The 9 Best Sheep Breeds for Meat
Part 2: • The Best Sheep Breeds ...
In this video I'm covering my favorite sheep breeds for meat. Of course you know that I keep Dorper sheep for meat, so that's my first choice.
1. Dorper
2. Suffolk
3. American Blackbelly
4. East Friesian
Watch part 2 for the rest of the sheep: • The Best Sheep Breeds ...
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Timestamps:
00:00 Which Breed Is Right For You?
01:08 My Breed - Sheep For Different Situations
01:45 Dorper
03:17 Full Bloodline Benefits
04:02 Suffolk
05:18 Is Suffolk For You?
05:50 American Blackbelly
06:49 Is The American Blackbelly For You?
07:04 East Friesians
08:19 Benefits of Friesians
09:13 Milk of East Friesians
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In this video I'm covering my favorite sheep breeds for meat. Of course you know that I keep Dorper sheep for meat, so that's my first choice.
1. Dorper
2. Suffolk
3. American Blackbelly
4. East Friesian
Watch part 2 for the rest of the sheep: • The Best Sheep Breeds ...
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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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#meatsheep #raisingsheep #grassfedlamb
Water buffaloes produce creamier milk. The buffalo that produced least fat in my herd produced milk with 7.2% fat and the highest was 16%, but they typically range from 8-12%.
Do you just drink the milk or how do you process the milk. Sounds good.
We had a Suffolk sheep stud, plus commercial cross bred flock, in Southern NSW, Australia. All our prime lamb was pasture raised.. Definitely no grain. Somewhat smaller lambs at birth, (easier on the ewe, especially maiden ewes), but grow rapidly, if circumstances permit. We also had Border Leicester and Texel sheep studs. Just a personally preference, it’s a toss up between Suffolk or Texel for eating quality.
That makes sense that grass fed ewes would make smaller lambs (which is a good thing for lambing season). I believe I've tasted Suffolk before, but I don't think I've had Texel, I know a lot of folks in Australia keep them, I haven't seen them in the US. I liked reading your comment, thanks for sharing!
Have you ever tried and if so, what do you think of the Aussie Whites, eating quality?
Im in Tasmania Australia. With 25 acres I have run a few different breeds past couple of years. The dorper crosses have out performed in management and pasture conversion. Now excited be converting to black dorper this season 😄
Thanks for sharing! I love hearing Dorper success stories!
Do u have Kiko goat？
@@landrylee6207 I do not.
Try Pakistani breeds Mundra n kajla they gain 120+kg in a year age.
Subscribed. We’re looking to get meat sheep in the coming year and this is very helpful for making our decision. Thank you
Best of luck! By the looks of your name, you're in Arizona? You could do well with Dorper or I've heard Tunis does well in Arizona. Dorpers do well in dry environments and put meat on with relatively little inputs (aka, grass and forb). Good luck!
@@homesteadingwithPJ we have friends that have Barbados Blackbelly sheep and they do very well here as well apparently. Any thoughts on those?
@@AZHighlandHomestead they are beautiful sheep. Very hearty, but I've heard they can be quite wild and they are jumpers (so I've heard). As I understand it, if you can fence them they are great sheep.
@@homesteadingwithPJ great to know. Yes, our friends have two and they are very rangey. Thanks!
Very informative video thank you so much for the video 👏
I processed a 1 year old male today, mom was blackbelly, dad was a dorper sulfock cross... he was a BIG boy at a year old... estimated at 150....and is smaller then his brother! Imfeeling proud today! I love my sheep
Wow, that's amazing! Thanks for sharing 🙌
I raise purebred st Croix. This year will be my first taking some to the butcher.
check out the Australian Sheepmaster and the Australian white. My brother runs the dorper in SE QLD ..great sheep.
I have not heard of the Sheepmaster, will look into that. The Australian White is an amazing sheep!
Thanks for the informative video. I am in South Africa and the Doper and Merino sheep's are favorable here.
Very cool! I would love to see the meatmaster (from South Africa) become a more prominent sheep. Dorper heritage. A beautiful sheep.
Really love your channel. Very helpful. I live in NJ and looking to put sheep on a small 14 acre farm. I’m looking at Dorper, st croix and katahdin. Any suggestions as far as NJ climate? I live in zone 6a.
I'm not sure how wet it is there, but knowing what I know now, I'd look at being more safe than sorry and go with a wet tolerant sheep like St. Croix or Katahdin. But you can make most any breed work anywhere over time and good stock. Better than my advice will be to just start trying to find people near you. Even if they are 100 miles from you, their advice will be better than mine. Good luck!
@@homesteadingwithPJ thank you for the quick response. Really appreciate all your knowledge. Keep the videos coming. Stay safe my friend. 👍🏼
you doing good job! keep it up Bro! 😎
Do you sell any dorpor lambs to people in the area? Live in eastern nc and it’s hard to find specific breeds about here
All of our sheep that are for sale are spoken for this year. I suggest Facebook, there are tons of sheep groups on facebook and you can probably find people closer to your area. Buying sheep that are from near where you are is best because they have likely adapted to the environmental conditions of your area already. Best of luck!
Friesians horses, cows and sheep come from Friesland. A place from the north of the Netherlands. Being Fries is being a type of Dutchman.
I have been raising sheep for a while and have found that certain crissbreeds perform better than pure breeds. Currently, I have great success with white Dorper, Kathadin, East Frisian cross. Each lends something to make easy handling, easy lambing and plenty milk to produce hardy quick growing lambs that can finish on grass or grain. I have been hearing much about Australian Whites as meat sheep though I have no personal knowledge. Good luck to all homesteaders. Success with sheep requires knowledge of pasture, parasites and predators.
Hybrid vigor! It's a real thing. Glad to hear it's working well for you.
We raise registered, pedigreed, Barbados Blackbelly (polled, NO horns!!) ...and we select breeding rams that are docile and generally easy keepers. A lot of sheep breeders will say that rams are aggressive, but that is a genetic trait that is inherited. You can diminish aggressive behavior in your flock by putting those rams on the grill! - Oh, also, most of your photos (that group of rams!) are actually polled Barbados Blackbelly, not the horned hybrid American variety - great video! Thanks for posting :-)
Love hearing about the blackbelly sheep from folks that actually keep them. Are they flighty/skittish sheep? I've read (again, I've never raised them) that they can be hard to manage on days where they need medicine or whatever.
@@homesteadingwithPJ Hello! - I've never raised another breed, so its hard to compare, but my sheep are very friendly, they beg for attention lol...I would say that I have one ewe who seems terrified of me...but I just acquired her in a trade with another breeder, so I didn't raise her.
What's your view on using heritage breeds adapted to the local environment to reduce winter feed and vet costs?
Local breed beat fancy breed every time. Go with what producers near you use, look for flocks with low inputs.
I just got my first 3 sheep all a bit over a year old.... the females are the black belly, the male is a dorper/sulfok mix.... the top 3 in your list.... hoping to get some good meat sheep from the combo
That's is an awesome combo! Good choices!
@@homesteadingwithPJ ill be honest it wasnt my choice i got really lucky... a rancher decided not to continue sheep for what ever reason and i bought the trio he had selected :) i honestly had no idea if the sheep and goats i got where good i trusted the sellers word... but im excited to figure out i did good :)
@@katiedangelo404how is it going?
How are Dorpers with milking?
They are excellent mothers, but I don't know if anyone has used them as "dairy sheep" before. Mine were pretty skittish sheep.
American blackbelly are great, America blackbelly dorper cross are great, especially 3rd generation and past that. American blackbelly are great to have in any large herds, because they are more skittish and react to predators and alert the rest of the herd, in my case Finns and California reds. So a predator might only catch one or 2 and not catch and kill 40 for fun. Especially useful if your running livestock guardian dogs.
I am learning a lot from your videos. I live in the tropics and have pasture and grass. I have an opportunity to buy Pelibuey sheep. Do you know much about this breed? I am looking for sheep for my small homestead permaculture farm to help with fertilizer and keep grass low. We have plenty of rain but temperatures around 70-75 year round. I also could buy dorper or katahdin. Any suggestions.
If you live in a tropic area, I would look for something with good parasite resistance. Which a Katahdin will have more than a Dorper. I don't know anything about the Pelibuey breed, but they look like the same body of a Blackbelly, which have great resistance.
What kind of grazing seed do you have there ? What type of seed do you recommend to start growing the proper food for dorper
Well Dorpers can thrive on most any forage. It's been well documented that Dorpers put on more muscle with less input. That being said, pretty much anything that's good for sheep will be good for Dorpers. I LOVE this website for looking at pastures for sheep. Even if you don't buy from them, look at their mixes for your region (if you are U.S. based). www.naturesseed.com/pasture-seed/sheep-pastures/
Ok thanks you . Iam in oak hills ca . When it’s hot it’s hot but when it’s cold it’s cold so I’m not sure on what might work for me .
Thank you I appreciate it .
Love my registered fullbloods! Termperaments are calm, don't need much grain, and supper funny.
Nice! I certainly like my fullblood Dorpers. I've had one crazy one, but most have been calm like you mention.
@@homesteadingwithPJ I find that my registered purebreds tend to be larger, and weigh more.
where I'm from, a one year old lamb is called a sheep :) only pulling your leg. great video.
Starts at 1:46
Dorper definitely tops the taste for me!
Which breed is fastest, I'm wanting to start sheep races as I think it's an undervalued sport & I'm planning to corner the market
I really can't tell if you're joking or not. And if you're serious, I have no idea which breed is fastest.
You might want to research the South African Meat Merino. Also known as the Mutton Merino.
How do dorpers fare cold weather? I know katahdin are very hardy, but I've never heard anything about dorpers.
Excellent. Most photos of Dorpers online are from shows or in the spring time when their coats are new. But they out on serious winter coats.
Something about the dorper they can be ready start to finish in about 4 months. Your wrong about Suffolk they are more meat then for wool.
I raised Suffolk and Hampshire sheep for years. They were raised for meat not for there wool. There are so many wool breeds out there that these sheep breeds are Suffolk and Hampshire fall at the bottom of the list for wool. Your right about there being so many sheep breeds and when I was in school they only recognized the more popular ones for meat in America versus what was being used all over the world.
I'm from South Africa and, I can guarantee you, this breed struves well in cold, severe cold, hot very hot climates. If you know the contrast of South African climate, you know how well these sheep can live.
They don’t do well in wet areas at all but cold is alright!
Hey mate, I wanna start a sheep project. I don't know the best sources to start with for my research. Any suggestions??
Would love to help you out, what kind of research are you looking for?
@@homesteadingwithPJ Would probably say I want to get information from the start on how to rear them up until they're are ready to be slaughtered or put on market. Not disregarding the issue of shearing as well.
@@davejay2409 I really liked two books. Sheep: Small-Scale Sheep Keeping For Pleasure And Profit (Hobby Farm) Storey's Guide to Raising Sheep
Do your sheep 🐑 have wool you can use and milk? My apologies for not knowing anything about sheep. Love your knowledgeable content. Learning so much from you.
These are hair sheep, at least mine are, so the wool they do grow is poor quality. Also they are not very docile, making them poor dairy sheep. There are specific sheep breeds for these things, mine are mostly for meat.
Great work!!!!
Some great information in this video thank you
Glad it was helpful!
What about best tasting when raised on grass? I've never tasted them, but in spite of slow growth & size, I've heard the Shetland stay milder flavored even as older sheep. Older Suffolk mutton must be an English thing, 'cuz I can't really get through it.
I haven't tried that, but from my experience hair sheep like the Dorper of Katahdin do taste great when raised on grass even at 2 year old sheep.
Our Barbados Blackbelly are grass fed and finished. The oldest one I've had butchered was about 2years old. It was good meat. I don't like gamey tasting meat (grass fed beef, lol) but I can eat these sheep with no problem.....They're also a slow growing breed, until about 9 months....
I read a food blog out of UK and one of their top best TASTING sheep was Dorset. Might have to do with soil of southern England where breed is common or maybe the genetics
BLACKHEAD SHEEP IS A SOMALI NATIVE, WE CALL IT " ONE" 😁
Blackhead sheep are dopers, developed by the South African department of agriculture. Dope is a cross developed in the early 1900s by crossing various indigenous sheep breeds with imported Dorset Horn rams. The breed was developed to improve the meat quality and wool production of the indigenous sheep breeds in South Africa, and the resulting Doper breed is known for its hardiness, adaptability, and good meat and wool characteristics. Today, the Doper breed is one of the most popular sheep breeds in South Africa and is also found in other parts of the world.
@@reoagilephetlhu1619 Somali sheep is an old breed they are black-headed but they are not doper. They are also fat-tailed and are quite adopted to arid environments, they can survive droughts that doper sheep can never survive!
What do you keep them at night??
I went to Morocco many years ago and couldn't understand why there were goats everywhere but everyone was eating lamb.Turns out they were long haired lambs popular in Arab countries and throughout Africa.They had the best one bite lamb chops I've ever eaten.I went to England soon afterwards and could not eat the lamb, tasted gamey.
Hi nice video. Buffalo milk averages around 8% milk fats. Some breeds even higher. I’m not sure if buffalo farming has got to America yet
Bison farms are few and far between in the US, there's actually one that sells meat at my farmer's market, pretty cool. Excellent taste!
Wow !! Very good video , thanks
Happy , Happy New Year. 2022 . amen
Same!
How about the ladoum sheep
Have you tried sheep milk before? It is pretty wild.
I'm not brave enough to try it! My sheep are all pretty skittish.
How many months does the sheep deliver?
A good rule of thumb is that the earliest you can expect lambs is 5 months and 5 days from the day you put the ram out.
Eas Fresian Sheep are a nice Breed but they have verry often problems with birth. I have 40 of them. Dorper have easy biths twice a year, so i mixed them with the Frisian. And got baisicly bigger Dorper
What about the Kathadin?
Watch part 2 ;)
Hello sir . Do you sell calves to Morocco
I do not. Best of luck!
What about Karakul for meat?
Some folks have commented about those on the channel, and these are new to me. They look cool!
MY favorite sheep in the sheep world is a suffock sheep.
Do you know the ladoum 🐑 in Senegal?
No.
I don't know enough about the other breeds but the suffolks information isn't very good.
Since you’re familiar with some African breeds I would like for you to google rams from Mali. I know you cannot get them here but they are fine breeds.
They look like interesting sheep. I've seen them before, but never knew their name or origins. Interesting faces.
What would you get if you sell for meat ?
Depends where and how you sell it. Best case scenario is to sell the entire animal for $8-11 per pound, and each sheep usually hangs at 50-55lbs.
Can i import
I from india( jammu and kashmir )wants this breed but is it good beneficial in kashmir as currently Marino sheep breed is farms as they are not so good in meat because they are for dual purpose, but i want only meat.
Yes, they are a great breed! Best of luck!
Hi
Which breed is this fully white in thumbnail..
It's been a while since I made this 😂 but I believe it is either a royal white or a st croix. Which are both from part 2 of the video.
I’m Australian, but half of my family is American, they live in the South West, whenever my US family visit Australia I have to “re-educate” their palate to eat sheep. They will eat beef that is very rare but cringe at rare lamb. They had never seen a crumbed cutlet! They didn’t know how to eat a Rack of Lamb! I had to ply them with very good wine to get them to eat BBQ lamb! It turned out it was cultural, the South West has cultural inhibitions, including Native American.
The fact that there is abundant lamb steaks in Australia is one big reason why I'd like to live there one day!
Texel...? Zwartbles...?
All sheep goat 👍... They are cute 😍
I'm from India can you suggested best Indian sheep breeds
We're all about grass fed, 'cuz grain is a fast track to commodity production serfdom and it ain'tcsustainable unless you'rectge one raising the grains, but I digress. Great video, but ya missed parasite tolerance. And the East Freisians, copious amounts of milk aside, are simply too fragile for meaningful home or farm stealing, imnsho. The French Laucaune are much hardier scrabblers who, while giving less milk, what they do give is superb, especially for making cheese. Just my 2 cents. Katahdins are very popular around us, here in the mid-Atlantic coastal plain, but I've always thought the Caribbean black belly breeds would be great here. I do love the Dormers though. Our biggest challenge is too few shearers left, so I guess it's time we add that to the tool box. ;) Thanks again for acgreat video. :)
Thank you, great tips. I'll try to remember them when I make an updated version of the video. Love how you said, " grain is a fast track to commodity production serfdom."
We found the one that would stay alive was our best choice. Never knew their breed. Stay safe. “best” is a big word.
Have a look at the Australian White
Yes, they look like great sheep. They made it into my hair sheep video. kzhead.info/sun/rNNxobyDpZWvbGw/bejne.html
In Israel we prefer the cross between the local Awassi breed and the Marino breed.
Sounds like a cool cross.
@@homesteadingwithPJ Indeed, not too "sheepy" in its taste like the Awassi, and we still get some of the fatty tail of the Awassi. Something much appreciated. I prefer males, 45 -50 kg maximum and we use EVERTHING of the animal! Including the head, shanks, intestines everthing! MY preferd dish is a Lybian dish called Mec'humma that uses the liver, splin, lungs, stomach and some of the intestines in wonderful garlic, vinager and hot paprika cumin and caraway sauce.
N1 is Gisars
What about Gissar ?
Never heard of them, but I will look into them!
@@homesteadingwithPJ kzhead.info/sun/iMqgqdOcoYCVqn0/bejne.html
@@homesteadingwithPJ kzhead.info/sun/qJlvf6l7fZNteZs/bejne.html
@@homesteadingwithPJ kzhead.info/sun/ltCKhctxsYWQdJE/bejne.html
I just say hi when I meet sheep
Are they tasty?
I am from morocco, where to buy dorper from Europe ? south Africa is too far for me
Not sure, if anyone is raising sheep near you and they have a different breed that is doing well in the area I would definitely go with that breed first though. Easier to find and already adapted to your climate!
Thank you @@homesteadingwithPJ
Anyways we can get smaller breeds?
Like smaller sheep? If you Google miniature sheep you'll find a few really cute breeds.
Barbados Blackbelly are a bit smaller than some breeds, they're great for small homesteads
How to get dorpersheeps
In the US, you'll start here: dorpersheep.org/ Outside the US, I don't know.
what about charollie
Never heard of them, I'll have to look into these!
Thought it was Barbados blackbelly.
There's two kinds, the Barbados and the American Blackbelly. I sometimes use the terms interchangeably. They are very similar breeds, the notable difference is that the American Blackbelly rams have horns.
Thank God
IM A big sheep fan From. Patrick
Meatmaster sheep breed in Southern Africa are the best..
They look amazing! I haven't seen them in the US yet.
Suffolks may tend to have more lambs but they tend to be careless mothers. Good meat and weight gain, but possibly best as a cross with a Suffolk ram.
The best sheep is Gissar breed, the rams till 200 kg
That's HUGE!
Check out meatmasters and dormers...
I have seen them, they are SO IMPRESSIVE! The meatmasters are HUGE SHEEP!
Smaller lambs with fast growth is good in my mind - fewer complications giving birth.
Exactly. A birth where you don't have to step in and help is definitely preferable for all.
AMERICAN BLACKBELLY?!? The blackbelly are from Barbados 🇧🇧
Two different breeds. Kind've... Both are Blackbelly, but its horns determine if they are American or Barbados. American Blackbelly sheep have horns. Barbados are polled.
@@homesteadingwithPJ Americans like to claim everything 🤣
American Blackbelly is a 3 way hybrid, created by the USDA back in the 1970s. The Barbados Blackbelly is an import from the Caribbean Islands
St. Croix sheep?
#7, on the part 2 video.
@@homesteadingwithPJ OK,
Dorper is the best 👍👍👍
I certainly love them!
Nigerian Dwarf goats have up to 10% butter fat milk. Just saying 😉. BTW I also have dorpers and they are the best meat sheep for sure. Looking to cross them with Texel and see if I can get the best of both worlds
I've heard really good things about the Nigerian Dwarf Goat milk fat content. Really impressive! Good luck with your Dorper/Texel cross.
@@homesteadingwithPJ yeah we love our ND milk. We made a lot of cheese and yogurt this year and it was amazing. Thanks
@@t.hangar Jealous! Maybe one day we'll do dairy goats.
Turkish curly, wagyu of muttons
Watching this on 5th April 2024 at 1109 hours (Indian Standard Time).
Suffolks and Hampshires are poor wool producers. A lot of people cross the two breeds for a thicker lamb.
🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
Yes, but no. Ok for Suffolk but Charollais, Rouge de l'ouest, Beltex, Texel, Berrichon du cher, Ile de France = real meat sheep !
I'd love to try these other breeds (both taste and raising). Thanks for sharing!
The Blackbelly is a goat
Dorper sheep sale madthir india ge
Humankind?
444 layk 👍
You must visit algeria and taset the real lamb welcome
Bro invest in a Muslim country, alot of European countries and north American countries are lacking on that , i worked 3 years in Tunisia (north Africa) and when i was there they had problems with local sheeps so they had to import sheep from spain to in order to sell for aid ( the day they sacrifice( goat/sheep/camel/cow ) but mostly sheep so yes European and American farmers u should think about it
Meet your meat sheep.
thick haired sheep
you should change your header and just name it some info about sheep lol
Can I talk to you in person? I like doper
U dont know the breeds of northafrica countries.. algeria and morroco... they have the best breeds in world,,, u can chek them
I just did a video on the best hair sheep, and there are some east African breeds there. Sounds like there's more for me to look into.
I'm not eating sheep, yuck!
How many days does the sheep deliver?
Gestation is about 137 to 150 days, depending on breed, nutrition and the lambs (multiple, single and sex)