planning to add some sheep - a few questions

[silvergirl]

Hi, all...

I am new to the subject of sheep...

I have a couple of questions - I have heard that sheep graze a pasture down to the roots of the grass - do they sheer the grass off too short to share a pasture with others? Would rotational grazing work best in a mixed group? Our goats prefer to forage and browse rather than graze but we have a property covered with michanthus (sp?) grass - like pampas grass but a bit shorter - and the goats like it but how would sheep do? and would they eat it down to the roots so we can get rid of it faster? We'd prefer to plant a nicer mix of grasses eventually for a healthier pasture... and then the compatibility on sharing pasture would become more of an issue... We also have a donkey joining our family, btw, and he'd need his own share of graze...

I am planning to buy a few sheep by the spring - not for breeding purposes, but just to be able to harvest the fleeces... so a few males (the sheep equivalent of wethers) should do us just fine... Any suggestions on breeds that would be best for our small acreage? I am looking for sheep that produce a softer fleece - I have friends who have sheep with coarser fleece for hardier weaving projects.
Thanks
Silvergirl

[Liese]

My sheep like to eat the tender grasses and will shun the tough stuff. Not familar with the grass you are specifying but you might want to talk to your ext. agent about it. It may be a plant that needs certain conditions to thrive and as you improve the pasture thru liming, etc. it may recede whilst other more sheep desirable grasses take over. Although sheep graze close if you are rotationally grazing you will want to move them on when the grasses get to 2" or 5-6 days. The reason for that is that the grasses will start to regrow, the sheep will want that lovely tender growth and then the plant is too stressed to continue. SO the idea is to get the stock off the paddock before the regrowth. But don't go by the calendar, go by conditions. Lots of info out there about grazing, it may be more cow oriented but that doesn't matter. Although I tried pasturing sheep & goats together I eventually split them into different fields where they could get what each needed - browse or grass. You say small ac. but not how much. Here in my part of NC I am being conservative and hoping I can support 500#'s/ac at best. If your land is pretty scrubby I would recommend Jacobs since I know they will browse and I have a starter flock available , if it is more grasses you have more choices; so the best thing is to find what breeds are close enough to buy wethers from. Hope this gives you some food for thought.

[Ross]

Wether is a term used for sheep too. When sheep graze a pasture so close it's killing the grass, it's either because they're starved on insufficient feeds, or they've been rotated in to crop the regrowth as soon as it's trying to come back. They'll companion graze OK but the goats may become aggresive so you'll have to keep tabs on them.

[donsgal]

Originally Posted by silvergirl

I am planning to buy a few sheep by the spring - not for breeding purposes, but just to be able to harvest the fleeces... so a few males (the sheep equivalent of wethers) should do us just fine... Any suggestions on breeds that would be best for our small acreage? I am looking for sheep that produce a softer fleece - I have friends who have sheep with coarser fleece for hardier weaving projects.
Thanks
Silvergirl

From what I am told, you cannot go wrong with Shetland. Personally, I am rather fond of Baby Southdown although they have very short staple wool which doesn't felt, so it might not be a good choice for you. Personally, I'd go for the primative breeds (Jacob, Icelandic, Shetland) as I am told that they are more engaging (i.e. "have not had their brains bred out of them"), and they produce awesome wool with good long staple.

Other possibilities might be Border Leicester which, after Merino and Rambouillet is my favorite fleece to spin. I love Merino but I think they are pretty high maintenance sheep and not well suited to hot climate even though they are the number one sheep in Australia, go figure.

donsgal

[ajaxlucy]

I have Shetlands on a small acreage, but no goats. Mine will forage, browse and graze, and I've seen them eating grass, burdock, morning glories, blackberries, Japanese knotweed, honeysuckle, plantain, Rose of Sharon, young pokeweed, blackeyed Susans, violets, roses ... and miscanthus, among other things. They prefer to pick and choose, but I keep them in one area until it's pretty well grazed down (about 5-7 days, usually) before I move them. Good luck with your sheep, when you get them.

[homebirtha]

We have Icelandics and goats. They are not sharing space yet, but I think they will eventually. Once we've had the sheep long enough to feel confident that they don't have any transmissable diseases.

Our Icelandics act more like goats then they do like sheep. They actually prefer browse over the grass. When they go into a new pasture, the first thing they go for it the multiflora rose, and weedy browse. They also act more like goats personality-wise. They don't flock like "normal" sheep, much more independent.

They do eventually eat the grass down pretty short, after they've had enough browse. And we've had to keep a closer eye on wormloads with them, then we do with the goats, because they do eat with their heads down more. But overall, I think they'll be a pretty good fit with the goats.

[Meg Z]

If you plan to run sheep with goats, make sure you can figure out how to work the copper requirements. What goats need will kill sheep. I tried running them together for awhile. I had dairy goats, and it was pretty easy to supplement the girls, but the bucks were harder.

Also, the fighting style of sheep and goats is very different. Your goats will be at risk of getting their legs broken. They rear, then charge. Sheep go from 0 to 60 in about a nanosecond. The goat gets hit while on it's back legs. Some people ahve done it successfully. Many others have not.

I ended up having to choose between the species.

Meg

[silvergirl]

Thanks for all the input, everyone!

Overall, it sounds like rotational grazing might be the way to go - at least initially! I hadn't considered their different styles of fighting - I was assuming, of course, that they would co-exist peacefully!

Liese - With regard to the Jacobs - what sort of fleece do they produce? Soft, harsh? Long or short staple length? I wasn't planning to breed sheep, necessarily, but I am curious as to how large a 'starter flock' you have and if you would be willing to split it up a little, and also if you will likely still have them towards the spring (say - March?) when we are ready to expand our menagerie a little more! I'd need to know the cost, too, so we can budget for them. The other question is - whereabouts in NC are you? We're in the mountains, near Asheville...

We have just ten acres - not a lot of land, admittedly, but we are hoping to make maximum use of every inch of it! There are some interesting mixes of topography and vegetation on our property, from the former pasture which is overgrown with micanthus, to forested areas that have scrub and brambles in the lower levels. We're looking at creating a more varied forest permaculture, which will support browsing. We're planning to grow our veges in greenhouses and enclosed areas to keep the multitudes of creatures out! And to free range our rabbits and guinea pigs in separate colonies, around our little orchard, in the same general area as the beehives, because all of that will need to be fenced away from the goats and sheep, too...

Should be fun!
Silvergirl

[sheepish]

Regarding the donkey: If "he" is an intact male, have him gelded while he is still under a year, or better still, take a pass on the jack and get a jenny. Most males are far too aggressive for a sheep flock.

Our first donkey was a gelding and we had to find a new home for him after he crushed the heads of several newborn lambs. Our jenny has served admirably well for several years.

[Liese]

SG, I'll PM you.