When I started my Icelandic flock I bought as many I could afford, but that they were of quality. Ended up with slightly older ewes, but they've given quality ewe lambs in the first year of keeping them. I made sure to check the pedigrees in advance and did some digging through their social media posts on the breeding association groups/website. The first ram I bought I got burned. He looked great. Big, decent balls, decent feet and moved well, however I did not know/think to check for hernias. Fast forward to after his lambs are born and three have hernias. I then find whilst shearing him a huge F ing hernia right infront of his penis. Brilliant. Needless to say he went for meat along with the flockmate he came with. The woman that sold him as since given up on sheep. Hmm. Last year I did a lot more homework on the breeder of my new ram. She has a great flock and produces good meat, wool and has a reputation for good sheep. I can't wait to see how his lambs come out this year!
That’s really something. As you mentioned, umbilical hernia tends to run in a flock with genetics. It seems no matter how hard you look sometimes, things can get missed. An umbilical hernia would be tough to catch. Glad things are working out for you now and hopefully the new genetics will help solve the issue. We appreciate you taking the time to leave a message and hopefully this gives some of our other viewers some good tips on what to look for as they move forward as well. Best wishes to you with your upcoming flock additions. 😬
@@LinessaFarms Thank you for the reply. Yes starting out there is so much to check for than the Teeth feet and balls. I didn't see it initially because I bought him in full fleece and the bulging hernia was hidden by it. It was certainly a lesson! The same for horn growing too near their face. It isn't a huge financial outlay to dehorn a ram, but the genetics that passes on is the bigger issue
I want an animal that grows fast good mothers only has twins no trips most of the time. All white katahdin that has been mostly high quality hey/grass and only grained before lambing and during milking. Fast recovery after lambing.
Very good information! I grew up on small beef farm & my dad was amazing at how well he chose his breeding stock. No matter the species, conformation is important. Temperament, feed conversion & thriftiness are also very important. I now have goats & have walked away from many I have gone to look at because of many of the things you discussed. While I am not particularly interested in breeding, I still expect to have conformationally correct , healthy & physically sound animals And I am willing to pay well for them when I find them. They are an investment as well as partners in maintaining our small acreage.
Hello, Brenda. Thank you for taking the time to leave us such a thoughtful message. It sounds like your dad was very deliberate and thoughtful in the way he chose his animals. This is such a great lesson to teach young farmers and it obviously made a positive impact on you. We love the fact that you take the time to make an informed decision before commuting to a purchase. You are very correct that good stock isn’t just for breeders. We hope you will continue to watch our videos and contribute. Best wishes to you and your family from Linessa Farms!
Kinda. We need to come up with something better for everyone. We currently look through records and determine health, number of offspring, etc. we will come up with something and get back to you in a video soon. Thanks for the idea. 👍🏻
If you are buying kids from a dairy goat farm bottle babies are very common and their is nothing wrong with the doe or the kid. They pull the kids at birth for several reasons and just the ones I know of are for disease prevention, to maintain an even udder for showing, and so that kids can go to there new home and the producer can have the milk.
You are correct and this would be an exception to our statement. Unfortunately it’s extremely difficult to know what you are getting. We are aware of the practices of dairy farms pulling kids, selling them, and their rationale behind it. A few points of consideration are: Most people getting these kids are not getting them directly from the dairy farm. There are large buyers which get large numbers of these kids and “flip them” at local sales or off their farms. It has been our experience they are stressed, grow slower, and do not make good breeding stock. It is also important to know a lot of other information about the kids you simply aren’t going to get from bottle babies. We have raised bottle baby dairy goats for meat and while we feel (from experience and record keeping) bottle babies simply can’t compete with feed conversion ratios of natural fed babies, we understand the appeal. We strongly discourage the purchase of bottle babies in general, especially for breeding stock. We also don’t feel the way large numbers of dairy bottle babies are handled/peddled to novice purchasers is ethical or humane for the animals. IF you can’t help yourself, please purchase your bottle baby directly from the dairy, not from an intermediary. Thanks for your comments and thank you for watching our videos!
It happens.... it happens to us a lot. With all our responses between our social media accounts and “autocorrect” we have written some pretty interesting things. 😬
Nice vedio sir tnx for the info .just thinking of starting a farm here in the philippines.i wish I could do it right like you do down there.godbless
You're going to get what you pay for. Your stock should be an investment.
Very true!
When I started my Icelandic flock I bought as many I could afford, but that they were of quality. Ended up with slightly older ewes, but they've given quality ewe lambs in the first year of keeping them.
I made sure to check the pedigrees in advance and did some digging through their social media posts on the breeding association groups/website.
The first ram I bought I got burned. He looked great. Big, decent balls, decent feet and moved well, however I did not know/think to check for hernias. Fast forward to after his lambs are born and three have hernias. I then find whilst shearing him a huge F ing hernia right infront of his penis. Brilliant. Needless to say he went for meat along with the flockmate he came with. The woman that sold him as since given up on sheep. Hmm.
Last year I did a lot more homework on the breeder of my new ram. She has a great flock and produces good meat, wool and has a reputation for good sheep. I can't wait to see how his lambs come out this year!
That’s really something. As you mentioned, umbilical hernia tends to run in a flock with genetics. It seems no matter how hard you look sometimes, things can get missed. An umbilical hernia would be tough to catch. Glad things are working out for you now and hopefully the new genetics will help solve the issue. We appreciate you taking the time to leave a message and hopefully this gives some of our other viewers some good tips on what to look for as they move forward as well. Best wishes to you with your upcoming flock additions. 😬
@@LinessaFarms Thank you for the reply. Yes starting out there is so much to check for than the Teeth feet and balls. I didn't see it initially because I bought him in full fleece and the bulging hernia was hidden by it.
It was certainly a lesson! The same for horn growing too near their face. It isn't a huge financial outlay to dehorn a ram, but the genetics that passes on is the bigger issue
I want an animal that grows fast good mothers only has twins no trips most of the time. All white katahdin that has been mostly high quality hey/grass and only grained before lambing and during milking. Fast recovery after lambing.
We’ve got one for you. Send us an email at customerservice@linessafarms.com
@@LinessaFarms thanks sir but am looking a minimum 5 and would prefer 10 looking for a mix of commercial and registered ewes.
Very good information! I grew up on small beef farm & my dad was amazing at how well he chose his breeding stock. No matter the species, conformation is important. Temperament, feed conversion & thriftiness are also very important. I now have goats & have walked away from many I have gone to look at because of many of the things you discussed. While I am not particularly interested in breeding, I still expect to have conformationally correct , healthy & physically sound animals And I am willing to pay well for them when I find them. They are an investment as well as partners in maintaining our small acreage.
Hello, Brenda. Thank you for taking the time to leave us such a thoughtful message. It sounds like your dad was very deliberate and thoughtful in the way he chose his animals. This is such a great lesson to teach young farmers and it obviously made a positive impact on you. We love the fact that you take the time to make an informed decision before commuting to a purchase. You are very correct that good stock isn’t just for breeders. We hope you will continue to watch our videos and contribute. Best wishes to you and your family from Linessa Farms!
Perfect! Found it! LoL
Do you have a scoring system or set of criteria you use to decide which animals you keep for breeding stock?
Kinda. We need to come up with something better for everyone. We currently look through records and determine health, number of offspring, etc. we will come up with something and get back to you in a video soon. Thanks for the idea. 👍🏻
That’s one big chicken
That it is!
The chicken crossing in front of the camera was awesome
We let them free range and we never know when or where they are going to pop up!
If you are buying kids from a dairy goat farm bottle babies are very common and their is nothing wrong with the doe or the kid. They pull the kids at birth for several reasons and just the ones I know of are for disease prevention, to maintain an even udder for showing, and so that kids can go to there new home and the producer can have the milk.
I haven't had my coffee yet.....there.....not their🤦♀️
You are correct and this would be an exception to our statement. Unfortunately it’s extremely difficult to know what you are getting. We are aware of the practices of dairy farms pulling kids, selling them, and their rationale behind it. A few points of consideration are: Most people getting these kids are not getting them directly from the dairy farm. There are large buyers which get large numbers of these kids and “flip them” at local sales or off their farms. It has been our experience they are stressed, grow slower, and do not make good breeding stock. It is also important to know a lot of other information about the kids you simply aren’t going to get from bottle babies. We have raised bottle baby dairy goats for meat and while we feel (from experience and record keeping) bottle babies simply can’t compete with feed conversion ratios of natural fed babies, we understand the appeal. We strongly discourage the purchase of bottle babies in general, especially for breeding stock. We also don’t feel the way large numbers of dairy bottle babies are handled/peddled to novice purchasers is ethical or humane for the animals. IF you can’t help yourself, please purchase your bottle baby directly from the dairy, not from an intermediary. Thanks for your comments and thank you for watching our videos!
It happens.... it happens to us a lot. With all our responses between our social media accounts and “autocorrect” we have written some pretty interesting things. 😬
Great advice!
Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Porter Valley Ranch, thank you for the kind words and thank you for watching our videos! 😬
Awesome video, thank you for all that you do! New subscriber here, happy to stay. :)
Welcome aboard!
U are so right on goats and sheep
Thanks for watching our videos, Eddie!