You’ll need to have a good ram to get the best out of your flock and to have plenty of lambs to sell next year. How much is a good ram going to cost you? Plan to pay $500-1,000 for a high quality breeding ram. Ram prices depend upon availability of breeding age rams in…
Doesn’t a cow have to be pregnant to also be milking? What is the real scoop here? A dairy cow will start milking after the birth of her calf. At this time she is no longer pregnant, but is milking, which will last for three months. Then she will breed back and for the remainder…
Most livestock, like horses and cattle, eat hay, but what about sheep? Do sheep eat hay, as well, or do sheep normally eat something else? Sheep eat hay when grass or other grazeable forages are no longer available to them. Sheep eat hay from many types of plants, but mainly grasses. Sheep can be fed…
Maggots, yuck! What on earth are those things doing on sheep? And why are some sheep getting maggots to begin with? Flystrike (maggots) in sheep is generally the result of manure around the tail of the sheep. The manure soiled wool attracts the female blowfly, which lays her eggs on the sheep. Those eggs quickly…
You’ve finally done it, some wonderfully delicious pork is headed your way! How do you know if you have enough space in the freezer as is or you need to get another freezer? Freezers hold 35 pounds of packaged pork per cubic foot. A whole hog needs 4 cubic feet of freezer space, while a…
When looking at a flock of sheep grazing in the pasture, some have long tails, yet on some other flocks, those sheep do not have any tails to speak of? To add the mix, other sheep seem to have little shorty tails. What’s going on with those tails? Many, but not all, breeds of sheep…
Sheep need water, but does it all have to come from the water trough? Can sheep get water from other sources so they don’t need to drink fluid water, at least for some parts of the year? Sheep need fluid water when they are in the high energy needs parts of their lives, in warm…
You can and should make a profit off of every pig you raise, the question is how many pigs do you need to raise to hit your net income goal for your pig business. You need one pig that is sold for more than the cost to raise it, to make a profit. Most people…
Sheep are becoming more popular or at least they are getting more attention these days, but why? What are the benefits of sheep to the folks raising them, the land and the community? Sheep thrive on grass The main benefit of sheep production is that sheep thrive on grass. Sheep grow well on a forage…
Sheep are becoming more popular to raise. Folks with a bit of land and the desire to raise livestock are realizing that sheep may be just the thing they are looking for to get into raising animals. So, where do you start? What are the things that beginners need to know about keeping sheep? To…