Sheep Chat Thread

[theuglyduckling]

Just sharing some photos

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These two sisters are 4 years old and have had triplets every year.







Curious group.





One of the ewe lambs born this year that I'm keeping.







My new ram (Poseidon).
He was born March of 2012.

well i dont think she is pregnant now. but i love your black and white spotted one she is so cute she reminds me of a cow. also does anyone have any idea of what type of sheep i may have. im sorry i dont have any pictures of her yet and i have no camera but she is all white except her left eye has a spec of black by it otherwise she is all white. her hooves are very light colored and not dark at all. she looks to be a wool sheep and she also has a pink nose. her udders i hope thats what theyre called are pink.her tail looks like an average sized tail, it looks as long as the black and whited spotted one in the first picture. can you give me some guesses of same names of sheep that she sounds like?

 

[chooks4life]

Interesting sheep, Alien Chick, they look very sound and sturdy. I bet they're hardy and productive. No frills.

@theuglyduckling: I would recommend you get a camera. I've regretted all the years I didn't think it was important enough to get. So many events, animals, once-off things have come and gone and I have no record except memory, which is not something anyone can guarantee.

She could be from many different breeds, just going by the description you've given. I would hazard a guess at 'mongrel' offhand though. Here's a (not very good) pic of my mongrel, Lucy:


Her tail's only kinked like that because she's holding it up in this picture. She's a few months older now and a lot bigger.

 

[bloonskiller911]

So, who all has moved there buck in with the ladies in preparation for breeding yet?

 

[WallabyOfChaos]

So, who all has moved there buck in with the ladies in preparation for breeding yet?

We turned rams out on June 23rd for November 15th lambs, but they didn't really start chasing the ewes (noticeably that is) until about 2 weeks later. We didn't use a teaser buck this time, and looking back I think we probably should have. The plan was to pick them up on 8/8 to stop lambing the first of January, but they are still working and a late lamb is better than no lamb.

 

[theuglyduckling]

what does everyone on here do with their lambs? do you sell them as meat or something else?

 

[WallabyOfChaos]

Most of our flock is hair sheep, but we have an handful of woolies that are single/short-term ewes. With the hair sheep the wethers and the bottom end of the ewe lambs go to the sale and end up as meat, and we market the top end of the ewe lambs out of the pasture as replacements. We have tinkered with the idea of marketing our lambs as meat through a local meat market, but haven't worked out any details yet. I'm not sure what is going to happen just yet with our woolies since they haven't really started lambing yet, but the wether lambs will most likely end up at the sale.

 

[bloonskiller911]

we are going for mid january to february lambs, we didn't use a teaser either. for us jan/feb lambs seem to do well and if we creep feed we have found a real market in our area for lambs near easter time. we have just started and building our herd so most of our ewe lambs (the best) will stay, everything else will go to market. we have woolies, mostly suffolk crosses. luckily for us no one cares what breed they are around here as long as they are meaty!!

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: Lucy is a pet because she was a special needs lamb, but in future I hope to get more Damaras and breed them and supply my family with meats of various types including chicken and turkey which we've already been eating, but also cattle, pig, etc. If Lucy is bred and produces a sub-par lamb I'll eat that too. Damara crosses are called 'Meatmasters' for good reason. I'm thinking of getting Black Faced Dorpers to cross them with, but everyone who has them reckons they're more trouble than many other breeds for fence breaking, etc... However I've not found any breed of any species that always holds true to the rules of the breed written about it, so I'll give them a try.

 

[theuglyduckling]

Lucy is a pet because she was a special needs lamb, but in future I hope to get more Damaras and breed them and supply my family with meats of various types including chicken and turkey which we've already been eating, but also cattle, pig, etc. If Lucy is bred and produces a sub-par lamb I'll eat that too. Damara crosses are called 'Meatmasters' for good reason. I'm thinking of getting Black Faced Dorpers to cross them with, but everyone who has them reckons they're more trouble than many other breeds for fence breaking, etc... However I've not found any breed of any species that always holds true to the rules of the breed written about it, so I'll give them a try.

im not sure if this is true i thought i read it somewhere, but it said that sheep wont try to squeeze through spaces in gates because they cant see small spaces well it something like that, well that does not hold true for mine she will squeeze through mine to get to the other side any chance she gets.

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: Yep! There is always the exception to the rule. Too many breeds of animals did not read the guidebooks to their own breeds, lol! Never underestimate the ingenuity of a pet, I think should be a disclaimer they add to their livestock books.

Also sheep breeds come from varied ancestry so some are from environments where squeezing through narrow places is either natural or trained into them.

I had a neighbour whose sheep were random mix breeds. He had a paddock full of holes where boulders had been ripped out. Each sheep knew the paddock's craters off by heart and if startled, would one moment be galloping away, the next moment, vanished. If you went walking along you would see that each crater had been filled with a sheep lying there, as still as it could be despite panting, sure that you could not see it. You could actually step on them before you saw them and they would not move, no matter what. You could pat them as they lay there. The babies got it wrong sometimes and flung themselves down flat on the ground, not in a hole, and tried to camouflage there. But the adults could go from top speed to lying in a hole in a split second, their upper side flush with the surface level of the paddock. Bizarre behavior I've not heard explained before. It was deliberate, no sheep fell or tripped. Animals are amazing on average, they are all capable of so much more than we tend to think.