We are officially "shepherds"

We visited two breeders in PA today and picked up two ewes from one farm and got a look at several ewe lambs at another. We will be picking up one or two ewe lambs from the second farm later this fall. Here's the only picture I got as we were driving home. It was dark when we got home, so decent pictures will have to wait until tomorrow.

Next Sunday we are heading down to Delaware to pick up a ewe lamb and a ram lamb. That should give us plenty of genetic diversity to get started.

 

Ewe crazy sheep people!


Good deal. I'd love to have sheep here. A few of those and I wouldn't have to mow the lawn.

 

Enjoy your farming! I tried the chicken thing for a while. Wife won't even hear of me trying that again. Good thing is that you and your SO are on the same page about this.

 

Cool, poop machines

 

Are these for meat or the wool, or both? My parents have had 2-3 sheep for the pas 20 years, Mom takes the wool and uses a spinning wheel to make yard out of it, 18th century style.

 

you hush my MIL just bought a spinning wheel? no we don't have sheep.. I got no idea why?

Interested in hearing about your adventures mike! friend has sheep and goats.. are they sorta pets or do you have a plan?

 

We got a triple-threat breed, for meat, wool and milking. Once we get up and running, we should have plenty of meay and wool left over to sell off. We will also sell off a few of nice, extra lambs as registered breeding stock. for now we are just going to try to breed 2 ewes this fall.

 

So are you going to be hand milking or useing a machine?

 

O.K. here's a better picture of the f the first set of ewes, both were sheared last week. Poppy (3 y.o) is the bigger and more silvered girl in the front and Tilia (4 y.o) who is her older half-sister. Tilia's horns are very narrow and needed to be cut back when they started to rub her neck. Thus she will not be registered, but she can still provide us with meat lambs, wool and milk. Poppy is our gorgeous, chubby, solid , black/silvered, and registered ewe. So far, Tilia bosses around her younger (fancy) half-sister. I think I'm going to bond with Tilia. She's got less than perfect genetics, but a GREAT personality. Next weekend, we pick up a brown (moorit) ram and a black-gray ewe from another farm in DE to help diversify our genetics. From now until Spring, the ram lamb will have his way with the ladies. If all goes well, Tilia and Poppy will both have twin lambs around May. Fingers crossed! P.S. The wife loves to do landscaping with rocks and boulders. This is awesome because even with the help of our new/used tractor, this is very hard work. She's been doing a great job and the sheep are really starting to appreciate her efforts.

 

Milking by hand. We don't have enough room to have more than a half-dozen milking ewes at any time. BTW, I've never milked anything before, so I would appreciate any help...

 

I don't know much about sheep. But I'm happy to answer any questions that I can.

 

Thanks!

 

All I know is that you're not supposed to milk the rams, just the ewe's!

Sounds like a fun little experiment! I've been trying to convince my parents to get meat sheep, I've even offered to help pay for food but to them they're "pets".

 

I would feel the same way. As I got older, I know longer could "harvest" meat. Hypocrite, yes I know, as I buy meat at the market. Once I see the living animal, I cannot bring myself to end its living. I have no negative feeling about those who do. In fact, am happy for those who are able to grow and harvest or hunt for their food. It is, after all, the law of the land.

 

Affordable Milkers: Portable Milking Equipment

Get yourself a milking machine, trust me. It's a pricey investment, but worth every penny. After about three days of hand milking you'll see why.

 

All day today it was cold and rainy, so the sheep finally decided that the lovely barn I built them was pretty good. Icelandic a very "feral" breed so they generally prefer to be outside if possible.
So far, the two ewes are doing just fine.

It will be very interesting to see what happens when we bring home a ram lamb on Sunday and have to segregate the breeding stock from the non breeders. Time will tell...

 

Heading to a farm in Delaware tomorrow a.m.. It is 3 hrs highway driving each way, so wife a I whipped up some bettet protectiion for the bed of the truck. it"s not done quite yet, but should be way bettet than cattle panels on the highway.

 

More pictures tomorrow of the finished transporter and the lambs.