Monday, October 22, 2012

The Must Haves

Ok, Ok, back to the must haves to get this adventure going.
Well I know what you're thinking the first thing is sheep.

No it's not, unless you thought I could keep them in my bathroom.

We needed land. Not just any land either, it had to support the amount of sheep we decided we needed......ah, how many sheep do we need? It seemed like every time we found an answer to one question another would arise.

 We're back to the sheep again.

I'm going to save you the headaches we went through trying to figure all this out and let you know what we came up with.
grass lots of grass
Sheep Camp is a beautiful location near the city limits. It has a lush grazing pasture, that is big enough to not only feed the sheep but allow us to get several cuttings of grass hay off it during the growing season. It has a smaller pasture with several old growth trees and fresh water. The lady next door is allowing us to use her barn for lambing season (my favorite and busiest time of the year).

FYI: Lambing season will be around the middle of February at the Sheep Camp.

Now we're back to the sheep again.

We have 6 polled Dorset ewes ( polled for you who do not know, means without horns.) breed to a Hampshire ram. We also have 6 horned Dorset ewes  breed to a horned Dorset ram (those are the rams with the big curly horns). I think these are my favorite out of the bunch.
The ewe on the right is polled,
the two next to her on the left is horned

This is our Spring Ram
We also have purchased 2 North Country Cheviot rams for our next breeding session. These boys are a hardy Scottish breed built just right for our damp coastal climate. They also have booty ;) this means more muscle on the back side. More muscle more meat.

This is our Fall Ram
If you saw the movie "Babe", these are the same kind used in it. NO, you will not see me out herding the sheep with a pig....I hope.

BaaRamEwe! BaaRamEwe!... no it doesn't work I still can't talk with the sheep. I talk to them but I'm sure that's a post for a psychology blog somewhere.      
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3 comments:

  1. Sheep Farm adventures of a ShepherdessOctober 23, 2012 at 12:41 PM

    Rule of thumb, when trying to figure out how much land is needed for how many grass fed only sheep, it is 2 acres per 5 head of grown sheep or 2 per 10 lambs. Remembering grown sheep may have lambs and lambs grow up. Most places say 1 acer per 5 sheep but if they are grass fed only and you want to be able to rotate grazing I suggest 2 acres per every 5 head of sheep.

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  2. WendyDecember 10, 2012 at 8:21 PM

    I stopped by here a couple of weeks ago and never got back to comment. What an exciting project for you; the blog has great potential for education and marketing. Looking forward to following your experiences!

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  3. Sheep Farm adventures of a ShepherdessDecember 11, 2012 at 1:38 PM

    Thank you so much Wendy. Your opinion means a lot to me and any input would be appreciated and welcomed. Glad to see your busy life has not stopped your blog as well. Love your photos and ideas.

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