|
Southern Ohio | I was in the same boat as you a couple years ago and wanted to get some for my daughter and myself. Studied about them for a year or so as I don't like to be unprepared. Eventually read enough to get analysis paralysis and didn't know what I wanted to do. Eventually, last spring I ended up at the sale barn dropping off some feeder calves and stumbled into the lamb and goat sale. Against the advice of most saying to buy quality (heck I wouldn't have known quality if it hit me in the face, anyway), I left there with a 50 pound ram and 40 pound ewe and was actually just thinking of them more to butcher. A few weeks later, I ended up at bred ewe sale at the same sale barn. Left with three nearly identical bred ewes from the same farm and then another ewe (dorper cross, maybe) with week old twin ewes at her side. I kept them all separate for a month or so before joining the whole "flock" together. The bred ewes?.... well they weren't bred unfortunately. Eventually, my ram matured and bred everything. They're all done lambing except for the two that were purchased as babies and they should lamb fairly soon. So far, four sets of twins and a single. Fortunately, I haven't had too many issues other than a couple got/have mastitis but I caught early and they seem fine now. So basically, I wanted to go into this project prepared and ended up just jumping in feet first. I also purchased a Karakachan puppy about the time I purchased the others. He hasn't been perfect but has been close to it. So far, my daughter and I have had a blast and I'm looking forward to growing the herd. I should also mention that aside from the ones that are possibly dorper mix, the rest appear to be Katahdins.
I'll try to answer your other questions.
Mine have been kept on pasture and hay. I feed what probably equates to less than a pound per day of sweet feed and this is to keep them coming to me when needed but mostly to occupy them while the dogs eats so they don't steal his food.
I haven't had to sheer being they're mostly Katahdins. Some of them stay "slick" throughout the year, some have some patches that don't completely shed off but come close to it.
My ram has been very friendly and mild mannered. He and the dog both mutually pester each other at times and that sometimes leads to some small scuffles but no real issues.
I don't know anything about your fair but last summer, I looked at the sheep at our fair. It was fairly obvious they were all wool breeds and for that matter, I think they were all a single breed at that (not sure what kind). It was like cookie cutter sheep so I knew our hairs wouldn't fit in as far as showing.
Since jumping into sheep, I've also found a handful of Facebook groups that seem to be pretty beneficial for information. | |
|
Gimme advice on getting some sheep
