I bought registered ram and he died on the pasture due to heat in Texas I assume. Only commercial now. I was not experienced and in retrospect your advice is excellent since I am raising for meat therefore papers not needed. Can't eat papers lol
Good morning. Full disclosure I have had registered and commercial sheep. I've been a Shepard for over 50 years. One benefit to register we use is tracing bloodlines. Often, we will see a genetic trait we want to eliminate or increase in our flock. Example milk production, mothering abilities, or daily weighted gains. Also, with registered sheep, you get that pure bred hybrid vigor when you bred to a commercial animal. I think your video is very well done. I would also suggest that if someone hasn't raised sheep before, they should start with feeder lambs. Minimal investment with a terminal end point. That way, if they decide they don't want to be a Shepard they have an easy exit point with a minimal expense.
We have a registered Katahdin flock in Northeast Alabama. We feed grass only and rotate every few days. Our flock is very healthy, has never been dewormed, has never had grain and have great feet. Great mothers too! Love your videos!!
Hello from Canada, we have a small flock of purebred registered Dorpers. We generally feed low quality hay and some grass during the summer months. We have a strong coyote presence so expanding our grazing would need a lot of changes. We feed a pellet ration that is mixed with corn and barley to bring it to a 16% ration. They only receive this one month before lambing and then 2 months post lambing along with high quality second cut alfalfa. Lambs are fed a 16 % grower ration pellet with medication to prevent coccidia in lambs. We are enrolled in Genovis, which is a genetic testing program in Canada. Birth weights, 50 day weights and 100 day weights are all recorded. Many people that purchase rams want this data. They want a small birth weight lamb with tremendous gains. It does make sense to do your homework when choosing livestock. Doesn’t matter if it’s purebred or commercial. Everybody wants good gains. If you can market a lamb at 100 days instead of feeding it for longer, it’s definitely a win win. Thanks for the great video.
My Father had a pure bred registered dairy cow herd. He was so proud of the dairy and it was one of the finest in Virginia having some champion milk producing cows. Until one day my father found out that the herdsmen had failed to keep the records straight off those cows! My father was just devastated and he sold the dairy when i was very young. He went on to pure black angus but let that be a warning to everyone don't let anyone else but you handle your records!
I'm sorry to hear that. If a living man can testify to the heritage of the cows, that should be worth something if the records get lost, shouldn't it? Especially if he is a man of good character not given to lying?
This is my first year raising registered Painted Desert Sheep and Desert Dragon sheep. I raise them for their meat and the trophy trade as the rams sport massive horns if you have the right genetics and command prices of over $1500 for GSR rams. That said, I have a long way to go to make my pasture available to them due to lack of fencing, so feeding them has been a huge deficit buying hay and grain at current market prices during this almost two months of back to back storms. Luckily, these sheep browse more like goats than regular sheep, which has helped as I move fencing from one area to another that contains more than grass, so they mow down everything from bull thistle to blackberries and clear my areas so more grass and herbs will grow in its place. Steep learning curve, but I'm loving it.
I started with almost no grass mostly weed/bradleaves. Interspersed with several grasses legumes and barasakas. Added some chickpeas for parasite resistance. My Southdown/baby dolls did great. Had to supplement with dry grass when the legumes ànd barasakas we're too rich. Lost 3 to bloat. Other wise in winter grass and alfalfa. Wilburw Ellis granulated sheep mineral. No drench. Only CTD one month before lambing. That's all.
We have dorper and katahdin mostly and we usually only supplement with grain right before ours lamb and for a week after lambing. This helps with milk production and to help the ewe recovery from birthing. We feed a local feed mix of different grains and pellet.
Great video! We raise dorpers near Waco, Tx. Commercially focused, but have some registered sheep for the same reason you mentioned. We brefily did the grass only thing and it works but have added some grain at strategic times as it pencils out well. Our ewes get about half a pound of grain for 60 days while lactating but other than that they are on grass or hay the rest of the year. Replacement ewes also get fed grain up until 4-5 months old to get them on a great plane of nutrition.
I'm a new shepherd (less than a year) with 5 pregnant st croix ewes, two jacob ewe lawn ornaments and a white dorper ram. They are on barley, hay, alfalfa pellets, vitamins and minerals currently. When they lamb, I'll be weaning them off the barley and am hoping to be certified grass-fed and grass finished later this year so going forward, no more grains. The only reason they get barley now is because the previous owner fed them barley and I don't want to mess with their pregnancies.
Great job I’ve been trying to start our own in west Tx super hard I got all my heard sheep due to drought I couldn’t afford the feed so sad but hope with gods power he can help me out again and start again and ur videos are helping me
Thank you. I learn something from every video of yours I watch. I live way north of you. I wonder what kind of set-up would work well here. Several feet of snow every year and temperatures dip below zero every year. I don't have the land yet. I haven't even decided what or if I'll have any animals. There is a lot for me to learn still. Your style of teaching is a big help. My land goal should be achieved whithin the next 5-7 years. Plenty of time to get educated. God willing I'll leave this city life sooner. 💪👍🙏
I have a commercial sheep and cattle backgrounding operation and run Kahtadin mixed sheep. I bought Registered sheep for my children to show in 4H and was completely ripped off. The person I bought the Registered dorpers from told me they were registered, purebred. four weeks later, he told me that he lied and cut the tags off dead dorpers ears and put them on the sheep he sold me, which were truly a quarter, khatadan and not pure bred, he would not reimburse me the money, and I deactivated their papers and sold them. In the process they brought a bunch of her problems with them, and it took quite a while to eliminate that from my heard, if I ever buy registered blocks or livestock again I will do a DNA test. I will not go off paper because it’s clearly easy to lie about that.
I raise crossbred commercial texels and some full blood texels same reasons as you stated. Both crossbred and purebred on same feeding programs with hay diet only plus minerals mixed with salt with selenium in a premix. Texels in general are easy keepers so they thrive like the commercials we have.
We raise commercial Ile de France and now have a small number of registered Ile De France added to the flock just this winter. Summer the ewes are on pasture but our lambs are creep fed as we typically don't see alot of rain and creep feeding helps take the pressure off the ewes, provides the gap in nutrition for the lambs when the ewes are producing as much milk after 4 weeks and also just to help the gains on the lambs. Typically our lambs are sold as growers to a feedlot at an average 85lbs by 3-4 months of age, except for breeding stock we keep back. Breeding stock commercial ewe lambs get taken off full creep at about 100lbs and rams continue on it for a bit longer. Only other time grain is used is for flushing the ewes before breeding and for the ewes in the jugs at lambing and first week or 2 of lactation. Otherwise it is all pasture or hay and free choice protein/mineral tubs.
We raise mixed meat breeds. For us its more important to get animals that do well in our tropical wet climate than overall production. Can't eat it if it dies young! We supplement with minerals and alfalfa pellets when we are in serious drought or torrential rain seasons. (the sheep don't like to forage when we get 50 inches of rain in 28 days like this last February).
Hey, Been following you from the beginning. Love your journey! I live on a small farm and we want to start a small flock. We can’t seem to find anyone that has any available. Any recommendations?
Good video. I'd also not underrate improving the breed through a solid breeding program. I've found registered sheep to have poor breeding for pasture rotational systems. frankly, I've had trouble with most registered sheep having so much trouble. I wish there was a production registered program. Example, ducks have to walk. Old school duck breeds from over seas all walk, chickens walk over seas, cows walk over seas, goats, all of them walk over seas. In america good feet, ablity to walk isn't really breed well in most of these breeds.
So I just got my first 6 ewes this year. Located way up in Vermont! So my question is I’ve heard that sheep would love some of the corn silage we give out Highlanders, as long as it’s 1/3 or less of their diet. What’s your recommendation on using the corn silage vs grain? I know corn is more energy boosted and less protein based so curious on y’all’s thoughts!
My opinion is that registered breeders weaken the quality of the breed. It’s happened in several breeds of animals horses, dogs, goats, the biggest reason for this is the cost of those animals can be very high and people will spend money to save animals that they should have just eaten. Then they end up with some genetic problems that are spread far and wide because they are registered and people will spend the money on them they end up passing inferior animals than a meat producing breeder will have.
This is what happened to the American strain of the German Shepherd. The AKC only had a standard for looks, not health, and the dogs now suffer from Hip Dysplasia. That being said, I still do not have an issue with registered animals, we just need to strengthen the standards.
Great video Just goes to show how different you can raise these animals and regardless, they do well. Like you I’m back and forth on adding grain to boost lambs. I typically won’t because if we want to do this the right way, we have to cull the genetics and grain will mask those issues. That said, the economical and fast way would really be pump the grain all around. I would expect the feed bill to go up a bit, but not huge. The return would be fast growing lambs. The downside to that again would be masking the need to cull. Farming is a long game and to pride ourselves in our strong genetics, it means I do need to fall behind a bit at the beginning. But overall, as generations go on you see more and more heavy lambs when you cull correctly. On a side note, I have also heard of people talking about “burning out the rumen with grain”. I’m not sure how scientific this is, but I like to believe there is some truth to the old wives tales. Is there any detriment to giving grain and then restricting with the body is used to? Who knows, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some truth to it.
I raise dorper sheep in Comanche Tx. I have 20 heads right now. 1 11 month old ram 4 4 month old rams and the rest ewes, looking to sale the 4 month rams pretty soon.
commercial dorpers here near traverse city Michigan. Im kinda just getting started. I helped my dad with angus cattle for 30 years. He died. I bought his farm from my siblings. I bought 7 ewes and a ram in May of 22. Most of the ewes were first time mothers. THey gave me 10 lambs and one died. Grass pasture, and alfalfa/brome hay. The only supliment I ever want to give is a good mineral for pregnant ewes. I want their genetics to do their job. If their genetics wont make them meaty on grass and hay, I want them gone.
Standards need to be set for selling registered animals that focus not only on the look and bloodline of the breed but also on the health of the animals involved. If the parents or the offspring have genetic deficiencies they need to be culled not bred.
Its a feeder setup that doesn't allow the grown animals to fit so only the babies can eat the extra grain or protein feed. Its supposed to help the young ones grow faster and put on weight.
So, videos like this make me rub my temples for a bit. Because your information is really Dorper specific, but it is being spoken as general sheep advice. In an established commercial breed, your top papered animal "should" also being your top performing animal for commercial purposes (exception & nuance still applies). Dorper are in a unique situation right now, as they are trendy, recently imported and are part of an emerging market in the South. Katadhins by contrast are an absolute genetic mess and papers are useless. Buyer beware. But traditional commercial breeds are in a much different situation where papers mean a lot. also Me (2 years ago): "you should really consider feeding some grain. It's a very useful tool for improving the condition of your flock, helping old ewes, bringing up lambs especially bum lambs, and making your grass & hay go farther in winter and drought conditions" Every Regenerative acolyte and or Salatin & Judy disciple: "HERESY! My sheep shall only ever receive thine allotment of grass as supplied by the dew of Heaven, and never, I say NEVER, taste the Devil's supplement! GRAIN be thine vile & sinful name!!!" ...2 winters and 1 drought later, "you know grain is kind of useful. I don't actually feed that much of it, and my sheep look so much better."
Supplementing or not? Opinions differ and that's due to misunderstanding it all depends on the quality of your feed or pasture. To be certain that your animals get the amount of nutrients they need relative to their intake is to send sample's of your feed or pasture to the lab and with that information there is a simple formula to calculate the amount supplement needed (depending on what you chose or grain type ) And that's crucial for maximum growth ,fertility and during lactating to sustain healthy body condition I would like to add registered sheep are for breeding purposes especially the rams because they contribute 50% of his genetics to his offspring . Responsible breeder will take the loss and cull a bad sheep rather than lowering the quality of his flock or stain his reputation . Its more likely small beginner breeders that would rather keep it than cull it but the better solution is to bred it with a other ram and see what the results offer
They are well worth it if they perform as expected along with the phenotype one is striving for. Speaking from experience, heartburn comes when sheep get put into an environment they are not selected/adapted to regardless of the famous sheep in the lineage. This becomes most evident when sheep that have been pampered with highest quality feeds and then drenched with all the latest goops and gunks and are then expected to thrive on pasture. These sheep end up melting when faced with a blade of grass to eat. Our experience is that Dorper sheep that are selected to thrive in the pasture focused environment do very well in any environment while pampered show selected Dorper sheep are a big roll of the dice. This being said, there is room for both camps and also folks that raise Dorper in an in-between system. However, beware of phenotypes that go against the principles of production. For example, stay away rams that begin to look feminine and ewes that begin to look like rams as this type of trend is quite common when the show ring takes over the breed standards.
That's hard to believe...don't you have certified judges that knows the breed standard of the breed? The purpose of the show ring is to introduce the public to breeders and what genetics they have to offer
@@pieterse4075 show trends don’t always follow original breed standard. This can be true across many livestock species and breeds within different species. Show ring is a phenotypic display that can follow recent trends especially in the USA. Some trends can positive others can be detrimental. It’s always been that way. Check out the teachings of Jan Bonsma and you’ll get an idea of what I’m referring to.
@@thomasclark5688 Hmm are you south african? Have you seen the teachings of Johan Zietsman its a other perspective of Jan but both are excellent and a lot can be learned
to get back on your previous comment as far as I know if you are a registered dorper breeder your sheep have to be judged by a certified judge before you can sell it as breeding stock at least here in south africa
Have you ever tried BIOWORMA? I'm to the point now kf having a closed herd of goats and tired of paying for so much cydectin to continually be worming all my goat because I don't have time to move them more than biweekly right now and even though the cydectin is killing the adult barberpoles they are constantly reinfecting. My thought is to try out the bioworma mixed into chaffhaye and grain over the summer for my dairy goats, as I continue to check for anemia, and administer cydectin. Hopes of eradicating barberpole from my herd and property. East texas moisture + my goats and parasites = never ending uphill battles
I have 20 years experience in raising small ruminants - and I lost my entire goat herd to the barberpole worm, as all three types of worm medicine will lose their effectiveness and stop working after a few years. You can run St. Croix sheep with your goats, and they will eat the barberpole worm cyst and expel it, killing the cyst and cleaning up your pastures so your goats can live. Katahdin has less worm resistance than St. Croix, but a larger carcass, and is very popular. Goats don't have much resistance to parasites, except they eat higher up on the grass stalk than sheep. There is a wide range of parasite resistance inside each sheep breed, and the National Sheep Improvement Program helps you find the most parasite resistant sheep in your herd for breeding parasite resistant sheep. St. Croix is the gold standard for parasite resistance, along with blackbelly and Florida native. Raising Dorpers is no different than raising goats, as Dorpers are from arid South Africa, have no real parasite resistance, and your dewormers will fail with Dorpers after a few years. Their carcass is as large as the Katahdin, but they should only be raised in dry areas, and NOT in East Texas. If you are dependent on worm medicine, then you have the wrong sheep breed for your area. She has the wrong breed for raising sheep with her humidity level, but she will never admit it. The problem is, she is teaching others about sheep and she has only 3 years of experience, and it will be 5+ years before her and all of her followers will all find out the hard way about "anti-parasitic resistance". I don't think she understands this. She is sweet, but dangerous because she has lot of pride that she is always right, and this is a major issue with sheep and goats. Take care, and start watching Greg Judy. John Hurt
@@johnhurt5406 thanks you for sharing your experiences. Do you have any experience with the Bioworma that I'm considering ordering from premier1? I hope to be able to add sheep into my operation in a couple more years, but for now, I'm just putting some older excess laying hens in the goat pens to scratch up the moist manure and hopefully be a dead-end host for some small percentage of the little devils at leasts.. I do appreciate Greg Judy's informative content, and hope to get closer to that in time.
I don't have experience with Bioworma. Premier 1 Supplies sells Bioworma and said it kills the larvae in the pasture. I don't know what time of year it works best, or how long it lasts. IT IS EXPENSIVE. Wow. You can also reduce reinfection by feeding hay from an uninfected lot and keep them locked up. The best solution is to cull the sick ones. They say 30% of the animals create 70% of the worm larvae. You probably have too many goats on the property too, and that creates a heavy worm load. March and April is a great time to take all of the goats with dirty behinds down to the sale barn or commercial processor. You could sell every goat and run cattle for 2-3 years and get a clean slate on your property, as all of the goat worm larvae won't affect cattle, and the larvae will die without goats. Then, start out with St. Croix, then add some Katahdin sheep. You can add a few milk goats after this with no problems. The St. Croix will keep the barberpole worm larvae at bay for your goats so the worm load will be manageable. Many blessings to you and your family. John Hurt
@@johnhurt5406 disagree with your entire assessment. Been raising Dorpers for 17 years in 45-50 inch rainfall environment about 40 miles from Greg Judy. Resistance to barberpole can be selected with Dorper sheep. Plus, if one grazes like Greg, parasite resistance shouldn’t even be an issue. Folks that graze in systems like Greg’s leave a ton of money on the table every year with breeds like St. Croix which are definitely resistant to growth compared to the Dorper. Also, if anyone is dependent on wormers regardless of breed they are either grazing wrong, selecting replacement sheep wrong, or both.
@@thomasclark5688 Here is what the Animal Scientists at Virginia Tech said: "Although the Dorper and the Katahdin are both derived from hair sheep crosses, differences in parasite resistance between the two breeds are not surprising. The Dorper and the Katahdin were derived from very different types of hair sheep. The Dorper originated in South Africa from crosses between the Dorset and the Blackhead Persian. The Blackhead Persian is a fat-rumped hair breed from the arid lands of the Middle East. In South Africa, the Dorper is likewise most commonly found in arid and semi-arid regions where parasite challenge is often low. There is thus nothing in the evolutionary history of the Dorper breed to suggest that these animals would have developed resistance to internal parasites. In contrast, the Katahdin was developed from the thin-tailed Caribbean hair breeds. These breeds originally came from the hot, humid, high-rainfall regions of West Africa, where parasite challenge is extremely high and where development of parasite resistance would have been advantageous. The results observed in the current study are thus consistent with the evolutionary history of the breeds involved." The article also examines the fecal egg counts of the Dorper vs Katahdin and other breeds - with charts and egg counts to back it up, and no, the Dorper is not parasite resistant. Here is the link: www.sites.ext.vt.edu/newsletter-archive/livestock/aps-03_05/aps-232(dot)html One of my neighbors raises Dorpers in Tennessee, and he is constantly immersing them in dewormers and other chemicals. They also have foot rot in humid conditions. If you dosing your sheep with chemicals, then your meat is no different than what you can buy in a grocery store. My sheep have never been wormed or vaccinated, and are 100% pure - beyond organic. So, no, I would not eat one of your Dorpers, unless it was from a western arid state with a low worm load and I knew that no chemicals were used. If you want a bigger carcass than the St. Croix, then raise Katahdin sheep. You can have the best of both worlds. I lost both my parents to cancer. I don't know if dewormers can cause cancer, but they thought asbestos was safe at one time too. Anyway, best of luck to you, but don't go around telling people that Dorpers can be selectively chosen for parasite resistance, when Virginia Tech and many other agricultural scientist say otherwise, with the graphs and data to back it up.
I am from India. I like your work very well. Dorper sheep does not exist in India. I can also do dorper sheep business. That I can get dorper sheep export from you. Dorper sheep is in great demand in India. What is the price of a dorper sheep?
You talk about the droper Sheep but there’s a big difference between the Commercial Side and registered side . What about the pure bred tho . Not all registered Sheep are Show Sheep tho .They could just for breeding Ewe Lambs or Ram Lamb operation too Sell Stock tho . Not every body wants too Show there Sheep Especially at Shows . ITs easier to Show your own Sheep on your Farm to Sgow case them to be honest because it you low input and easy to do really.
✌🏻QUESTIONS: What is your opinion on registered sheep? What do you feed your sheep (specify the breed)?
Domba yang didaftarakan tentunya akan sangat jelas rekam jejaknya
Alfalfa pellets and hay in winter. Pasture in summer. Minerals year round
I bought registered ram and he died on the pasture due to heat in Texas I assume. Only commercial now. I was not experienced and in retrospect your advice is excellent since I am raising for meat therefore papers not needed. Can't eat papers lol
Good morning. Full disclosure I have had registered and commercial sheep. I've been a Shepard for over 50 years. One benefit to register we use is tracing bloodlines. Often, we will see a genetic trait we want to eliminate or increase in our flock. Example milk production, mothering abilities, or daily weighted gains. Also, with registered sheep, you get that pure bred hybrid vigor when you bred to a commercial animal. I think your video is very well done. I would also suggest that if someone hasn't raised sheep before, they should start with feeder lambs. Minimal investment with a terminal end point. That way, if they decide they don't want to be a Shepard they have an easy exit point with a minimal expense.
Great advice!!
We have a registered Katahdin flock in Northeast Alabama. We feed grass only and rotate every few days. Our flock is very healthy, has never been dewormed, has never had grain and have great feet. Great mothers too!
Love your videos!!
Sounds like a premium set of sheep. 😍
Hello from Canada, we have a small flock of purebred registered Dorpers. We generally feed low quality hay and some grass during the summer months. We have a strong coyote presence so expanding our grazing would need a lot of changes. We feed a pellet ration that is mixed with corn and barley to bring it to a 16% ration. They only receive this one month before lambing and then 2 months post lambing along with high quality second cut alfalfa. Lambs are fed a 16 % grower ration pellet with medication to prevent coccidia in lambs. We are enrolled in Genovis, which is a genetic testing program in Canada. Birth weights, 50 day weights and 100 day weights are all recorded. Many people that purchase rams want this data. They want a small birth weight lamb with tremendous gains. It does make sense to do your homework when choosing livestock. Doesn’t matter if it’s purebred or commercial. Everybody wants good gains. If you can market a lamb at 100 days instead of feeding it for longer, it’s definitely a win win. Thanks for the great video.
My Father had a pure bred registered dairy cow herd. He was so proud of the dairy and it was one of the finest in Virginia having some champion milk producing cows. Until one day my father found out that the herdsmen had failed to keep the records straight off those cows! My father was just devastated and he sold the dairy when i was very young. He went on to pure black angus but let that be a warning to everyone don't let anyone else but you handle your records!
I'm sorry to hear that. If a living man can testify to the heritage of the cows, that should be worth something if the records get lost, shouldn't it? Especially if he is a man of good character not given to lying?
The content was a home run. Thank you so much. This was an exact debate Ive been having with myself and you helped resolve it!
Thank you!!!
Watching this video makes me feel at peace, no worries anymore. 💆♂️
This is my first year raising registered Painted Desert Sheep and Desert Dragon sheep. I raise them for their meat and the trophy trade as the rams sport massive horns if you have the right genetics and command prices of over $1500 for GSR rams. That said, I have a long way to go to make my pasture available to them due to lack of fencing, so feeding them has been a huge deficit buying hay and grain at current market prices during this almost two months of back to back storms. Luckily, these sheep browse more like goats than regular sheep, which has helped as I move fencing from one area to another that contains more than grass, so they mow down everything from bull thistle to blackberries and clear my areas so more grass and herbs will grow in its place. Steep learning curve, but I'm loving it.
I started with almost no grass mostly weed/bradleaves. Interspersed with several grasses legumes and barasakas. Added some chickpeas for parasite resistance. My Southdown/baby dolls did great. Had to supplement with dry grass when the legumes ànd barasakas we're too rich. Lost 3 to bloat. Other wise in winter grass and alfalfa. Wilburw Ellis granulated sheep mineral. No drench. Only CTD one month before lambing. That's all.
We have dorper and katahdin mostly and we usually only supplement with grain right before ours lamb and for a week after lambing. This helps with milk production and to help the ewe recovery from birthing. We feed a local feed mix of different grains and pellet.
Great video!
We raise dorpers near Waco, Tx. Commercially focused, but have some registered sheep for the same reason you mentioned. We brefily did the grass only thing and it works but have added some grain at strategic times as it pencils out well. Our ewes get about half a pound of grain for 60 days while lactating but other than that they are on grass or hay the rest of the year. Replacement ewes also get fed grain up until 4-5 months old to get them on a great plane of nutrition.
Thanks soooO much for all your GREAT Lectures based on the FARMING Aspect.
I'm a new shepherd (less than a year) with 5 pregnant st croix ewes, two jacob ewe lawn ornaments and a white dorper ram. They are on barley, hay, alfalfa pellets, vitamins and minerals currently. When they lamb, I'll be weaning them off the barley and am hoping to be certified grass-fed and grass finished later this year so going forward, no more grains. The only reason they get barley now is because the previous owner fed them barley and I don't want to mess with their pregnancies.
Great job I’ve been trying to start our own in west Tx super hard I got all my heard sheep due to drought I couldn’t afford the feed so sad but hope with gods power he can help me out again and start again and ur videos are helping me
Thank you. I learn something from every video of yours I watch. I live way north of you. I wonder what kind of set-up would work well here. Several feet of snow every year and temperatures dip below zero every year. I don't have the land yet. I haven't even decided what or if I'll have any animals. There is a lot for me to learn still. Your style of teaching is a big help. My land goal should be achieved whithin the next 5-7 years. Plenty of time to get educated. God willing I'll leave this city life sooner. 💪👍🙏
I have a commercial sheep and cattle backgrounding operation and run Kahtadin mixed sheep. I bought Registered sheep for my children to show in 4H and was completely ripped off. The person I bought the Registered dorpers from told me they were registered, purebred. four weeks later, he told me that he lied and cut the tags off dead dorpers ears and put them on the sheep he sold me, which were truly a quarter, khatadan and not pure bred, he would not reimburse me the money, and I deactivated their papers and sold them. In the process they brought a bunch of her problems with them, and it took quite a while to eliminate that from my heard, if I ever buy registered blocks or livestock again I will do a DNA test. I will not go off paper because it’s clearly easy to lie about that.
Katahdin and recently breeding in St Croix. Free choice minerals, pasture, and hay in the winter. That's all they get.
👍🏻👍🏻
I raise crossbred commercial texels and some full blood texels same reasons as you stated. Both crossbred and purebred on same feeding programs with hay diet only plus minerals mixed with salt with selenium in a premix. Texels in general are easy keepers so they thrive like the commercials we have.
We raise commercial Ile de France and now have a small number of registered Ile De France added to the flock just this winter. Summer the ewes are on pasture but our lambs are creep fed as we typically don't see alot of rain and creep feeding helps take the pressure off the ewes, provides the gap in nutrition for the lambs when the ewes are producing as much milk after 4 weeks and also just to help the gains on the lambs. Typically our lambs are sold as growers to a feedlot at an average 85lbs by 3-4 months of age, except for breeding stock we keep back. Breeding stock commercial ewe lambs get taken off full creep at about 100lbs and rams continue on it for a bit longer. Only other time grain is used is for flushing the ewes before breeding and for the ewes in the jugs at lambing and first week or 2 of lactation. Otherwise it is all pasture or hay and free choice protein/mineral tubs.
Thank you! I’m still looking into sheep and I was being pushed toward papered sheep. Thank you!
Thanks for watching!
We raise mixed meat breeds. For us its more important to get animals that do well in our tropical wet climate than overall production. Can't eat it if it dies young! We supplement with minerals and alfalfa pellets when we are in serious drought or torrential rain seasons. (the sheep don't like to forage when we get 50 inches of rain in 28 days like this last February).
Thanks for the video! Very informative. Have a great day!
Love that piece of advice... 😄"You cant eat papers" I suppose it all depends on your main reason and what you would like to achieve.
Great advice, thanks for your honesty.
Hey,
Been following you from the beginning. Love your journey! I live on a small farm and we want to start a small flock. We can’t seem to find anyone that has any available. Any recommendations?
💯💯💯 Keep these great videos coming!!!
"Freezer camp"
Pj from the high mountain homestead
😂😂
Good video. I'd also not underrate improving the breed through a solid breeding program. I've found registered sheep to have poor breeding for pasture rotational systems. frankly, I've had trouble with most registered sheep having so much trouble. I wish there was a production registered program. Example, ducks have to walk. Old school duck breeds from over seas all walk, chickens walk over seas, cows walk over seas, goats, all of them walk over seas. In america good feet, ablity to walk isn't really breed well in most of these breeds.
So I just got my first 6 ewes this year. Located way up in Vermont! So my question is I’ve heard that sheep would love some of the corn silage we give out Highlanders, as long as it’s 1/3 or less of their diet. What’s your recommendation on using the corn silage vs grain? I know corn is more energy boosted and less protein based so curious on y’all’s thoughts!
My opinion is that registered breeders weaken the quality of the breed. It’s happened in several breeds of animals horses, dogs, goats, the biggest reason for this is the cost of those animals can be very high and people will spend money to save animals that they should have just eaten. Then they end up with some genetic problems that are spread far and wide because they are registered and people will spend the money on them they end up passing inferior animals than a meat producing breeder will have.
This is what happened to the American strain of the German Shepherd. The AKC only had a standard for looks, not health, and the dogs now suffer from Hip Dysplasia.
That being said, I still do not have an issue with registered animals, we just need to strengthen the standards.
Very good advice!!
I'll be honest, I only watch this channel for Miss Bo Peep. I think she is the cutest thing on earth. I wish I was a much younger man. ❤
Make a video on registration process and paper involved.
Great video
Just goes to show how different you can raise these animals and regardless, they do well.
Like you I’m back and forth on adding grain to boost lambs. I typically won’t because if we want to do this the right way, we have to cull the genetics and grain will mask those issues.
That said, the economical and fast way would really be pump the grain all around. I would expect the feed bill to go up a bit, but not huge. The return would be fast growing lambs.
The downside to that again would be masking the need to cull.
Farming is a long game and to pride ourselves in our strong genetics, it means I do need to fall behind a bit at the beginning. But overall, as generations go on you see more and more heavy lambs when you cull correctly.
On a side note, I have also heard of people talking about “burning out the rumen with grain”. I’m not sure how scientific this is, but I like to believe there is some truth to the old wives tales. Is there any detriment to giving grain and then restricting with the body is used to? Who knows, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some truth to it.
cull the genetics and grain will mask those issues... With proper management that would not be the case , don't get me wrong I don't say to feed grain
I raise dorper sheep in Comanche Tx. I have 20 heads right now. 1 11 month old ram 4 4 month old rams and the rest ewes, looking to sale the 4 month rams pretty soon.
Where do you sell your sheep to for marketing ? Sale barn or did you find a person that buys for the meat industries ? Thank you .
commercial dorpers here near traverse city Michigan. Im kinda just getting started. I helped my dad with angus cattle for 30 years. He died. I bought his farm from my siblings. I bought 7 ewes and a ram in May of 22. Most of the ewes were first time mothers. THey gave me 10 lambs and one died. Grass pasture, and alfalfa/brome hay. The only supliment I ever want to give is a good mineral for pregnant ewes. I want their genetics to do their job. If their genetics wont make them meaty on grass and hay, I want them gone.
Standards need to be set for selling registered animals that focus not only on the look and bloodline of the breed but also on the health of the animals involved. If the parents or the offspring have genetic deficiencies they need to be culled not bred.
Good video.
May I ask, what is "creep feeding?"
Its a feeder setup that doesn't allow the grown animals to fit so only the babies can eat the extra grain or protein feed. Its supposed to help the young ones grow faster and put on weight.
Creep feeding is grain feeding calves and lambs. The creep feeder, allows the young ones to eat the grain but not the adult.
Got it. Thank you both so much.
So, videos like this make me rub my temples for a bit. Because your information is really Dorper specific, but it is being spoken as general sheep advice. In an established commercial breed, your top papered animal "should" also being your top performing animal for commercial purposes (exception & nuance still applies). Dorper are in a unique situation right now, as they are trendy, recently imported and are part of an emerging market in the South.
Katadhins by contrast are an absolute genetic mess and papers are useless. Buyer beware. But traditional commercial breeds are in a much different situation where papers mean a lot.
also
Me (2 years ago): "you should really consider feeding some grain. It's a very useful tool for improving the condition of your flock, helping old ewes, bringing up lambs especially bum lambs, and making your grass & hay go farther in winter and drought conditions"
Every Regenerative acolyte and or Salatin & Judy disciple: "HERESY! My sheep shall only ever receive thine allotment of grass as supplied by the dew of Heaven, and never, I say NEVER, taste the Devil's supplement! GRAIN be thine vile & sinful name!!!"
...2 winters and 1 drought later, "you know grain is kind of useful. I don't actually feed that much of it, and my sheep look so much better."
Supplementing or not? Opinions differ and that's due to misunderstanding it all depends on the quality of your feed or pasture. To be certain that your animals get the amount of nutrients they need relative to their intake is to send sample's of your feed or pasture to the lab and with that information there is a simple formula to calculate the amount supplement needed (depending on what you chose or grain type ) And that's crucial for maximum growth ,fertility and during lactating to sustain healthy body condition I would like to add registered sheep are for breeding purposes especially the rams because they contribute 50% of his genetics to his offspring . Responsible breeder will take the loss and cull a bad sheep rather than lowering the quality of his flock or stain his reputation . Its more likely small beginner breeders that would rather keep it than cull it but the better solution is to bred it with a other ram and see what the results offer
They are well worth it if they perform as expected along with the phenotype one is striving for. Speaking from experience, heartburn comes when sheep get put into an environment they are not selected/adapted to regardless of the famous sheep in the lineage. This becomes most evident when sheep that have been pampered with highest quality feeds and then drenched with all the latest goops and gunks and are then expected to thrive on pasture. These sheep end up melting when faced with a blade of grass to eat. Our experience is that Dorper sheep that are selected to thrive in the pasture focused environment do very well in any environment while pampered show selected Dorper sheep are a big roll of the dice. This being said, there is room for both camps and also folks that raise Dorper in an in-between system. However, beware of phenotypes that go against the principles of production. For example, stay away rams that begin to look feminine and ewes that begin to look like rams as this type of trend is quite common when the show ring takes over the breed standards.
Always the best advice from Whetstone…💯💯
That's hard to believe...don't you have certified judges that knows the breed standard of the breed? The purpose of the show ring is to introduce the public to breeders and what genetics they have to offer
@@pieterse4075 show trends don’t always follow original breed standard. This can be true across many livestock species and breeds within different species. Show ring is a phenotypic display that can follow recent trends especially in the USA. Some trends can positive others can be detrimental. It’s always been that way. Check out the teachings of Jan Bonsma and you’ll get an idea of what I’m referring to.
@@thomasclark5688 Hmm are you south african? Have you seen the teachings of Johan Zietsman its a other perspective of Jan but both are excellent and a lot can be learned
to get back on your previous comment as far as I know if you are a registered dorper breeder your sheep have to be judged by a certified judge before you can sell it as breeding stock at least here in south africa
Have you ever tried
BIOWORMA? I'm to the point now kf having a closed herd of goats and tired of paying for so much cydectin to continually be worming all my goat because I don't have time to move them more than biweekly right now and even though the cydectin is killing the adult barberpoles they are constantly reinfecting. My thought is to try out the bioworma mixed into chaffhaye and grain over the summer for my dairy goats, as I continue to check for anemia, and administer cydectin. Hopes of eradicating barberpole from my herd and property. East texas moisture + my goats and parasites = never ending uphill battles
I have 20 years experience in raising small ruminants - and I lost my entire goat herd to the barberpole worm, as all three types of worm medicine will lose their effectiveness and stop working after a few years. You can run St. Croix sheep with your goats, and they will eat the barberpole worm cyst and expel it, killing the cyst and cleaning up your pastures so your goats can live. Katahdin has less worm resistance than St. Croix, but a larger carcass, and is very popular. Goats don't have much resistance to parasites, except they eat higher up on the grass stalk than sheep. There is a wide range of parasite resistance inside each sheep breed, and the National Sheep Improvement Program helps you find the most parasite resistant sheep in your herd for breeding parasite resistant sheep. St. Croix is the gold standard for parasite resistance, along with blackbelly and Florida native. Raising Dorpers is no different than raising goats, as Dorpers are from arid South Africa, have no real parasite resistance, and your dewormers will fail with Dorpers after a few years. Their carcass is as large as the Katahdin, but they should only be raised in dry areas, and NOT in East Texas. If you are dependent on worm medicine, then you have the wrong sheep breed for your area. She has the wrong breed for raising sheep with her humidity level, but she will never admit it. The problem is, she is teaching others about sheep and she has only 3 years of experience, and it will be 5+ years before her and all of her followers will all find out the hard way about "anti-parasitic resistance". I don't think she understands this. She is sweet, but dangerous because she has lot of pride that she is always right, and this is a major issue with sheep and goats. Take care, and start watching Greg Judy. John Hurt
@@johnhurt5406 thanks you for sharing your experiences. Do you have any experience with the Bioworma that I'm considering ordering from premier1? I hope to be able to add sheep into my operation in a couple more years, but for now, I'm just putting some older excess laying hens in the goat pens to scratch up the moist manure and hopefully be a dead-end host for some small percentage of the little devils at leasts..
I do appreciate Greg Judy's informative content, and hope to get closer to that in time.
I don't have experience with Bioworma. Premier 1 Supplies sells Bioworma and said it kills the larvae in the pasture. I don't know what time of year it works best, or how long it lasts. IT IS EXPENSIVE. Wow. You can also reduce reinfection by feeding hay from an uninfected lot and keep them locked up. The best solution is to cull the sick ones. They say 30% of the animals create 70% of the worm larvae. You probably have too many goats on the property too, and that creates a heavy worm load. March and April is a great time to take all of the goats with dirty behinds down to the sale barn or commercial processor. You could sell every goat and run cattle for 2-3 years and get a clean slate on your property, as all of the goat worm larvae won't affect cattle, and the larvae will die without goats. Then, start out with St. Croix, then add some Katahdin sheep. You can add a few milk goats after this with no problems. The St. Croix will keep the barberpole worm larvae at bay for your goats so the worm load will be manageable. Many blessings to you and your family. John Hurt
@@johnhurt5406 disagree with your entire assessment. Been raising Dorpers for 17 years in 45-50 inch rainfall environment about 40 miles from Greg Judy. Resistance to barberpole can be selected with Dorper sheep. Plus, if one grazes like Greg, parasite resistance shouldn’t even be an issue. Folks that graze in systems like Greg’s leave a ton of money on the table every year with breeds like St. Croix which are definitely resistant to growth compared to the Dorper. Also, if anyone is dependent on wormers regardless of breed they are either grazing wrong, selecting replacement sheep wrong, or both.
@@thomasclark5688 Here is what the Animal Scientists at Virginia Tech said:
"Although the Dorper and the Katahdin are both derived from hair sheep crosses, differences in parasite resistance between the two breeds are not surprising. The Dorper and the Katahdin were derived from very different types of hair sheep. The Dorper originated in South Africa from crosses between the Dorset and the Blackhead Persian. The Blackhead Persian is a fat-rumped hair breed from the arid lands of the Middle East. In South Africa, the Dorper is likewise most commonly found in arid and semi-arid regions where parasite challenge is often low. There is thus nothing in the evolutionary history of the Dorper breed to suggest that these animals would have developed resistance to internal parasites. In contrast, the Katahdin was developed from the thin-tailed Caribbean hair breeds. These breeds originally came from the hot, humid, high-rainfall regions of West Africa, where parasite challenge is extremely high and where development of parasite resistance would have been advantageous. The results observed in the current study are thus consistent with the evolutionary history of the breeds involved."
The article also examines the fecal egg counts of the Dorper vs Katahdin and other breeds - with charts and egg counts to back it up, and no, the Dorper is not parasite resistant. Here is the link:
www.sites.ext.vt.edu/newsletter-archive/livestock/aps-03_05/aps-232(dot)html
One of my neighbors raises Dorpers in Tennessee, and he is constantly immersing them in dewormers and other chemicals. They also have foot rot in humid conditions. If you dosing your sheep with chemicals, then your meat is no different than what you can buy in a grocery store. My sheep have never been wormed or vaccinated, and are 100% pure - beyond organic. So, no, I would not eat one of your Dorpers, unless it was from a western arid state with a low worm load and I knew that no chemicals were used.
If you want a bigger carcass than the St. Croix, then raise Katahdin sheep. You can have the best of both worlds.
I lost both my parents to cancer. I don't know if dewormers can cause cancer, but they thought asbestos was safe at one time too. Anyway, best of luck to you, but don't go around telling people that Dorpers can be selectively chosen for parasite resistance, when Virginia Tech and many other agricultural scientist say otherwise, with the graphs and data to back it up.
Im from indonesia
Where or how can I find you I am interested in some commercial sheep
Go to Shepherdess.com to join the waitlist for 2023 lambs!
I did it
So
I am from India. I like your work very well. Dorper sheep does not exist in India. I can also do dorper sheep business. That I can get dorper sheep export from you. Dorper sheep is in great demand in India. What is the price of a dorper sheep?
Good morning girl.
Good morning, friend!! 😊😊
You talk about the droper Sheep but there’s a big difference between the Commercial Side and registered side . What about the pure bred tho . Not all registered Sheep are Show Sheep tho .They could just for breeding Ewe Lambs or Ram Lamb operation too Sell Stock tho . Not every body wants too Show there Sheep Especially at Shows . ITs easier to Show your own Sheep on your Farm to Sgow case them to be honest because it you low input and easy to do really.
But what if the seller just duplicates the papers 📃 though haha
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