My dad has a farm where he has these same sheep, but he just has them free roaming without no one taking care of them. He bought some years ago, but never actually followed through with trying to make the herd bigger. Now that I'm joining the business I think Im going to take over those sheep and start raising sheep. I don't know anything about raising sheep, but your channel inspired me to learn about it and take action on something that will end up benefitting the family farms.
"Grief adds a greater dimension to joy." Thank you for sharing your experience. Your words helped me put a more positive spin on my own micro farm experiences.
There is a lot of wisdom in what you are saying here, and it is an important message to people today who want all the joys with none of the grief, sadness or reality of the life we have been given. Great video.
You have such wise words, I am over here in Africa herding goats but using your wisdom to overcome challenges and for us on agriculture as an investment
Thanks for these videos. We are just starting ourselves with full-blooded dorpers and recently lost some twins. Certainly heartbreaking, but so much joy when the lambs thrive.
There will always be a few rough years on a farm (especially when you start) but the good ones will always outweigh the bad ones as long as you learn from mistakes and continue to improve your operation. Never stop dreaming and learn to love what you do, even the more annoying chores.
@@theShepherdessperhaps you already know of him, or you will never see this comment. However, I feel you could really use some of the wisdom shared by Greg Judy on how to grow and profit from regenerative ranching methods.
I've found it's been a steep learning curve- the fact I did not grow up farming/ nobody taught me the husbandry and methods of solving problems. But the more things I resolve, the more I feel it's achievable. And it's also hard to just let time pass, when you have to. Each season something new. Okay I'm raving. Hope you are taking perfect care of yourself!!! Jake
Thank you for the encouragement. I'm shepherding Dorper Sheep and 3 littles of my own. The loss over this first lambing season has been tough, but you're so right it makes the joys of life mean so much more.
I'm so proud and happy for you. You are a blessing and I appreciate your help. God has his hand on you just keep up the great work being obedient. You are very encouraging in these tough times and he's working through you and it shows. I hope you and your property is safe from the toxic spill that happened in Texas I think a week or two ago there's been so many recently that I can't remember the date but I thought of you and your flock. Also want to say great job on the master class as it's been very informative and a huge help to me! Well worth the money!
I raise goats instead of sheep, but I learn a lot from you regardless. This year has been rough. I've got them dropping left and right to anemia. Kids and nannies. Working around the clock to keep them going. It's my first bad season. Sometimes an uplifting video is the only reminder that this will pass. So thanks for all the hard work
Raised meat goats for 20 years. Sounds like a severe worm problem if you haven't already come to that conclusion. They can be a big challenge with goats, good luck!
Cows that are in a pasture with lambs make perfect vaulting “horses”. Good to see another farm running cows and sheep together. I don’t do it full time, mostly when the rotation overlaps.
First, great job conveying common-sense small-farm practices to the masses! This concise guide goes well with all your advice to aspiring farmers. If I can contribute as much as you to farming in my life I'll be honored! Second, well said about the front row seat. My father's been a farmer all his life, but he's also atheistic, and it's terrible to see how torn up he gets every time he loses an animal. "If you've got livestock, you're gonna have dead stock," as an Aussie farm wife once said. But that doesn't make it easier. What does, is an understanding of our place in all this.
You are living my dream. If given a choice I love to do what you are doing. But I am crawled up in a 9 to 6 job, and don't know how to come out of this.With love from Bangalore, India.
:) grief loss and joy. as a psychotherapist who works with lots and lots of farmers, yup. that about sums up our work as both farmers and in the office.
Love this video! Thank you! Just what I was looking for. Just getting into sheep. Long-term goal 100+ head. I’ve got 100 acres of mountain property, 8000 feet. They would spend 90% of their time there. Probably only bring them down if winter was really bad. I was looking at possibly Highlands or Dorpel’s? What’s your thoughts?
I really want to start farming but I want to be able to go to vet school as well. There's a place in Wisconsin I was looking at that looked nice but I'm most likely never gonna have the money to get it. My friend and I have an idea of doing farming and rescue together and lately I've been thinking about how it would be if we had even more people join us.
Good job on keeping the videos coming. I know how hard it is to keep that up when you have multiple enterprises running. When you say profit, are you usually talking about gross income or are you talking about NET?
When I watched this video, I expected a more detailed cost breakdown to see if you were hitting your goals. Are you making $1k per acre? Or is the venture resulting in a loss? Thank you 🙏
Thank you very very much for your contribution to aspiring farmers. Does your netprofit of 1000$ an acre include your wage or is it already subtracted?
Just found you. I’m moving soon to south east Texas. I hope to learn from you. Question? 🙋♀️ do your sell your lambs for newbies to start their own pure breeding stock?😊
@@theShepherdess what’s in yours? they are handy. I am finishing the video this morning and noticed the shot of sheep eating through cattle panels and just want to warn you I killed two ewes with basically the same setup my first winter because they went into the same hole in the fencing and panicked. It was a total fluke, but also a hard learning experience. I built hurdles and mangers out of rough cut pine my friend milled & haven’t lost anyone feeding hay since
Have you looked into St Croix? Also, why did you go with dorper? Just curious as I consider St Croix to be the easiest least expensive sheep to maintain. Never any need to deworm, resistant to hoof rot, hair sheep as well, into my 3rd year and now getting faster growing lamb on grass alone through selective breeding. Meat is very mild and delicious
As a young guy who would be very interested in pursuing this, but has no property or really even capital at all, how would you advise to start? Would it be a good idea to WWOOF, or maybe there are entry level jobs on farms with sheep I could get first hand experience? Not sure how to go about that. Thanks for any input!
Thank you for what you are doing. I am wandering what you feed your sheep besides grass and a little hay in the winter. I understand minerals but are you raising totally on grass and no creep feed for the lambs. Do you have a fly problem at the barn and if so how do you control them. Thanks again from Paducah, TX. jim
Hi Jim, no creep feed for the lambs. Just moms milk and grass. Last year I weaned the lambs onto an alfalfa hay and they did well! This year was a pretty severe drought, so if you jump back one video you’ll see that I am supplementing with 1/2lb of barley per day for my ewes. Minerals free choice year round.
My daughter was very interested in the sheep until I sold a lamb she had become attached to. Grief is not only death but marketing the animals. This is not being insensitive, it is just business and if you do not understand that you will probably fail. When I was a child I felt the same way as my daughter about losing an animal/friend. We enjoy the outdoors and my wife will stand at the fence and watch the animals for some time. So care for your animals while you have them, they want your affection and approval. Understand that all this has an expiration date, the animals as well as humans.
Hi! I just inherited 10 acres and have the biggest heart for animals and would love to start something like you have going on. Do you think you could reach out to me and we could talk about what steps I need to take to get started?
Not entirely sure, but I’d say 2-3lb/day. Make sure they have access to plenty of hay while you feed this! They need the hay to keep their rumen working.
In the State where I am living, there is a guy who sells sheep, cows, and goats. I bought a sheep for $440. Whenever I visit his farm there are more than 10 people waiting to buy livestock. It is a good business.
Regarding the grief and suffering, and the joy. I just read something that I will paraphrase. Without the joy of the Lord, without His consolation, the suffering can be overwhelming. But with Jesus, with His love, we can triumph even. Not always in this life, we are not saying that. But He brings hope and faith even in our grief and suffering. You have been open that His guidance and grace have been a huge part of this journey.
I searching long time to have farm because I am farmer and my background from the farm ,,but I can not find farm I went to get from the government but they did not help me at all,,I will try not give up ,,
Why so sad at losing lambs when the main profit is from selling them for meat anyway? Idk if it's possible to profit or even break even without selling lambs for meat, as wool comes once a year and idk if milk or cheese could fill the gap.
Look at it this way, when you have live animals, you also have dead animals. No matter what you do in life there will always be trials, how you deeal with them, defines you.
My fear is that the government is going to be very stupid (international property buyers, imports that undercut domestics, "whites won't work"...) about farmland or it''s all going to be corpratized. There are things that are being done on the private and county level (seminars, workshops, operation tours...), and even the federal level (new farmer loans, the income tax structure...). But I worry that all these programs and opportunities are far too little this late in the game. Frankly, the best thing that could probably be done is some form of 2-3 year intensive with a high attrition rate. Attendees would focus on business classes the entire time at a roughly 2/1 ratio compared to ag classes. Upon graduation all of the graduates would then receive a parcel of land that they didn't own but occupied, under Federal charter, for life. They could also be given $250k for infrastructure and initial operating costs. The government would stay away from direct operational management until a farm posted 3 years of loss on their P&L amidst a growing economy. Or something like that... Yes, it's socialistic. Yes, the wrong people (i.e. pharma/industrial ag companies) could have far too great an impact on methods and curricula. Yes, there are million reasons not to do this. But I do like to eat and know where my food comes from. 🤷🏼♂️
@@breesechick I hear you. There are a ton of "form" changes I would be open to (and, potentially, prefer) in a perfect world. I (finally[!] 🤣) run a profitable first generation (micro) farm... because of a variety of different details. Some are replicable and some are not. And I hope to continue expansion for the next few decades. How am I going to continue grow? Being flexible with the details but consistent with the vision. Ok... I'm done preaching. 😀
Probably not, but there are still ways to make it work. The USA is in more need of land managers than owners right now. If you show yourself a good manager you will probably have hundreds of acres at your disposal before long (speaking just from experience). I’ve had lease offers in the thousands of acres since I started working with this 30 acre patch.
CLICK HERE for my $100k Farm Business Plan: bit.ly/farmprofit
My dad has a farm where he has these same sheep, but he just has them free roaming without no one taking care of them. He bought some years ago, but never actually followed through with trying to make the herd bigger. Now that I'm joining the business I think Im going to take over those sheep and start raising sheep. I don't know anything about raising sheep, but your channel inspired me to learn about it and take action on something that will end up benefitting the family farms.
"Grief adds a greater dimension to joy." Thank you for sharing your experience. Your words helped me put a more positive spin on my own micro farm experiences.
There is a lot of wisdom in what you are saying here, and it is an important message to people today who want all the joys with none of the grief, sadness or reality of the life we have been given. Great video.
You have such wise words, I am over here in Africa herding goats but using your wisdom to overcome challenges and for us on agriculture as an investment
Thanks for these videos. We are just starting ourselves with full-blooded dorpers and recently lost some twins. Certainly heartbreaking, but so much joy when the lambs thrive.
There will always be a few rough years on a farm (especially when you start) but the good ones will always outweigh the bad ones as long as you learn from mistakes and continue to improve your operation.
Never stop dreaming and learn to love what you do, even the more annoying chores.
Amen and amen!
Very encouraged by this comment!
@@theShepherdessperhaps you already know of him, or you will never see this comment. However, I feel you could really use some of the wisdom shared by Greg Judy on how to grow and profit from regenerative ranching methods.
I've found it's been a steep learning curve- the fact I did not grow up farming/ nobody taught me the husbandry and methods of solving problems. But the more things I resolve, the more I feel it's achievable. And it's also hard to just let time pass, when you have to. Each season something new.
Okay I'm raving. Hope you are taking perfect care of yourself!!! Jake
Thank you for the encouragement. I'm shepherding Dorper Sheep and 3 littles of my own. The loss over this first lambing season has been tough, but you're so right it makes the joys of life mean so much more.
I'm so proud and happy for you. You are a blessing and I appreciate your help. God has his hand on you just keep up the great work being obedient. You are very encouraging in these tough times and he's working through you and it shows.
I hope you and your property is safe from the toxic spill that happened in Texas I think a week or two ago there's been so many recently that I can't remember the date but I thought of you and your flock.
Also want to say great job on the master class as it's been very informative and a huge help to me! Well worth the money!
You are such and encouragement, Mahriah! Thank you!
@@theShepherdess You're welcome 🌼
I raise goats instead of sheep, but I learn a lot from you regardless. This year has been rough. I've got them dropping left and right to anemia. Kids and nannies. Working around the clock to keep them going. It's my first bad season. Sometimes an uplifting video is the only reminder that this will pass. So thanks for all the hard work
Raised meat goats for 20 years. Sounds like a severe worm problem if you haven't already come to that conclusion. They can be a big challenge with goats, good luck!
Thank you. It means a lot.
I lost 2/3 of my meat birds in December and January... it was really hard as I had to killing most.
Literally just yelled "yay" when I saw you posted a new video lol
Love this comment… totally made my day! 😄 Thank you for watching!
Cows that are in a pasture with lambs make perfect vaulting “horses”.
Good to see another farm running cows and sheep together. I don’t do it full time, mostly when the rotation overlaps.
First, great job conveying common-sense small-farm practices to the masses! This concise guide goes well with all your advice to aspiring farmers. If I can contribute as much as you to farming in my life I'll be honored!
Second, well said about the front row seat. My father's been a farmer all his life, but he's also atheistic, and it's terrible to see how torn up he gets every time he loses an animal. "If you've got livestock, you're gonna have dead stock," as an Aussie farm wife once said. But that doesn't make it easier. What does, is an understanding of our place in all this.
I just pulled the trigger on my own sheep farming experience, this vid means a lot, thank you
I want to be a livestock farmer, your videos are helping me do that. God bless
very interested as a young person in small ruminant farm, very happy to have stumbled upon this channel. Your sheep and grass look beautiful!
You are living my dream. If given a choice I love to do what you are doing. But I am crawled up in a 9 to 6 job, and don't know how to come out of this.With love from Bangalore, India.
Awesome….girl power! So so impressed. Will visit your farm if I ever came to Texas…
Your videos always inspire me to live a more mindful life
:) grief loss and joy. as a psychotherapist who works with lots and lots of farmers, yup. that about sums up our work as both farmers and in the office.
Through the grief we appreciate the joys all the more.
AMEN
My County, Davis County Iowa is the former sheep çapital! Even had a Lamb on the checks!
You are doing a great job. Thank you for sharing your experience.
Love this video! Thank you! Just what I was looking for. Just getting into sheep. Long-term goal 100+ head. I’ve got 100 acres of mountain property, 8000 feet. They would spend 90% of their time there. Probably only bring them down if winter was really bad. I was looking at possibly Highlands or Dorpel’s? What’s your thoughts?
What you said at the end was so very true.
I just love ur vids. Learn bunches n always read thru comments cause I learn there too.
Love that!! Thank you!!
I really want to start farming but I want to be able to go to vet school as well. There's a place in Wisconsin I was looking at that looked nice but I'm most likely never gonna have the money to get it. My friend and I have an idea of doing farming and rescue together and lately I've been thinking about how it would be if we had even more people join us.
another great video!! keep them coming!! All the best!!
Thank you, Grace. Good stuff.
Koyunlar çok iyi maşallah güzel bakmışsınız
We wish you great success 🙏
Good job on keeping the videos coming. I know how hard it is to keep that up when you have multiple enterprises running. When you say profit, are you usually talking about gross income or are you talking about NET?
NET. I am aiming to gross $100k with minimum profit at 30%. Thanks for commenting!
When I watched this video, I expected a more detailed cost breakdown to see if you were hitting your goals. Are you making $1k per acre? Or is the venture resulting in a loss? Thank you 🙏
Thank you very very much for your contribution to aspiring farmers.
Does your netprofit of 1000$ an acre include your wage or is it already subtracted?
Your tougher than I am kid. I got old lol. Very proud of you.
Nice information
Always a delightful message
Just found you. I’m moving soon to south east Texas. I hope to learn from you. Question? 🙋♀️ do your sell your lambs for newbies to start their own pure breeding stock?😊
That three way mineral tub would work great on skids. I run two like that
Great idea! I'm loving it so far. Only sad I drug my feet when it came to buying it!
@@theShepherdess what’s in yours? they are handy. I am finishing the video this morning and noticed the shot of sheep eating through cattle panels and just want to warn you I killed two ewes with basically the same setup my first winter because they went into the same hole in the fencing and panicked. It was a total fluke, but also a hard learning experience. I built hurdles and mangers out of rough cut pine my friend milled & haven’t lost anyone feeding hay since
How do they survive in winter🥺?
Have you looked into St Croix? Also, why did you go with dorper? Just curious as I consider St Croix to be the easiest least expensive sheep to maintain. Never any need to deworm, resistant to hoof rot, hair sheep as well, into my 3rd year and now getting faster growing lamb on grass alone through selective breeding. Meat is very mild and delicious
She did a video on this a few months ago. Compared those two breeds and Katahdins (sp?).
Yes, check out this video for a complete explanation: ruclips.net/video/tKUJ1bH15UU/видео.html
@@countrylessons3344 👍🏼
@@sally6852 I hear you, makes sense!
@@theShepherdess 🙏🏼 I’ll check it out. Thank you
What are your thoughts about Shropshires?
You should be in to a food forest or permaculture or something
As a young guy who would be very interested in pursuing this, but has no property or really even capital at all, how would you advise to start? Would it be a good idea to WWOOF, or maybe there are entry level jobs on farms with sheep I could get first hand experience? Not sure how to go about that. Thanks for any input!
Awesome video and great info
Thank you for what you are doing. I am wandering what you feed your sheep besides grass and a little hay in the winter. I understand minerals but are you raising totally on grass and no creep feed for the lambs. Do you have a fly problem at the barn and if so how do you control them.
Thanks again from Paducah, TX.
jim
Hi Jim, no creep feed for the lambs. Just moms milk and grass. Last year I weaned the lambs onto an alfalfa hay and they did well!
This year was a pretty severe drought, so if you jump back one video you’ll see that I am supplementing with 1/2lb of barley per day for my ewes.
Minerals free choice year round.
New sub. Why use a hair breed from South Africa where there's basically never a winter? What region are you in?
Profit per acre is the right metric on small properties. Learn to maximize that, and your enterprise will thrive.
Have you found a new pasture yet? Anxious to see what you find and how you get it.
I’ll let you know if I do! My primary lease is still with me and that’s 30 acres. The 15 acre neighboring lease is the one I lost.
I’ll let you know if I do! My primary lease is still with me and that’s 30 acres. The 15 acre neighboring lease is the one I lost.
Im 14 but dream of a sheep farm
Inspiring video
I love your farm 😍😍😍
great farming i like your job
1.000/ acre per month or year? Nice vídeo, one more subscription 👏🏻
Loved this. :)
How/where do you sell?
Where's your ranch located at?
My daughter was very interested in the sheep until I sold a lamb she had become attached to. Grief is not only death but marketing the animals. This is not being insensitive, it is just business and if you do not understand that you will probably fail. When I was a child I felt the same way as my daughter about losing an animal/friend.
We enjoy the outdoors and my wife will stand at the fence and watch the animals for some time. So care for your animals while you have them, they want your affection and approval.
Understand that all this has an expiration date, the animals as well as humans.
Hi! I just inherited 10 acres and have the biggest heart for animals and would love to start something like you have going on. Do you think you could reach out to me and we could talk about what steps I need to take to get started?
Join my monthly livestream at farmermeetup.com
Land is so expensive here in NE PA I don't know how practical leasing is.
Leasing has a lot of challenge and risk, but it becomes a great opportunity if you can access!
Hi, How can i invest in this business and what is the process to sift there can you help me ?
America needs more women such as this 😀👍
Do you need a worker I work and I love this work
Bless you! Great video. We only have 2 acres but want to add sheep to the farm in small quantity. This is inspiring.
Hi. I make corn and wheat pellets, How much % of that can I feed sheep?
Not entirely sure, but I’d say 2-3lb/day. Make sure they have access to plenty of hay while you feed this! They need the hay to keep their rumen working.
@@theShepherdess awesome, this is a high value information. Thank you!!
In the State where I am living, there is a guy who sells sheep, cows, and goats. I bought a sheep for $440. Whenever I visit his farm there are more than 10 people waiting to buy livestock. It is a good business.
Regarding the grief and suffering, and the joy. I just read something that I will paraphrase. Without the joy of the Lord, without His consolation, the suffering can be overwhelming.
But with Jesus, with His love, we can triumph even. Not always in this life, we are not saying that. But He brings hope and faith even in our grief and suffering.
You have been open that His guidance and grace have been a huge part of this journey.
İ Lice DORPER sheep, i make in south africa farming abouth 2 yeaer before
Hi sister I am india I like 🐏🐑 farm😘
I searching long time to have farm because I am farmer and my background from the farm ,,but I can not find farm I went to get from the government but they did not help me at all,,I will try not give up ,,
Why so sad at losing lambs when the main profit is from selling them for meat anyway? Idk if it's possible to profit or even break even without selling lambs for meat, as wool comes once a year and idk if milk or cheese could fill the gap.
Assalamualaikum
Nice
What if sheep are getting old?
Mortality in the herd drives one to better animal husbandry practices.
Look at it this way, when you have live animals, you also have dead animals. No matter what you do in life there will always be trials, how you deeal with them, defines you.
You don’t make money from the milk?
Make $1k a year or month?
❤❤❤❤
Gorgeous!!! xox :)
I'm 15 year old I want to get into sheep farm
I need job I am interested in this job I have good experience in this job because I have already sheep form in India Kashmir
You can keep only 1 ram by himself? I thought they’d need companionships.
My fear is that the government is going to be very stupid (international property buyers, imports that undercut domestics, "whites won't work"...) about farmland or it''s all going to be corpratized.
There are things that are being done on the private and county level (seminars, workshops, operation tours...), and even the federal level (new farmer loans, the income tax structure...).
But I worry that all these programs and opportunities are far too little this late in the game.
Frankly, the best thing that could probably be done is some form of 2-3 year intensive with a high attrition rate. Attendees would focus on business classes the entire time at a roughly 2/1 ratio compared to ag classes. Upon graduation all of the graduates would then receive a parcel of land that they didn't own but occupied, under Federal charter, for life. They could also be given $250k for infrastructure and initial operating costs. The government would stay away from direct operational management until a farm posted 3 years of loss on their P&L amidst a growing economy. Or something like that...
Yes, it's socialistic. Yes, the wrong people (i.e. pharma/industrial ag companies) could have far too great an impact on methods and curricula. Yes, there are million reasons not to do this.
But I do like to eat and know where my food comes from. 🤷🏼♂️
Uh,..wow.
So, Even though there are a million reasons to not do something you still believe this idea to be the best?
@@tripledividefarms2177 I'm a romantic and a dreamer. It's worked out well for me so far. 😂🍻
@@countrylessons3344 I don't think I am on board with your idea but I appreciate and admire your dream.
@@breesechick I hear you.
There are a ton of "form" changes I would be open to (and, potentially, prefer) in a perfect world.
I (finally[!] 🤣) run a profitable first generation (micro) farm... because of a variety of different details. Some are replicable and some are not. And I hope to continue expansion for the next few decades.
How am I going to continue grow? Being flexible with the details but consistent with the vision.
Ok... I'm done preaching. 😀
@@countrylessons3344 I hear what you're saying. I am also having to make changes and pivot
When one door closes God opens a window.
So when Texas farmland is going for $20,000 an acre, you will never pay for your property farming :(
Probably not, but there are still ways to make it work. The USA is in more need of land managers than owners right now. If you show yourself a good manager you will probably have hundreds of acres at your disposal before long (speaking just from experience).
I’ve had lease offers in the thousands of acres since I started working with this 30 acre patch.
Like how much is the lease for this 30 acres or 1000 acres you were offered?
I am farmer . Any job your farming.
I am india Tamil Nadu.
I wish I could understand how we can believe in a heaven but yet be sad when someone goes there.
#WhereGOODExistsSoDoesevil
They are Somali sheeps
Can i partner with you