just got him in his temporary pen. Hes 8 mos old and a Dorset.

Just a quick snap while the leaves turn brown

I recently saw the concept of protective spiked jackets for sheep as a possible way to deter wolf attacks. Has anyone here used or seen something similar in practice? Are there more effective predator deterrents that sheep farmers recommend?

This is Betty. She is so freakin' cute and sweet. Her dad is a Babydoll and her mom is a Romney crossed with Clun Forest. Her baa sounds like Peter Griffin (from Family Guy) pretending to be a lamb. Here she is enjoying some grass in a neighbor's field who has generously allowed us to graze here.

https://reddit.com/link/1x38cl2/video/6gl3x8vzbuuh1/player

I searched posts but I'm still looking for some advice.

Im currently building a house (ready in feb) in my future hobby farm. We're adding some animals in spring and one of them we are looking to add is sheep. I love how versatile Icelandic Sheep are (fleece/meat/dairy/selling lambs). We are conscious about not growing faster than we can manage. Long term, I would like a breeding ram and some ewes. Nothing big. I also want to make sure i understand my sheep prior to taking on breeding. But you have to pen them separately during breeding season if im not breeding so I may need a neutered ram. We have a significant about of acerage for them to graze. So here are my questions....

What's the minimum amount of Sheep I need to pen together? What is a general cost to keep a Sheep?

Hello!

sorry if this isn't the right sub. I'm just trying to gather information, and I'm having some trouble trying to suss out normal expectations online.

a neighbor just got sheep, and they are bleating all the time. not literally constantly, but pretty darn close.

I'm suspicious of the care my neighbors are providing, but I haven't yet set eyes on it, and I wanted to be a little more informed as I considered next steps.

is it normal for sheeps to be bleating almost without cessation? it cannot be heard inside the home or our barn, but in the yard or arena it's very audible. it sounds a bit distressed to me, but I have no sheep experience, and maybe that's just what sheep sound like?

tia to anyone who might help!

For me i was flattered about the first accurate and complete human-animal I've heard.

I'm not a farmer by trade, so I apologize if any of my questions sound stupid.

Pretend like I own many acres of prairie fields and pretend like I normally use a lawnmower to keep the grass height managed. Pretend that land is not directly adjacent to your land, but it was whatever you would consider local.

Is that interesting to you as a shepherd?

Would you be interested in making some kind of deal to give your sheep access to this land?

Broad strokes, what would such a deal look like?

Is lack of useful land a large problem for sheep herders?

If you had long term access to my land, would you consider it relatively easy to scale up your shepherding operation to include using it?

Assuming my land was equal in size to your own, what would doubling your available land do to your profitability?

How long would it take to scale your operation up to maximally utilize the new land?

Thanks in advance to anyone who responds.

Please do throw in answers to any relevant questions I didn't ask but which it seems like I should be asking here.

What is this?

i have a job interview in a day. (barnyard worker) I want to research the basic care and skills needed for sheep as the job requires caring for them. I’ve worked with horses for years, is it a similar situatio? where should I start?

Unfortunately we don't own a farm (yet) so this is the best we can offer you!

We moved onto this property recently and we are planning on running some sheep on it. The previous owners had goats a few years ago and had a hot wire set up around the whole lot, but it's inactive now and we're not sure how to reactivate it. This seems to be the only charger/control box. I'm sure it's a ong shot but does anyone recognize it so we can look up how it works?

I posted a few days ago about how my lead ewe is bossing my dogs. Well, my big LGD seems to enjoy it. She makes a habit of just casually standing around in the vicinity of the ewe, back turned, paying no attention, until the ewe makes a run at her and she dashes off. This also has the effect of keeping the ewe from creeping up on the puppy.

I'm fine with this solution. The dog isn't showing any aggression toward the ewe, and is continuing to be calm among the other ewes. In fact I think it's possible that the ewe is making a game of it, too.

The ewe is kind to me, and a good flock leader, so I think this will all work out fine.

I have a 2 year old Painted desert Ram that has decided to turn into a true ram. We generally ignore him, no pets, no hand feeding. The girls we do though. This past 2-3 months, he ram everything. He split a 4x4 post with their scratcher on it. He ramed their shed so much he broke one of the middle supports, and now has to be blocked off with an electrical fence until repaired. He really tries to ram my husband. Less so me but still tries to line it up before he gets a bamboo smack to the side of the face.

Can't find any ram shields for him, cause everyone is out?

Building him his own enclosure, but it's taking some time.

I'm not strong enough to flip him. What else can I do for this boy to stop trying to ram people? Disappointed he can't be with the flock 24/7 now.

Edit: Final decision is we'll be cutting him and butchering in a few month. Glad I received such a unanimous answer.

It’s mixed with orchard grass. Thanks