Sheep

[coyotecreek]

I am considering purchasing 2 or 3 sheep..mainly to work my dog on. We attempted it with goats and the goats in question are to dog savvy for my beginning stock dog.

 

We live in north Texas..on 12 acres. my goats are currently kept in with my cattle in no climb fence.

 

What kind of sheep do well in this climate? what type of fence is ideal? my goats are extremly hard on fence..are sheep the same way?

 

thanks for any info

Sarah

[juliepoudrier]

Sarah,

For heat hardiness, you can't beat the hair sheep breeds, like katahdins, St. Croix, dorper or mixes thereof (barbs too, but I wouldn't recommend barns for beginner dogs or handlers--too flighty). They will be much more heat tolerant than any wool breed, plus in general they will shed out and so you won't have to worry about finding a shearer or shearing yourself. They shouldn't be as hard on your fences as goats are and in fact shouldn't bother the fences at all unless they don't have enough to eat.

 

You need more than two or three. Two won't even act like a normal flock of sheep (and will make training a decent dog virtually impossible), and three barely will. Not to mention the fact that with so few sheep they'll likely get dog sour pretty fast if you're using them all the time. If I were you, I'd try to get 8-10 seep. Then at least you could rotate through them in groups of three or four and no one would end up overworked too quickly.

 

Look for someone who has sheep in your area and buy from them. That way you'll know the sheep are capable of thriving in your local environment.

 

J.

[coyotecreek]

thanks for the insight Julie

 

I know Dorpers are very popular around here. I am happy to hear they dont mess with the fence..the goats are awful about pushing on it.

 

Thinking..a herd might be better, in terms of protection as well? we have a large coyote population around here..they dont bother my goats, but they are in with the cattle..sheep dont usually have issue being with cattle, normally?

 

Any type of medical conditions that sheep are prone too? Females or castrated males(sorry, dont know the "proper" terms!) better for working dogs?

[juliepoudrier]

Coyotes will be a problem. I'm surprised they haven't bothered your goats, even if they are in with the cattle. I imagine a coyote would take a calf if it could. At the least, if you know you have coyotes, you might want to run hot wire at the top of the fence and on the bottom on the outside, a few inches off the ground to zap anything that tries to dig under. The sheep can stay in with the cattle, though when you want to work them it might be more difficult to separate the sheep off from the cattle and goats.

 

One thing you can do is subdivide your pasture with electronet or something similar. Then your sheep would have two layers of protection: the perimeter fence and the electrified interior net, and they'd already be separated from the cattle and goats when you wanted to work them.

 

As for ewes vs. wethers, it doesn't really matter. If you want to breed, then obviously you'll need ewes, and it might make sense to breed your own replacements so that you can sell off sheep as they become too dog broke or as your dog(s) become more skilled and you want fresher sheep to work with. That said, you might be able to find wethers for less money, simply because their only value is as meat (vs. the value of future lambs from any ewes). The only time gender would make a difference for working dogs is if you have ewes with lambs by their sides, which will tend to make at least some ewes much more aggressive toward dogs.

 

Sheep cannot be fed the same as goats and cattle because they are less tolerant of copper and copper toxicity can kill them (and it's not something you'll notice before it happens--usually you find out after the fact on necropsy). So if you're running everything together, you'll need to make sure that your goats and cattle have access to minerals with enough copper, while keeping your sheep out of those same minerals (but also meeting their mineral needs). Other than that, there's not a real problem with housing them together. I would be inclined to use electronet and a rotational system, partitioning off an area for the sheep and then moving them around behind the cattle, since they will be susceptible to different species of intestinal parasites and also will favor different plant species and will have different grazing patterns. Doing this should help improve your pastures and reduce overall parasite loads for all species --> healthier animals and healthier ecosystem.

 

It might be helpful to get in touch with your county extension agent to talk about rotational grazing and running one species behind another to get a good idea of what would work best in your area.

 

J.

[coyotecreek]

Again, thanks for the insight.

 

The cattle will be going out to pasture very soon, their current area is a large "drylot" if you will, while their pasture fence is replaced...the drylot has no climb wire from the ground up 5 feet..all the time Ive lived here, Ive never had a yote get into one of these pens..but, not to say they wouldnt.

 

I knew there was something regarding sheep and feed..as my cattle feed says do not feed to sheep..perhaps it might be better to keep the sheep seperate from the cattle and goats..so everyone gets what they need.

 

Im not entirely familar with Electronet fencing..but that might be something for the goats as well, since they derirve such pleasure from trying to tear it up.

 

again, thanks for the insight, some things to work on.

[juliepoudrier]

For examples on electronet and it's variations (and uses) go to Premier 1.

 

J.

[hsnrs]

We have hair sheep. They are good in our area of AZ.

[Smokjbc]

Just chiming ditto on the Kathadins. I keep Kathadin/Dorper crosses and during the summers we do have work in 90-95 degree (early,early morning) for about three months. Another key, which it sounds like you will already be doing, is to keep your sheep in a large enough area that they will be active on their own. A couple of years ago, I borrowed back a group of wethers that I sold to someone to work their dog in town. They kept the sheep in a small pen on a horse property and worked them a few times a week. The difference between those sheep and mine, who live in a 2 1/2 acre lot was amazing. They were the exact same sheep but the town sheep definitely had a hard time stamina-wise; they were just getting in shape when I had to take them back.

 

I have had exclusively Kathadins and Kathadin/Dorper for over 8 years now and I've lost only a few adults. I have 9 and 10 year old ewes that still do very well. No one ever gotten sick on me or had to be treated except for dog related injuries, which they've recovered from some pretty remarkable ones. They are good lambers and mothers; I had a spot of trouble last year and had a stillborn and a pair of twins die of mysterious disease, but that was the exception. Never pulled a lamb or had to bottle feed one. Can't recommend them highly enough for starting out with sheep. I really want something cuter like Cheviots but it's hard to give up that no-brainer sheep keeping .

 

Not only that, I find that the Kathadins stay a little lighter than my DorperX but they are still sensible. My DorperX are lovely sheep but sometimes working the more broke ones can be torture as they are so calm and slow.