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Haybale |
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WC Iowa | The high price of cows has us considering adding a few sheep back into our operation. Had wool sheep 10-15 years ago but they got sold when I went to college. We don't have much for permanent fence and rely heavily on electric for the cows. We do have a rotational grazing setup with double high tinsel electric. I strongly remember wool sheep putting their heads down and running under electric wires. Maybe the high tinsel would work better as it seems to give a better shock? Would hair sheep respect electric wire better or do they still require a good fence? Do hair sheep bring similar prices or is there a discount compared to wool? Are certain breeds better than others marketing wise? How about mothering ability and lambing rate? Thanks for any suggestions. | ||
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| denice.r |
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south east Indiana | Hair sheep will not have the wool to insulate them from the shock so generally yes. I use lots of electric fene but it is Premier Electric Netting - they have a web site you can check out. I have not been successful keeping in sheep with plain electric fence but some peope are able to. I would call your local sale barn that handles sheep as to the market. Generally speaking hair sheep are a bit discounted. The market for lambs is high around easter drops off slowly, lowest in the summer and gets better again in the fall. So see what lambs sell best and when and go from there. I have both wool and hair sheep. The katahdins will lamb out of season, seem to tolerate the heat and humidity better than most woolies, seem to be a bit more resistant to parisites and don't need shorn. Mothering, lambing rates milking ect I do not see much difference a good sheep is a good sheep. I also dont dink around if they are not, they go to town. If I were going hair sheep I would go Katahdin ewes and either a dorper ram or a wool terminal sire like a texel or dorset. The wool sire gives more value to the pelt and can give the lambs more muscle, meat. Certain breeds are more season breeders and the larger breeds seem to better on feed rather than pasture and no grain. There are some that are more suited to a pasture lambing and grass fed than others, a big part of that is selection on your part along with the right genetics. There is a great discussion forum - Edgefield sheep forum - has lots of folks from across the country and some from Iowa on there. Thats only my 2 cents, others will have a different opinion | ||
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| frekingpolypay |
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Southwest MN | To each is own on breeds. I have Polypays (as the name implies) and run all electric fence only. I do have some eNet from Premier but use it only as temporary fence. If you are rotating the fence often you will quickly find value in permenant fence. I use it only on small pastures that have no fence or bad fence. I put up a 7 wire all HT smooth this year and love it. Keep it hot and you will have few problems. Not sure if they were chased hard by coyotes if it would hold them in or not. The reason I did choose wool sheep is it seems at the sale barns you typically get docked about 20 cents a pound over a similar wool lamb and they only seem to finish at about 110 lbs vs 140-150 on a wool lamb. which turns out to about $75 a head difference. I do not know about what the return is on a wool lamb vs hair lamb. But I know my feed conversion from weaning a 48 lamb to a 138-142 finished lamb is 4.04. Which is high due to being a purebred maternal breed compared to a crossbred lamb with a polypay dam and a Suffolk or hamp sire. If you have any questions feel free to message me. | ||
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| Howdyjabo |
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NC | I had good luck with hair sheep and two strands of hot wire set up for cattle-- AS LONG AS...................... the fence was shockingly HOT, there was plenty of grass to eat, there weren't any lambs. Pretty much found that I could just turn the ewes out and they would stay just about anywhere. The extreme shock just wasn't worth it to them. Until the first lamb that got up and roaming about. Lambs never seem to be happy where they are and where they go the ewes are going to go no matter what. With lambs I had to put them in a three strand low fence(bottom wire cold) just for them. I do better financially with hair sheep- but the east coast market is different than other parts of the country. Hair sheep here bring a premium/lb over wool sheep but they want them at lighter weights(30-60 lbs), you sell them right off the ewe with little or no extra feed. Hard to beat only handling the lambs once, no weaning and getting them gone before they need worming. the Easter market has been real good for hair sheep. I have gotten $150 for 50 lb lams and $125 for 30 lbs just before Easter. | ||
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| ezrydr |
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South East South Dakota/winters Tucson, AZ | I raise Dorper hair sheep, and direct market the processed lambs into restaurants in Omaha. The ewes are dorper and my ram is crossbreed dorper/de la France . | ||
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| denice.r |
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south east Indiana | As I said different folks prefer different sheep and raise them differently as well. There is little uniformity in the US sheep and that leads to the market product being different as well. I have raised sheep in SD and here in IN. The grass, the weather, the market are all very different and what works well in one location may not transfer to another. Out west I had large ewes white faced and cross bred ewes bred them to Hamp rams to lamb in Jan and Feb. Lambs had feed in front of them from day 1. I weaned them early and dry lotted the lambs and sold them fat at 130 lbs in June. Those same ewes would not do well on the grass here and would require grain. You wouldnot be able to pencil it out and make any thing with the lower market price of lamb here. The market and price of feed makes grass fed the way to go, so then you select for those genetics and breeds that do best with low inputs. For these reasons I suggested you speak with the auction markets and lamb feeders in your area and let them tell you what they are looking for and base your choices on the local market. That way you are produceing a product that already is in demand. After that you can narrow down breeds. The fencing is all what works for you. If electric it has to be toast their noses HOT. I want to know the sheep are going to be where I left them no matter if the fencer is working or not so I am slowly putting up woven wire. Or rather paying someone to build fence, since I have to pay someone to do it I would go for woven wire than 5 to 7 strands of electric. It is no problem getting the sheep moved with my dogs but I hate having to spend my time checking fence. The prenier netting works great since I can move it to graze unfenced areas allowing me to better utilize available grazing. | ||
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| Haybale |
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WC Iowa | Thanks for the replies, kinda of reenforced what I was thinking, we need to do a lot more fencing! | ||
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