Breed of sheep

GrannyCarol · #1 08/24/06, 03:39 PM

This is posted for my daughter because she doesn't have posting access to the forum yet.

Is there any specific breed of sheep which will produce a reasonable amount of wool and a reasonable amount of milk (and be milkable), as well as making meaty lambs (possibly crossbred)?

The climate here is dry, hot in summer: regularly gets over 100F in late july, early august; cold in winter: sometimes as low as -30, but not uncommon to be below 0 (and dry - rarely get any snow where we are now, but if we move we may get more)

The idea would be to get one or two ewes to keep with a goat (we haven't got a goat either at this time) which would be milkable to supplement the goat (it wouldn't have to be much), and give a wool crop in spring. The lambs would be a bonus for meat and wouldn't have to be purebred.

Thanks for any suggestions you may give.

IowaLez · #2 08/24/06, 04:26 PM

Sheep with coarse wool (rug-making wool) have the best flavor as a meat animal. Most of the meat sheep in New Zealand are rug-wool breeds. You might consider a breed with medium fleece for your ewes, and breed with a coarse-wooled ram so the resulting lamb is tastier, plus you get nice wool for spinning. I like Corriedale as a dual-purpose sheep. I don't know about milk, but corriedale raise nice lambs, so there must be good milk. Perhaps a Google would turn up more info about milk sheep.

Freeholder · #3 08/24/06, 05:18 PM

You might look into Icelandics, or a cross of Icelandic. They are mostly used for meat in Iceland, the wool is famous world-wide (Lopi), and they used to be milked, up until fairly recently.

Kathleen

kesoaps · #4 08/24/06, 08:12 PM

I'd say an icelandic would likely fit your bill as well. They look smaller, but are finer boned, so in the end you get a decent amount of meat off from them. Be careful when looking for one to milk; some are good, some are horrible. I've got two ewes here right now, one was sold to me as being from a 'milky line', and she's got no udder at all. The other was just a nice ewe, and she's got a terrific udder (and doesn't mind it being handled, either!) I'd want to get either pics of the dam's udder while nursing or if you're buying an adult, get photos of her udder so that you know there's something there to grab onto and milk

Somerhill · #5 08/25/06, 09:32 AM

Bluefaced Leicesters are excellent milkers, and quite docile and easy to milk, too.
They are classified as a longwool - but their wool is MUCH finer than any other of the longwooled breeds and so can be used for next to the skin garments. The wool is sought after by handspinners - mine sells for $15 per pound.
They are fast growing - my 4 month old rams are over 100# and nearly ready to butcher.
The rams are normally well-mannered and easy to manage.

Here is the website to the breed association and membership list.
www.bflsheep.com

Lisa at Somerhill
www.somerhillfarm.com

dirtywhitellama · #6 08/29/06, 12:18 PM

Hi all, GrannyCarol's daughter here, thanks for your replies! We've been looking into the Icelandic sheep and they seem to be very nice, pretty much ideal. I expect that's what we'll be looking at if we end up with the room for them.

**Ross** · #7 08/29/06, 05:02 PM

Don't know if you can get Rideau Arcotts but they are a wool/milk/meat breed. Not sure what Lacuune sheep are like (or again if you can get them) for wool but they are probably one fo the top breeds for milk and the ones I've seen were very meaty. So you can't start a topic on the Sheep board????????? That's odd, I could look into that for you.

dirtywhitellama · #8 08/29/06, 06:10 PM

I was waiting for my account to finish being activated in order to post at all, I expect now that I have been activated completely I expect I should be able to.

The Rideau Arcotts look like a decent sheep also, but I must admit I am not as excited about them as the Icelandics

I can't find any information on google about Lacuune sheep whatsoever. Is there an alternate spelling?

**Ross** · #9 08/29/06, 06:30 PM

Well my Rideaus are very easy to handle almost pesty friendly. Can Lacuun be spelled correctly good point since I spelled it wrong! Lacaune is correct. There is a fellow (or was) that was milking 300 sheep in Finch not far from me and I beleive the bulk were Lacaunes. Heard mention of them in Wisc too.

kesoaps · #10 08/29/06, 07:01 PM

Yes, there are Lacuanes in Wisconsin. One guy I recently had emailed told me one of his Lacuane ewes was milking a whopping 1000 lbs per year!

Dirtywhitellama, I'll have some dairy crosses by next spring, and possibly an icelandic or two left as well

dirtywhitellama · #11 08/31/06, 02:31 AM

Well just as soon as we have a place to keep them..... but who knows when that will be...... Anytime from this fall to years from now....

So how many sheep can fit in the back of a Grand Caravan?? I think it would cost more to drive the truck to the west side of the state and back than it cost to drive my brother's car back here from Michigan.

kesoaps · #12 08/31/06, 09:19 AM

LOL, you're probably right about the driving! Just make sure you're gassing up before you get over here...we've got two major oil refineries and still the highest prices in the state for gas!

Glad to hear you drive an SUV, too. That's a Sheep Utility Vehicle...

GrannyCarol · #13 08/31/06, 10:01 AM

Will sheep travel comfortably in large dog crates? If so, how large? I have a pretty huge wire dog crate that might fit a sheepsie or two, I'll have to check that out. Keep them from making TOO big a mess in our "SUV" Grand Caravan!

~ Carol

kesoaps · #14 08/31/06, 02:10 PM

A friend of mine had a piece of plywood cut to fit inside her sheep UV

Lambs will easily fit into dog crates. Depends on the breed of sheep that will fit into the Xlarge crates...shetlands, icelandics and other smaller, more primitive breeds would fit. Big sheep such as suffolk or dorsets are a bit less likely. I think my dorset ewe would probably fit into something a dane or other giant breed would use...but nothing smaller.

MommaSasquatch · #15 08/31/06, 02:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kesoaps

Big sheep such as suffolk or dorsets are a bit less likely.

I'm lol picturing my neighbor's suffolk ram crammed into a dog crate! They had him out in the field with their calves part of the summer and he was almost as big as the new calves they got around that time. Less likely indeed! It's quite a visual.