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Oklahoma | I will agree with what he said, I have heard good things about Pipestone. Also Mid States Wool Growers can be an asset. I will also add, like other markets, sometimes sheep take a dive in the markets as well.
I am not a big operator or anything but my experience is about 4-5 sheep to 1 cow. They do overlap diets for the most part. When I was a kid our homeplace was in town with an odd ~20 acres of bermudagrass. Since it was in town, dogs were our big problem. I remember one morning before school we went out and put down 12 head that were mangled up bad, I don't remember how many died that day but dogs can whip you out in an hour or so. I have heard coyote can but I have yet to see a coyote kill more than one. Dogs kill for fun. For that reason we never put sheep on a place that doesn't have a house with someone living there that can at least keep an eye on stuff (or at least listen). At my place, all our ewes get penned up every night.
We ran cows and sheep together on that place I grew up, ran 4-5 cows 3/4 of the year (took them off for breeding season) and about up to 45 hd of sheep year round, overseeded arrowleaf, vetch, and wheat in winter. During the winter, at times it would look like a big drylot up around the barns so it was overgrazed. Fertilize in the spring and the grass would take off. The fencing was a strand of barbwire on the ground hog ringed to the bottom of woven wire. Woven wire was 36 inch, one strand of bard hog ringed to the top of the woven wire. This made dogs work to dig a hole under and kept the woven wire tight so nothing stuck a head through it, then 2-3 strands of barb on top. Yes this fence would be expensive to build but when I did my place this way, I used the existing barb wire that was there and only bought the woven wire. We have always fed alfalfa or oat hay in the winter with a little corn. Growing up we didn't dry lot anything, very low maintence, they had to lamb on their own, no prolapses, and raise the baby. If they didn't they went to town. That was all with Dorsets.
In high school we got into the club lamb deal to an extent mainly just trying to make a few extra bucks not going for the gold as others do. Raised what we liked and if they didn't make a show lamb, they still made a feeder lamb. Changed over to suffolk, hamps, and crosses. They didn't seem to do as well on the system we had so we had to go to a dry lot lambing and then dry lot the lambs when weaned. That system costs us more money but we are getting lots better gains. We (my parents place as well as mine) have drylot pens that are just out of woven wire panels and then open to 4-5 acre paddocks that they can graze in the spring and summer. Usually about .5 to 1 lb per ewe depending on how close to lambing/lambed they are. Once they are weaned, I am feeding a textured ration that is about 13.5% CP, I have them on self feed (vaccinate for overeating when you wean). They have access to it as creep from birth. My parents are feeding a 16% CP stocker pellet. Seems to be working well for them and I will probably try some of it next year as it is cheaper than mine. One thing to watch on feeds is Copper. I don't know how much a sheep can tolerate but it isn't much. I had one die from Cu toxicity when I was a kid and it was basically us mixing cattle feeds and not paying attention to that. For feeders we use just about anything. My Dad has some fenceline bunks he made with 24" PVC pipe cut in half, he has some commercial made feeders, and he and I both have some feeders made from old farrowing crates or other welded materials with a wooden bottom in them.
Problems I have had is worms as always and in a drylot and wet year, footrot gets to be a problem. I don't have any facilities to speak of it is just manual labor to set them up on their rump and trim feet and treat. Just takes time. Shearing can be an issue. In high school I custom sheared for some locals (not professionally by any means). I messed my back up a few years aog and now my back hurts before I even start so I dread shearing. Markets can be a problem. We sell a few to 4-H kids for show projects, sell some to locals who want to put on a family feed, the rest will go to auction. We have several local auctions but the one that we have had the best results at is about an hour and half away.
Hope this helps and others chime in. | |
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Sold fat lambs yesterday
