
I see this video is 2 years old... So, now that you can also call yourself somewhat experienced, is there anything you would do differently? Found this vid while researching how to keep sheep on our 1 acre homestead. Thanks for the tips!
Not really. In fact, this particular video is what I have gone back to. Instead of expanding my operation to be any bigger, I have been buying young ram lambs to finish them out myself. Its been very easy. I'll probably continue doing that for a few years before I am breeding sheep again.
@@homesteadingwithPJ Thanks for the input! I've been enjoying watching through your sheep playlist. Lots of helpful info. Next I'll have to ask how you grew your channel so fast, because that's seriously impressive! 😉 I need your mojo. lol
@@TheFrontAcre Haha. Well I'm glad something thinks it grew fast. Feels a little like a slog, but its something I enjoy. Still a ways to go. Maybe one day I'll actually buy a camera and have good quality shots. I've been on my phone the entire time.
@@homesteadingwithPJ I'm over 2 years in and less than 400 subscribers, so I think you're doing pretty good! 👍😉
I have sheep in a suburban backyard what I do is I rotate them from front to back but I raise dairy sheep so I don't care about carcass size
So cool! Well done.
Make friends w the neighbors. Put up one of those temp electric fence from premier one fence. Have them graze and fertilize the neighbors lawn for a weekend
That's not a bad idea. I've moved since then to more of a traditional homestead (few neighbors, sort of alone in the woods now). But I love that idea.
What do you do for bloat
Baking soda. You can also feed them mint.
Do you process your own
Not yet, but one day we plan to.
We just got a female katubin and her baby and a male adolescent. We want to raise them for meat. Should we keep the mother and her male baby and process the male? Or raise the baby for meat. He's 2 weeks old approximately
That's up to you, and what your goals are.
" did I mention they are loud !!!", 😆 very loud, would be my main issue
Dorpers are louder than most sheep. So if you want sheep, and sound will be an issue, you may consider another breed.
Where do they sleep? Protection from predators?
I've never had predator problems. These sheep were literally in the backyard of suburbia. No coyotes. I know that's not everyone's case though.
I also have quarter of an acre of just grass not wood
And how much woodland pasture do you have?
Where is Mary
We have 6 acres with 4 acres of avocado trees with chronic weed problems.....sheeeeeep might be good weed eaters if they don't eat the trees.
Some folks around here ask for sheep in their orchards for just that reason. Although we're not growing avocados in utah, which I think are lower to the ground than what we typically grow.
Is there a type of silent sheep, do you need to shave their wool every year ( the dorper) and does their manure stink or something. I heard male goats smell very strong and females are better and more docile. Is this the same for sheeps
There are sheep breeds that are more quiet. I haven't interacted with every sheep, but I currently have some Katahdins who rarely make a peep. My neighbor has some St. Croix ewes, and even they are more talkative than my Katahdins.
I've never sheared a sheep, Dorper or Katahdin. They all self-sear pretty well.
I've never smelled their manure. If they are eating grass or hay, they have great poops, no smell. Sheep that eat grains as a steady supplement could have a different experience.
Rams don't have an oder like a Billy/Buck goat would. So far as I know rams and ewes smell the same.
These are great questions by the way. You've clearly done some homework around sheep.
@@homesteadingwithPJ Is necessary to feed your sheep's supplements or minerals and stuff. Like if you had suffecient land could you buy some ewes and a ram and just forget about them (besides refilling their water) And is rotational grazing better than like owning a big chunk of land and just leaving the sheep to wander around and graze from where they want
@@IbrahimArtan-xs3uq I mean, you could have big land and let sheep run free on them. But it would have to be massive, like 100X bigger than what you could accomplish with rotational grazing.
As for minerals, different parts of the world have differ soils. So they get different level of different things depending on the soil. So giving them balanced minerals is always a safe idea.
I was originally thinking goats because goats seem more friendly but I'm thinking when I buy my own house to have either goats or sheep as pets and lawn mowers who hopefully supply me milk for myself. Do you think sheep would be better or goats for what I'm really looking for
To tell you the truth I really don't care to much on how the lawn would look aslong as it's not crazy out of control I don't mind buying hey for them. I love having animals I plan on getting other exotic pets more like large reptiles and would be in South Florida area
I would imagine certain breeds of sheep would do better in South Florida than goats (have you looked into the St. Augustine breed?). Sheep are grazers, goats are browsers. Sheep can eat entirely grass, goats prefer to nibble on leaves and weeds. SO it depends what you have to offer them I guess.
Good luck, sounds fun!
@@homesteadingwithPJ what worrys me is dealing with shearing the sheep
Ok
Electric collar - sheep?
No. No. No.
Consideration of fencing should be mainly about keeping dogs out. The domestic dog is responsible for the greatest depredation on livestock throughout the country. A family dog can, if introduces slowly, can get along great with sheep. When considering getting sheep do research. Sheep are more likely to need veterinary care than other large animals. Especially bloat, dust pneumonia, worms and coccidia. Good luck. Sheep are incredible animals.
Considering that my next door neighbor had 12 hunting dogs next door, I'm incredibly lucky I never had an incident.
Do use AI to breed you ewes? Or find access to a ram(s)?
I've always had a ram on hand, or I "rent" one from a friend I trust.
@@homesteadingwithPJ thanks!
Why not st croix breed?
I've been learning more and more about the breed. I plan to cross with a St. Criox stud next year.
I mean i would keep sheep for the wool, not necessarily for the meat
sheep are .1 animal units typically. so 10=1 animal unit or 1 cow.
Interesting. That sounds like they should be more than that.
"Today, I'm going to be talking about doing sheep in your back yard." Surely this cant be legal!
If you're zoned residential/agriculture, you get it's legal! 😎
Obviously there are limits. Like I think at that property I was limited to four medium sized animals (sheep and goats being medium sized animals).
Trust ive raised cattle and ive raised horses both definitely in the large animal category and there is no way passible that you can have up to 5 of either of those on your 1 acre parcel and it not be unhealthy in so many ways for that animal. So thats a stupi rule of thumb. 1 acre per large animal is recommended from someone who has actually raised them.
Wow! I think I was talking about sheep in this video. I made this video so long ago, I'll have to go back see what I said and make sure I'm not misleading anyone. I agree with you, cows and horses should not be 5 per acre unless they're being rotated everyday. I don't live at that property anymore but I had 1 acre total, not enough to be rotating cows/horses.
@@homesteadingwithPJ I appreciate the response. My ears poked up when I heard you say how many large animals on such a small space so I had to comment. My curiosity was definitely about keeping sheep on the smaller space so I appreciate the information on that. My concern is that now so many are trying to turn to homesteading but they don't really grasp the animal care side of it which will create situations where the government will have an excuse to regulate more which we do not want. Thanks again.
If I said , " I'm going to do sheep in my backyard what would you think ?"
My dad , Is it some sort of drugs !!?
Oh man if I have 1.25 acres then I'll have atleast 5 sheep's but lol I have nothing .
can i have 10 sheep on 1.49 acres
Please don't. It's too many sheep. I mean, 3 ewes and 7 lambs, sure, with lots of supplemental feed. But that's not enough land for 10 mature sheep.
You say you don't have rams? But what are those big balls hanging under that sheep?
I COULDNT KILL SHEEP,ID WANT 2 FOR PETS,LOL..
Awww me too I want them as pet
Why didn't you started out with a pair of sheep? So they can reproduce? Two male sheeps only for raise and sales it. Also, why the sheeps heads are black not white? If they reproduce some more you can have lamb meat. I heard open fire grill lamb is the most crunchy meat.
These are both lambs from my ewes.
Why would a prey animal be so loud? 😂 like a dinner bell for the predators
I've wondered that too.
How could you possibly look after them, build a trusting relationship with them then send them to get their throats slit and eat them 😳 don't you see their souls and personalities?
Boo
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I don’t like the fact you are raising sheep in your backyard to be killed for food. I have no right to ask you this but when you do kill them please do it in the most humane way possible. Please do not make them suffer.
Why would someone that raises their own animals do it any other way?