How to successfully start your own hair sheep grazing operation.
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- Опубликовано: 28 окт 2022
- How to successfully start your own hair sheep grazing operation. Greg goes over all the details of the mistakes they made when starting their own hair sheep grazing operation. The biggest mistake you can make is starting out with compromised animals. If you want to keep your farm profitable every year, check out my 3 grazing books that I wrote on our website: greenpasturesfarm.net/books/
Happy to say I got a starter flock from Greg in Summer of 2021, brought them back to TN, and they have done wonderful. 1st time shepherd and I rotate them every 5-6 days - no shots, no worming, no trimming, no feed - just grass and brush and a little mineral and salt. Got a couple good LGDs to keep them safe. They will have their second lambs in the spring. So far just as advertised and couldn’t be happier.
Congrats on a successful start!
Where at in TN are you located? We are looking into adding sheep to our cattle. We are southern central TN
I in N MI so freezing 6 months.. how is this possible
Awesome start, and I'm so happy for you! I'm looking forward for your future new lambs!
I think he would move them more often, but sounds like you're doing great. Greg may have the most parasites resistant sheep ever bred.
The best advice/comment I got from a local farmer was "we are reasonably organic "
Thanks for the video! I don’t know how I miss this video. It’s amazing how people don’t want to find parasite resistant sheep. I was selling my ram lambs as grass fed parasite resistant rams. They never been given grain, wormed, or anything to help them along. No one would buy any of them so I sold them at a local sale barn and I got pretty good money for them. They were broke to a single poly braid too. I raise my sheep just like you for the most part. I just don’t have enough fenced in land yet to pasture them all year round so I feed hay. I do put them in a section of pasture I think that needs help so there will be lots of extra poop, urine, and left over hay. I do move them a few times in the winter to a new section. So far the sections that I have been doing this looks great. This one area where I’ll be this winter is the worst part of the pasture. I’m going to feed them lots of hay there. My sheep are with my 5 head of cattle too. I bet by next fall it will look totally different and the following spring it will be amazing.
I can second Greg this one. I got a few sheep from a friend that never did anything to his. I built my flock up to 30 now with no maintenance at all. They stay in hot wire, drop lambs April 1 in South Carolina, live off ground that cattle would starve on and drink almost no water all winter. No worming, no vaccines and no grain.
That is awesome Cory, sounds like the kind of sheep that you will be able to sell to other producers wanting good genetics!!
May I ask what breed they are
@@quest4knowledge768 mixed they have a little bit of all the main breeds in them.
This is excellent! Thank you! I raised dairy goats on my 10 East Texas acres until about 2-3 years ago. Been researching hair sheep. This is incredibly valuable information. Thanks so much!
Thanks Greg, really helpful guidance. My son, who you met at Groundswell UK, has just bought a nice group of easycare sheep. Have you heard of them? They were originally bred and developed on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales. They are self shedding sheep with natural resistance to worms and foot problems. Thanks again for your guidance and taking the time to share your experiences.
Got my 7 Ewes and finally added a Ram put with them first of November he has blue eyes we have them broken to one wire finally figured out to lower wire they will go under before over I had one girl was not cooperating but now I got the wire lower she stays in place now. I move them about every 6 days. Finally got some cows too just last week so now I am moving sheep behind the cows. But cattle will probably be 6-8 moves in front of sheep as move them once or sometimes twice a day. Thanks for all your education Greg
This video cemented the decision for us to start with sheep. There is a local shepard that I know who has them available not too far away and I know they are very well cared for and trained to electric fence. Thank you. Looking forward to getting my books!
I have a flock of wool sheep that are not parasite resistant at all. I keep them moved no more than 5 days and don't graze the same place more than once a year and have fecal egg counts of zero.
Dios mio, que buen video y sus consejos valen oro, usted hace todo lo contrario que la industria enseña, nos dicen que los animales se deben tener en establos, alimentarlos con grano, despatasitarlos cada dos o tres meses y cortarles los cascos cada mes en cambio usted aconseja un manejo natural, sus consejos tienen sentido, muchas gracias y que Dios lo bendiga !!!
Interesting chat mate! Keep up the good work!
Great info Greg! Thx for sharing.
This may not be practical for a large flock. However lactation is a large energy demand and after lambing the ewes have some internal healing to do. When lambing is popping there is nothing wrong with giving your ewes a handful of feed, be it a mixed bag of sheep feed, a handful of dried distillers grains or soymeal. For a week or ten days. A 'vitamin pill' handful of protein concentrate will aid healing and support life functions. The ewes can really use this extra protein for one week and is not going to cause a lot of hoof growth.
Moving a flock of 30 just lambed ewes and having a bucket of grain to give them a friendly taste during paddock moves may not be noticeable. However I think it puts ewes in good health a day or two early.
i was given a flock of hair sheep year before last. these people were given this flock a few years prior. started off HEALTHY. they had plenty of grazing on this new new spread even though they shared it with two donkeys and a horse and several chickens. that first spring they had lambs all over the place. they were so excited (and i was covetous! because I was just getting started, only had one ewe just as a test to see if she could make it on my farm. if she did i would invest in more.) i had lamb fever looking at their FB page. and since my ewe proved to be a thriver, not just a survivor. never had to worm her, good feet and body condition... i was ready to invest
BUT, by the summer time the majority of those lambs were dead or dying. When I would go over to feed their livestock while they were out of town there would either be a dead lamb or a dying lamb. Then the adults started dying off.
By this point I'd bought myself a Barbados ram for my ewe. I knew he had a limited time going for him. He was ANCIENT, arthritic (his name was Arthur ...for Arthritis) but he managed to get my ewe pregnant before he died (which was just a few months after i got him..... i knew what i was doing....wasn't really heartbroken about it because he was the breed i wanted and within my budget.) She had two lambs, boy and girl. I kept the girl and traded the boy to the friends with the big flock. It was at this stage that I found out about their lamb die-off... instant regret. Because my ram lamb was sick before he was six months old. Pink Eye. They called the vet who actually overdosed him on antibiotics.
And he died. I advised they worm their sheep real good and move them to a clean pasture.
"It's not worms."
...K...
So, as time wore on, more dead lambs (mine little sheep family was still thriving but i still needed a ram) they gave me one of their ram lambs... and he died. He was wormy and weak from the start. i tried nursing him back to health but it was no beuno. i saw tapeworms in his diarrhea. he just randomly shed a huge piece of one on the way home when i got him.
in spite of treatment he didn't last long.
They gave me another lamb shortly after that but I suspect he was sick too in spite of appearing healthy. he actually fell into a water trough and got sick. i don't know if he fell into it because he was sick or if he just got sicker because he caught a chill... he didn't last 24hrs...
It wasn't long after that the friends gave up on their sheep entirely. They'd asked a bunch of sheep people in a sheep group WTH because "IT'S NOT WORMS!!!" these people told them to test their water. and according to water tests they had a lot of sulfur because of all the agriculture in the area.
They asked if I wanted the sheep. All their rams were dead, several ewes were weak, and only one lamb was left from that spring's lambing. I think it was seven or eight in total.
I knew what i was getting into but they were free..... (no animal is free if you're getting culls btw... i knew that much.) but again... i knew what i was doing. The trick to controlling worms is not waiting for the animal to go down. you notice the signs and you treat them. and even though the people were in denial.... i knew these sheep were full of worms. some were worse than others. Basically if they were easy to catch .... that sheep was sick. And i lost every single one that was easy to catch - including the lamb. I did my best to get them healthy because it was worth the investment if they could get over the illness. but i didn't get my hopes up.
Out of the whole flock only three remained. Plus my two and a different ram I bought from a different friend .... everyone is doing fantastic. I got four lambs in the spring, only one stillborn - from the new flock. and my first ewe's lamb is doing great.
of the three survivors one is a ram which i will keep as a backup.
the sheep i was given were on overgrazed grass, being fed a daily portion of allstock pellets and i think corn plus a bale of peanut hay.
now they are fed exclusively grass hay and peanut hay. they're also in a smaller pen (doing farm repairs because a storm wrecked my fences) so the hay is given off the ground so they can't crap all over it.
Once the fences are back up they will go back to grazing. i don't want a huge operation but i do want lamb in my freezer. and i want them to be eating what grows in nature.... i never had to spend a dime on them when they were in the field.
The only thing I do different is I do bottle feed the lambs. They stay with the ewe for three or four days then i bring them in. and the reason i do this is because i do NOT like chasing sheep. if i can't get my hands on it i don't want it on my farm. Once they're weaned they're fed grass hay and peanut hay and grazing/browsing. I also have a dairy goat who is happy to assist in providing milk. again...i don't want to spend a dime on them. When these ewes have their own lambs i will probably bottle feed them too until i get generation of sheep that don't go airborne when you get close to them. it just makes it easier to handle them if you need to move them or treat injuries. i also have a couple of sheep dogs that assist in moving them around but to be honest, sheep are smarter than we give them credit for. sometimes i don't even have the dog with me. but if i need them to get in their pen so we can drop a bale of hay all i have to do is say "GET'EM UP!!" which is the command for the dog to get to work. the sheep have learned what that phrase means and they haul ass to their pen. they don't even have to see the dog.
Heartbreaking about the family in denial of worms to the point of all their lost sheep 😫💔
thank you Greg
Great advise.
Great info.
Ranchers/Farmers can be a very hardheaded group.
Great video. Thank you
I apprecate the video!
Thank you so much for this video!! I am just now finding ya’ll and my interest is high in learning how to make the St. Croix a part of our little homestead.
Great lesson…still considering sheep as my livestock starting next year. Looking forward to more lessons
Parasite Resistant hair sheep rock!!!
God bless you, thaks for your advise !!
Thank you
Those of us practicing these management techniques need to start a group so we can trade around out rams from greg judy to keep our genetics fresh!
Thank you Greg for the info! Thoughts on keeping a ram separate from your ewes if your on 5 acres?
Great video! Greg I live in Alberta Canada, our winters are tough. Lots of snow and many days of-20--30 for weeks. What's your thoughts on your method for sheep in this type of climate. Looking for suggestions. We have been raising cattle with your method for about 7-8 months of the year. We Bale graze in the winter months. Watch all your videos. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. 👍
I'm from Québec, and I have been wondering the same thing. There's so much snow here that you'd lose your sheep out there during winter. May be using hay balls in the pastures and a snowmobile instead of a quad?
Getting sheep from similar environment makes sense. The constant pushing of parasite “resistant” sheep that don’t have a lot of testing done is a stretch. These are moved so often they will rarely have the opportunity to be exposed to large parasite loads.
In 22 years of no worming and constantly being exposed to their campsites of manure and thriving in their environment, I call that parasite resistance.
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher yes that is much better than buying sheep without that management background but the misconception is folks buy these sheep at take them and don’t aggressively rotate them and all is good since they are “resistant”.
If you want any type of livestock to do well they should be rotated
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher yeah I think those of us doing it for a living know that. We still have lots of folks buying the “resistant” branded animals and turning them out in a single pasture and wondering why they weren’t parasite “proof”.
Tetanus is in the soil. I agree with Gregg.
Great information yet again Greg! Well, I found some Katahdin and Polled Wiltshire sheep in the Canadian maritimes not more than 4 hours from my land. Being raised like I plan to for the most part. So, I’m getting excited to start mapping out my 130 acres. It’s raw land so I’m a couple years away from bringing the animals on. I’ve got to get a house built first. We’ve started drawing the house plans at least!
David where in NB are you?? I live in St.George and would love to speak with you about hair sheep.
Thanks Greg and Jan for all you do. I've watched you know wow 4-5 yrs and do your rotation grazing with my Berkshire sows.
@@wade1769 our land is in Cape Breton. We live in Maine though at the moment. We sometimes travel through Saint John on the trip back and forth if we don’t go through Fredericton. We drive right by you I’m guessing.
Not sure if you've made a video about this but could you make a video on how to adapt sheep from the same area but they've been fed grain and have been dewormed. I'd assume you wouldn't be able to do much with the first generation but maybe the second or third.
Thank you for the great information. Katahdins in Madison, WI.
I'm in WI, do you have a link?
@@hanginlaundry360 We operate the Speckled Hen Inn Bed and Breakfast, Madison, and maintain some Katahdins as well as our chickens.
@@thomasshannon6008 Thank you!
@@thomasshannon6008wow, your place looks incredible! I hope to stay there someday. We’d like to do something similar up in NW WI. Just started looking into getting sheep
Works of art. Such a talented couple.
Thank you, this definitely answered a question I posted recently. Do you have any videos covering health issues and what to do? I looked around the internet for fly strike, as an example, and I get a lot of videos by people that don't even look like sheep farmers. It is hard to find good content.
Thanks for all you do, and all the best.
Greg is right. Sheep raised in Texas or New Zealand have very different needs than sheep raised elsewhere. Check with your local/state sheep association, they can be a lot of help. There are a few of us out there trying to make some videos but it's hard to address problems when a, well managed, flock doesn't have a lot of problems.
Keeping easycare here. Never had a case of flystrike and no chemicals applied to them.
@@mmg9675 Good information. Thank you very much.
We are now waiting to get sheep till next year.
Greg, I have been raising St. Croix sheep on pasture for four and a half years now using rotational grazing that I learned mostly from your videos. I feed them no grain, or any type of purchased food. They live totally on pasture and I move them every day. I don't have to deworm them at all. They are very healthy. However, I do have to trim their hooves, and I think the reason you don't have to is due to the fact that you move them quite regularly on gravel surfaces. Mine never get on any type of hard surface, and therefore their hooves don't get worn down at all, so I have to trim them at least every six months.
Would it be the genetics of those certain sheep? Or do u need to trim them all?
@@codyrenz6993 I don't believe it is the genetics. My sheep are pure St. Croix, and Greg's sheep are mostly St. Croix. I really believe the difference is due to the surfaces the sheep walk or run on.
We don’t have any rock surfaces for the sheep to walk on. We have never trimmed a hoof in our life
Every 6 months...well how many years are you going to winter those lambs before you process them to what is now mutton? I guess the breeding ewes would live a full year though
I don't understand your question. First off, I usually sell the lambs when they are about a year old. I keep the ewes, so my oldest ones are now about 5.5 years old. Secondly, I have butchered a 3 year old ram, and the meat was not muttony at all since these are hair sheep. The meat was excellent. Mutton taste comes from wool sheep not hair sheep.
Excellent video I run sheep and goats together Maybe you have some experience you can share Much appreciated
I am looking forward to starting my own set of hair sheep! Does anyone know of flocks in central Oklahoma?
Hi Greg, do you have access to some research showing how parasites survive on pasture? In Poland they say larvae disappear after 15 months, i would love to have some research to show otherwise...
do you have problems with ticks? I'm an hour south of you and the ticks are thick here.
Thanks Greg, I live in bay area, Napa, Sonoma. Where do you think the best place to get some starters? Locally? Thanks
Getting ready to convert some of my herd from goats to sheep. Coyotes are a problem now. Planning on getting some livestock guardian dogs before I add more sheep. Any recommendations
Make sure your dog is bonded onto the sheep and he barks excessively at night when the predators are roaming
How do St. Croit sheep do on corn stalks?
I'm just curious.
@Greg Judy.
Live in Nebraska.
You said, "You want a steer. Get a steer, but let sheep. Lear the brush for the steer."
So, first year sheep only?, then I cattle unit and 5 Sheep per cattle unit the second year?
Thanks Greg
That would work
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher thank you sir.
How much distance do you need to keep the ram farm from the ewes during period of separation? Worried about the rams smelling the ewes and breaking out to chase the ladies down and mess up the lambing season plans.
For many years our rams were about 1 mile from the ewes. 2 years ago we leased another small farm that is 5 miles from our ewe flock. We named that farm “the ram farm”
I love the idea of breeding/culling for hearty stock. How do you keep enough genetic diversity in your flock or herd to keep future generations healthy?
We have 4 cooperative breeding herds that allows us to trade rams every year
Would I be mistaken to run one steer a year for meat with my sheep?
Will the sheep eat Callery Pear?
Not sure we don’t have that one.
You have to give the blackleg and tetanus on sheep and cattle here on my farm in NW Missouri.
What's the problem with animals that have been wormed?
It kills the dung beetles that recycle the cow manure pats. Without the dung beetles, the fly population explodes and sucks the blood out of your cow herd. This causes 3.5 billion dollars a year in weight gain loss in the US from the stress of cattle fighting off flies all summer. Kind of a big deal!!!!
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher Oh I see. I had no idea but that makes a lot of sense. Thank you for explaining so I don't make that mistake!
anyone have a farm near nashville TN that needs help with the farm? a work from home programmer here that wants to help for free and learn.
if i have sheep that have been vaccinated. how would i go about transitioning the herd to not need vaccinations? would i just stop the vaccines and then accept whatever loses i have with the sheep?
Hoof rot is terrible, but you’re not done by any stretch of the imagination. You don’t have to sell out and don’t have to keep the farm empty for a year.
That’s what he did. He has not had an issue since.
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher that will definitely do it, but it’s over kill. It’s terrible ordeal to go through, and expensive, but a round of two of Zactran, with pasture rotation, and foot baths for good measure will knock it out. A certain number will die or need to be culled, but nowhere near the whole flock. Pasture rotation helps a lot because the organism can only live in the soil for 10 days.
Thank you