Why I Don't Recommend Raising Sheep. Instead...
In this video we’re talking about how to start raising sheep THE RIGHT WAY.
It is tempting to just rush in and buy your first trio (2 ewes and a ram). This video explains the thought process behind why people would want to do that. But we also take a deep dive into why starting with raising rams until processing date is a smarter idea. It does make a lot of sense. Add your experience below if you have any more tips. Thanks for watching!
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Timestamps:
Sheep the easy way: 0:00
Starting with ewes: 1:36
The obvious: 2:46
Starting with rams: 3:09
Ad Break: 4:00
Finishing rams: 4:43
Healthier sheep: 5:46
Weaning sheep: 6:29
Selling breeding stock: 6:51
Let’s talk about $$$, your $$$: 7:46
The 3 BIG takeaways: 10:03
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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 our 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 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
• meat chickens
• laying chickens
• 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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#sheep #finishingsheep #meatsheep
Really appreciate this insight! Great perspectives on breaking the ice and why
Always look forward to your videos!! I have a small dorper flock myself!! Not in it for money. Just looking to put meet in my freezer every year!
I love hearing this!
I have watched all of your videos, and this one was the most important to me. Thanks so much, and keep up the good work!
Thanks! Glad to hear it! It's a lesson I certainly wish I had years ago!
This is the video I’ve been waiting for ! Thank you
Thanks for your wisdom!
Another good one.
Just found your channel. Thank you!
Great advice, both my wife and I watch sheep videos, I love your videos and appreciate you…Great advice to start real small and simple especially with livestock….we have had 5 hens for a while and both enjoy them….maybe we will get a few inexpensive grow out lamb rams next…ps…hope to c u at hoa conference in va come October 😊
Hens are the best to start with! We'll have to see if we make it out in October. Haven't quite penciled that in for this year. Maybe next year, but we'll try!
My opinion on dewormer is........... DONT OVER DO IT use just enough don't do it every month like some folks I deworm once maybe twice a year its really wet ware im at. Nice video i wouldn't say i have regretted getting into sheep with the mindset of breeding them but changes could have been made for me anyways. Im getting into cattle there just as much work as sheep just more $$
We're thinking about cattle. Thanks for the perspective!
Good idea. The only reason I would have wanted to get the 'trio' is because it actually seems more economically viable, because you keep getting lambs for free. But, it is good to be able to try something to see how it might work best, then you can make adjustments and try again. Its harder to do that when you never get a break.
Not free
In the long run it might be cheaper, if you're walking into a perfect set up. I know for me, I would have saved a bunch of time and money making my mistakes with young rams instead of valuable breeding stock. But it can for sure work starting with a trio.
I see you bare legged in your boots, so I want to ask how do you and your usually bare footed children and sheep handle ticks? I don't want Lyme here in central MO. I've ask this multiple times to several homesteading families like Justin Rhoads but no one answers.
Haha. The weather is too nice right now to wear pants! We all wear boots and long socks, which gives a good amount of coverage. Especially for the adults. As far as ticks go, it's just a matter of checking for them. I'm not great about it for me, but we are really good about checking the kids. Probably not the best answer, because it takes a lot of work. Tick checks are just worked into our daily routines.
@@homesteadingwithPJ Thanks
are you starting with intact rams or whithers to send to market? JW
I've never had a wether. They have uses for sure, but I've never bothered with it.
A good producer always asks what you want to do with the sheep. For example, I want dairy sheep. I have 4 ewes, 3 are still lambs one is a couple weeks away from lambing hogget. I want a smaller animal I can get milk and meat from. Sure, my dairy sheep don't grow as fast or as big as a Dorper but the meat will be fine. My biggest goal is I want to be as contained closed herd as possible. That means I need my own rams because AI is a pain with sheep. I also plan to get 4 Dorset sheep in a few months. Dorset will give me higher quality wool and meat than my dairy sheep will. My cap based on my space and budget is 10 sheep I will be at 9 before year end. People shouldn't go into sheep small scale and think they will make money- can you? Yes, but you aren't likely to. Whatever livestock you get need to have a purpose you deem worth having them for. My main goal is dairy and meat. That's my sheep's purpose for me. Livestock of any sort can be rough. You will have losses. I grew up homesteading with cows, rabbits and pigs so I know what I'm in for. It's definitely not cheap. Oh and just fyi studs prices depend on breed and breeding. High quality ram lambs with dairy breeds are more than twice the price of ewe lambs because large producers like to buy them to add higher milk production into their line. My girls cost me $350 each. If I don't get a ram lamb from my pregnant hogget the ram lamb from her will cost $800.
Thank you for your videos I have learned a lot. May I ask if you have ever gotten emotionally attached to a sheep... its very hard for me to think so much love and care goes into it without getting attached and how you deal with it? I am not a vegetarian and I do understand sheep is for meet and I am looking at getting sheep I just also love animals way too much 😊
*meat. Getting attached would be an issue. They’re so cute.
It's harder to lose sheep to illness than it is to process them, although both are hard. It's never easy for me. I've only recently gotten to the point where I don't have outward emotional displays. i.e. I don't cry any more. But it still takes hours or days to recover from losses. Anyone who says it gets easy is lying. Easier, sure. But never easy. It's not supposed to be easy. Good luck to you!
We just butchered 3 of our wethers. We’re presently eating my favorite one 😳. It’s tough but once the spirit of the animal is gone all that’s left is meat and memories.
@@spoolsandbobbins So true. Well said.
I don't get what you mean about parasite resistance and not feeling guilty about using too much dewormer because they're just going in the freezer. Are you saying that letting the sheep fight the worms on their own will develop resistance over time, and that's why you wouldn't use as much on a sheep you are keeping long term?
Exactly. People who use terminal sires in dorpers cross situations talk about this all the time. If you are crossing a dorpers ram every year with a more resistant flock of ewes (like katahdins or st Croix) then the ram will need to be dewormed more often than the ewes. This decreasing his parasite resistance. Therefore expressing parasite susceptibility via epigenetics and passing those expressed, negative genes to its offspring.
@@homesteadingwithPJ sheesh, this is helpful info! Our ram Dorper will be bred to 2 pure Dorpers and 2 black belly (parasite resistant) sheep. It’ll be interesting to see what comes through. We had a rough summer with tape and barberpole !
@@spoolsandbobbins I've heard good things about the blackbellies in terms of parasite resistance. If you have good stock, every year should get easier.
Dude! Used to love this channel. You knew what was going on in the low moisture desert of Utah. You moved to a wet place with no pasture or grazing that they knew. Bad thing's happened and you're incredibly bitter. Take a deep breath learn more thing's about your area build your pasture. And get your feet under yourself. I hope fore positive videos in the future
Reality is that its not all sunshine and rainbows. I share positive content when I have good news. But I'm not gonna shy away from hard situations. I'm not bitter about it, but its okay to be disappointed when circumstances are disappointing. I wish I knew this stuff beforehand. So I make videos for those folks who don't know. Because I sure didn't. Thanks for watching the channel as long as you have. It means so much. I'm looking forward to a great new year. New plans, pastures, and animals for our little homestead. Stay tuned!
Question, how much does it cost you to raise a lamb start to finish or processing weight?
That depends on a lot of things. Are you picking them up in spring when grass is growing? Do you have sufficient pasture (with fences) that is already up and running with nutrient-dense grasses for the sheep? If not you'll have to supplement with bagged feed like alfalfa pellets. Also I don't recommend raising a single sheep because they get lonely, they need companions. So if you're having to supplement, you'd have to buy a lot of feed to support at the very least 2 sheep. You also have to buy them minerals and kelp. It just depends on a lot of factors. Best to plan out what raising a lamb would look like month-to-month for your land and finances. If you're set up to raise out lambs with minimal cost it's worth it. If you're largely having to supplement (and therefore spend more $$$) then your money is better spent buying a processed lamb from a farm near you.
@@homesteadingwithPJ m
Also take into consideration predators and whether or not you have outbuildings, does your area have a steady supply of hay etc.
Would you recommend keeping a ram with the sheep?
Do you mean keeping an adult ram with these young weaned rams? I don't think it's necessary. Once they're weaned they're big enough to fend for themselves or run away from danger. We don't have big predators where I am though. I've heard our biggest predators are coyotes and I've never seen them. I was most worried about our newborn lambs just because we have huge hawks that could scoop them up and take them away. Weaned rams are plenty big to handle themselves.
If you mean for breeding it depends. Will you separate once breeding season is over? Then you need somewhere to keep him and a buddy. It’s one more mouth to feed potentially in winter and some rams become depleted and exhausted if kept with their hormone producing ewes. So many different scenarios. We keep a ram and will attempt a breeding apron come summer 😳, lol😂. Not sure how it will all work out but what an adventure!! Going on 9 months with 5 Dorpers (3 wethers just butchered).
If you're only going to eat them then why keep them as a ram? Wouldn't they taste better being a wether?
I've never noticed a difference in taste between ewe and intact ram. They are young sheep still. There are problems with castrated rams. Like they don't grow out as fast as an intact ram (or so I've been told). Also, a castrated ram can't handle rich forges like clover or alfalfa.
I haven’t read the comments (don’t want to stop the video!) so maybe this was asked. I can’t help but notice the size of the testicles. Do you not have to neuter them, for taste of meat? Thanks in advance.
I don't. If they turn out to be good rams, I'd rather them become breeders. You can't reverse a castration. They grow faster and bigger when they are intact, and I've never had any issues with taste. Lambs are processed between 10 and 18 months depending on the breed. Hope that helps!
@@homesteadingwithPJ absolutely! Love your videos!! Thanks.
I tell this 2 people all the time butt no one listens then they wonder why there overwhelmed.
I wish we had met years ago! It sounds like your advice would have saved me years of extra work and costly mistakes.😅
I have to disagree on terms of price raising sheep is cheap unless the breed u raise is one of those larger breeds like hamshires or canadian arcott hays really not expensive if u don't have pasture and grains not needed for meat animals in comparison hogs r extremely expensive to raise but r usually cheaper to buy as weaned piglets I've helped raise goats- sheep yorkshire hogs-and cattle sheep and goats r super cheap to raise in fact a large round bale will feed around 20 goats for 7 days if they eat grain without about 4-5days Considering most lamb ranges between 10-12 bucks a pound there's loads of profit to be made depending upon the breed u choose especially if u sell wool as well if u want to talk about expensive cattle and hogs cost insane amounts per animal
Love the boots!
Some of your rambs have impressive balls dangling to the ground which is kind of nice to look at. Ha ha .