Sheep or Goat

[sunnychooks]

I vote for goats! I have both and the goats are alot more fun, but more challenging. The old saying, "If a fence can't hold water it won't hold a goat!" is close to the truth, so be forewarned!

In addition to weeds the goats will also eats shrubs, plants, flowers and anything else that grows and looks tasty.

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
Not necessarily.....try a Dorper sheep, good for meat production, shed their wool in the spring, nice, docile and pretty breed. If needed, one can even milk a sheep! The offspring bring more at the market than goats do...around here, at least! And won't eat your fruit trees or climb on the fences, dog houses, lumber pile, etc.! Sheep can have great personalities also, depending on the breed and how they were raised.

 

[ZykloniaDark-GothikRanchr]

I have both, and I have not been able to get closer than 5ft from my sheep before they run for the hills!!! my goats are all over me, so it really depends on what you want. I love both (even the anti-social sheep) and they do all my yard wrk for me, weeding, mowing, trimming trees, and my chickies and ducks are on bug patrol!!!

 

[barred rock'er]

It's all about how the sheep,or goat is raised. Beware of certain people who wil supposedly give you a great deal and actually be try to sell you a lame animal. back to the rearing part, if the animal has been treated with respect and not abused, their usually ok and will grow fond of you as you care for them. If their halter brokethey'll come alot closer to you.
My sheep walk right up to me and let me do whatever I need to do deworm etc. But I do spend a lot of time with them practicing for shows.

Take your time go visit farms and see which animal you personally like more. and always check the feet! look for foot rot foot scald etc. make sure before you buy that its a "sound" animal. Good luck
why not get a sheep and a goat, multispecies grazing can be very effecient.

 

[Skyesrocket]

Oh...Barred Rocker...."multispecies grazing" sounds like a good thing!
I have a question. I can let my goats ( all 10) out loose all day and they hang around here without being fenced. If I get a few lambs will they stay with the goats?

 

[lexustami]

I have 11 goats and 4 sheep. (2 are still lambs and stay at the house so I can bottle feed them.)

Anyway, I love my sheep. They are very sweet and have cute faces. But they are huge and they can knock you over if they bump into you. My 10 year old son actually rides one of the sheep.

I also love my goats but they aren't as friendly as the sheep probably because almost all of them came from an auction that way. I'll never buy another auction animal but that is another story.

They all stay together. They don't like to be seperated at all. The sheep eat the grass while the goats stand on whatever they can find to reach the branches of the trees. They are doing a great job clearing the wooded areas.

We are going to shear our sheep this weekend. They are long overdue... and their wool really stinks when it gets wet. (Yuck!)

Take care,

Tami

 

[Beekissed]

See? I knew there were sweet sheep out there!!

 

[Colored Egg Farmer]

mix we have sheep and goats the goats eat anythign that the sheep doent get.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

I say get both to clear an area. People down the road have blackbelly/barbados sheep and the field they're in looks like a nice mowed lawn. Our goats on the other hand only eat what they want. Their feild has big areas that are basically dirt from getting eaten down so much while other areas have knee high grass that they wont touch. When they goats get out they ignore all the grass and head straight for the bushes and trees in the front, they killed off our burning bushes.

 

[reallemons1]

Bekissed, I didn't know there even was a 'self shearing sheep'. ? Mark one up for the sheep! For me however, I'm still allergic to sheep (wool).