Wonderful video!!! Looks to me like you had a pretty great outcome from this lambing season, ESPECIALLY since it was your first lambing season!!! Way to go, girl! 😉Keep up the hard work in the strength of the Lord!!!! 💖🌱🐑
I love that you have the management knowledge to offer to your business. It seems to me it was years before I heard that saying you can't manage it if you don't measure it. At the time I remember complaining about all the extra data I had to enter to measure something. But, it was so worth it. Your are nailing this!!!
Thank you, sir! It seems like the Lord was prepping me for this new season. Setting out to earn a living at farming feels riskier than anything I’ve done so far, but I’m hoping I can make a go of it!!🐑🐑 Appreciate your support so much! -the Shepherdess
Great video! I love videos that show the dark days people will have when homesteading or farming that its not all sunshine and rainbows. Being able to watch and learn from other mistakes gives us such opportunities. Also can't wait to get one of those shirts!
OUTSTANDING! Yup, I yelled it. I'm am so happy for you. To see you go through highs and lows, to see success and failure. To learn from it all, its amazing. Thank you for taking us along on the ride, for allowing us to feel all that farming brings through your efforts. God Bless! On to looking for bigger and better.
I just want to say thank you so much for what you're doing to bring knowledge to us! I am learning a ton from watching your videos and I'm extremely interested in getting dorpers. i also love your belief in the Good Lord. 🙏 ✝️
Very nice job with the video editing on the introduction. Been watching you videos regularly as my family will be picking up our first Dorper sheep in just a couple weeks. Keep up the great work!
Nice job Grace, congratulations on meeting your goals. Also very good job on the analysis of the issues you faced, I think that makes perfect sense and I think you're doing the right thing by not being in a hurry to cull animals.
@@theShepherdess It's a game of excitement and anxiety. I bought a new pair of guard dog puppies today. 8 week old Kangal pups. Put them out in the field this evening and I can barely sit here and deal with the anxiety of them being out there all night. I know I'll break down and go check on them about 1am, lol.
Congratulations on a successful first lambing season Grace! I love the story of how you were able to meet your goal for growing your herd. I think it's a wonderful testament of how God always gives us just what we need, no more, no less, and the fact it was the last ewe to lamb is just the cherry on top!😄 Thanks for being an encouragement and God Bless you! (Ps how are the cattle doing? Would love to hear about them😉)
AMEN. I felt like the Lord really answered my prayer in the most special of ways. 🐑🙌🏻 So grateful for it. The cows... they’ll be part of my spring farm update that I hope to post next week. 👍🏻😁 -the Shepherdess
Just to let you know that the notifications have gone out with the time zone....It means that your 8 hours behind me. This puts your meeting at 02:00 in the morning! You never know I might be there will just have to wait and see how much my prostrate plays up. But if I am not about then you know why. Thanks again for including me.
Congratulations on meeting your season's goal and for your transparency of the difficulties you encountered as well as how you intend to handle your flock and why. It isn't something that is owed, but freely given to help others understand your journey and possibly be empowered to take on the same or similar. My head is a little hazy and I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before, but have you looked into utilizing Justin Rhodes' sheep shaw, more specifically with the mineral feeder underneath? You could readily deploy more at any time as your flock grows, giving them the ability to exercise their natural gravitation to what they need nutritionally. While I've learned some from Justin's small flock I have been picking up more from your focus on them and its giving me more inspiration and budding confidence to go with sheep. Plenty of folks around these parts have goats, but sheep are nowhere near as prevalent so that is encouraging as well. Enough of my ramble. Journey on Shepherdess with His continued many blessings!
Thank you, Keith! I am always so uplifted by your comments. I’ve seen the sheep-Shaw and have been giving it some thought! I may visit it for winter when my pasture nutrients dip. I am in the same boat: sheep farming in the midst of goats. Someone asked me last night why I didn’t consider goats... I had to say that based on what I know from the Bible I would have a hard time sacrificing as much for a goat as I do for my sheep.😂😂 Love these animals!!🐑🐑 -the Shepherdess
HI Grace, I was interested in your comments about age of joining or mating. I have about 150 X bred ewes on 100 acres in South Australia. about a 21"rainfall here. It is genererly thought that to make a lamb have a lamb is to hard on her. but they wont ovulate until they reach a given liveweight so in my opinion its a lot to do with nutrition. So I am successfully joining lambs. very few lambing problems but accepting lower percentages from the maidans and they lamb a little later. I ween at 8 to 10 weeks and allow the ewe a good rest until next joining. There are heaps of other things to consider to much for comments. I really enjoy watching American farmers discover sheep and all the advantages they bring. Thank you for your videos and testimony to our Lord
Congratulations young lady on achieving your goal (that is always a good feeling). So you have learnt, done some and learnt some more. No more training wheels for you young lady, you have earned your wings. Be happy flying solo knowing that you have loads of people at ground control if you need a slight nudge in direction. Thanks for posting
Thank you, sir! I always look forward to your comments. Your encouragement has come to mean a lot to me and I don’t take it for granted. 😊😊🐑🐑 -the Shepherdess
I can agree with overfeeding and the problems that can cause. We here have had 150 sheep last few years, 200 before that (Small in my area in Iceland). We are mostly a dairy farm and sheep have been kind of a hobby but recently it has become very expensive to raise sheep in Iceland so we have put in some ideas either stolen or thought of our self and those are mostly focused on lambing season. Now some groundwork and info. In Iceland most people keep the sheep inside due to weather conditions. We breed every 12 months, its not really an option to wait until 14 months for the first years. Its 12 or 24 and most now have gone with 12 months. We a 100% overfeed the first years all winter. That's to ensure proper growth and maturity and with a few adjustments last 2 years we still have to assist them often BUT everything is easier and wider, their pelvis and the inside and out of the back end (Im missing all the technical terms sorry) are more loose and we have found them to be calmer but that could be another change that brought that out. Same with the grown ups but at a lower rate. We feed them very well during mating season for the ram mostly so he is in tip top condition and its important to have feed them extremely well 6 weeks before. Fertility can be affected with quality feed, I've found that a lot of pretty good has given great results, not the best just pretty good. After that the rams just get enough for a slow and healthy recovery. Usually in a form of as much as they can eat of medium to low quality hay to keep the full but not restless with energy. Same with the sheep. Now I mentioned that we keep them inside due to weather and very often its not fit for Polar bears but Icelandic sheep are though and I try to take the group for a walk regularily with our dogs. Not for grazing since its yellow grass or white snow for options and the sheep are usually very happy to get inside again, its for movement. So they get an all they can eat buffet but we control the quality for the hay. Doing this I create absolute monsters and they get very round and that's for one reason, so I can feed them absolute garbage during lambing season. Hay so low in quality that its basically something to fill their stomach and nothing more. Now that sound counter intuitive but as you said the lamb grows fastest the last few days and weeks. I do this with my dry cows, they get the same feed and what it allow's me to do is feed them until they cant eat anymore and not worry about overgrowth of the offspring. If I was feeding better quality I would feed less and the cow would need less space for the stomach so it actually shrinks and when she needs a lot of stomach after birth for milking and recovering she can eat more with this technique and its proving effective on both ends of our farm. Ironically this hay is meant for horses since they need the though cellulose hay but while I am adjusting haymaking they get better hay than the cows and sheep sometimes.. With this method we get very healthy and mature first years, sheep that are in tip top shape even after an long winter inside, increase in fertility AND less work. You just need to be sure that they have enough supplements and vitamins when feeding the last few days before birth and during mating season. Just found out about this channel and it reminds me of when I got my goats in 2014 seeing the little adjustments and grazing plan since our goats need extra good fences. I have a moveable electric net fence. 8 fold net that I use, I got 100 meters of that and I need to use that because the kids are absolute pranksters and this is the only fence they don't get out off and if they get out the goats somehow get out but stay in when the kids stay in. Thats about a 2 month process and then the kids are big enough that normal net fences hold so I get a little freedom with them. They are also just a hobby but unlike the sheep that are probably on zero with the net positive thing the goats are definetily under even though we don't spend a lot of money I work so much with them with the fences and everything that they are in the minus but thats not how you should look at your hobby anyway. Keep at it, keep trying things and showing us your hard work, I appreciate it!
As I’ve said in a previous comment, I’m looking at raising goats 🐐 in the future. One thing that I’ve wondered, is what plan do you use to ensure genetic diversity. My thoughts were that I keep one breeding buck and a few neutered ones to give him company. Then every 3 to 4 years source another buck from an entirely different herd. That way I should be able to ensure that there is adequate mixing of genetics to prevent genetic diseases or conditions from cropping up.
Good question! I have 4 sets of dorper genetics from all different parts of the USA. I’m going to mix and match the breeding to keep diversity going. Here is a video talking more about it: ruclips.net/video/cqVnI60tYjU/видео.html
Hi Sheperdess, I'm thinking of starting some sheep on my farm. You've gotten me interested in dorpers. I was wondering how they might do in a slightly colder climate then you have. I'm in north east PA. Winters can be pretty chilly up here. Some time Temps can be in the single digits for several days on end. It's not to often but it happens. Do you think dorpers would be a good choice for my area or should I find something local?
Blessings Sister in Christ. All that we are and have is a gift from Him. John 15:5 KJV - I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. Acts 17:28 KJV - For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. John 10:10 KJV - The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. ☝️🙏🙌👉...
Too much grain is filled with carbohydrates and sugars which is bad for grass feeding animals ( ruminates) too much sugar can also create a diabetic state just like in humans it looks like you have lots of grass why not just keep the grass fed and grass finished with maybe some free choice minerals?
Definitely thinking along these lines. My current winter 2021-2022 plan is to cut way down on the grain supplementation and feed a quality alfalfa hay + minerals overwinter. 👍🏻 I’ll try you keep you updated on how it goes. Thanks so much! -the Shepherdess
Glad to hear that most of your lambs were born healthy and without any issue. Praise God! Thank you for another helpful video.
Thank you, sir! I am grateful as well. Despite. A rocky start it felt so good to come to the end with goals met. God is good!!
-the Shepherdess
Congratulations on your success. I bought on Friday 16 ewes; some bred.
Today God blessed us with a baby.
Congratulations!!
I have been bust wacthing your whole journey with raising sheep. I'm learning as I'm wacthing. Thank you for sharing. Till next time God Bless.
Witching from Kenya also doing dorper farming in laikipia good job girl
Thank you, Samuel! I am so glad you are watching.
-the Shepherdess
May Lord Jesus bless you all! To Him be glory Hallelujah in Jesus name amen🙏🏻
AMEN. All glory to The Lord. 🙌🏻
-the Shepherdess
Congratulations on meeting your goal on ewes this 2021 lambing season! Thanks for bringing us along on your journey
Thank you so much for following! God is good and I’m grateful for a way to share the journey. 🙌🏻
-the Shepherdess
Great job
Wonderful video!!! Looks to me like you had a pretty great outcome from this lambing season, ESPECIALLY since it was your first lambing season!!! Way to go, girl! 😉Keep up the hard work in the strength of the Lord!!!! 💖🌱🐑
Thank you Anna!! All things through Christ who strengthens me. So grateful for a season of growth... in more than just one way!!
-the Shepherdess
Aren't the lambs the sweetest gentlist things? Beautiful.
Be well. 🥰😉
They certainly are!! I could watch them all day. 😍
-the Shepherdess
I love that you have the management knowledge to offer to your business. It seems to me it was years before I heard that saying you can't manage it if you don't measure it. At the time I remember complaining about all the extra data I had to enter to measure something. But, it was so worth it. Your are nailing this!!!
Thank you, sir! It seems like the Lord was prepping me for this new season. Setting out to earn a living at farming feels riskier than anything I’ve done so far, but I’m hoping I can make a go of it!!🐑🐑
Appreciate your support so much!
-the Shepherdess
Btw, did you know the Black Dorper can digest weeds that poison other sheep?
Great video! I love videos that show the dark days people will have when homesteading or farming that its not all sunshine and rainbows. Being able to watch and learn from other mistakes gives us such opportunities. Also can't wait to get one of those shirts!
Thank you, sir! That’s really my hope: helping through either my success or my struggles. I appreciate yo encouragement through both!
-the Shepherdess
@@theShepherdess you're very welcome!
Best video ever
OUTSTANDING! Yup, I yelled it. I'm am so happy for you. To see you go through highs and lows, to see success and failure. To learn from it all, its amazing. Thank you for taking us along on the ride, for allowing us to feel all that farming brings through your efforts. God Bless! On to looking for bigger and better.
THANK YOU!! You’ve been a support through both the highs and the lows and I am so grateful for it.
-the Shepherdess
@@theShepherdess you are very welcome. You are an inspiration, keep doing good things.
Finally a Honest Channel, awesome
We just purchased a starter flock last month and we are anxiously awaiting our first lambing season. I hope it goes well!
I just want to say thank you so much for what you're doing to bring knowledge to us! I am learning a ton from watching your videos and I'm extremely interested in getting dorpers. i also love your belief in the Good Lord. 🙏 ✝️
Very nice job with the video editing on the introduction. Been watching you videos regularly as my family will be picking up our first Dorper sheep in just a couple weeks. Keep up the great work!
That means a lot, thank you! I’m going to subscribe to your channel and hope to see some videos of your dorpers when they come!
-the Shepherdess
@@theShepherdess Fantastic look forward to learning from and with you
congrats on the increase of your flock! may it continue to increase,
Thank you so much, Yooper! Your support means a lot.
-the Shepherdess
@@theShepherdess i try to help and encourage all i can,, those were some lively lanbs
Congratulations on a great season.
Thank you, sir! Your support through the highs and lows means a lot!
Nice job Grace, congratulations on meeting your goals. Also very good job on the analysis of the issues you faced, I think that makes perfect sense and I think you're doing the right thing by not being in a hurry to cull animals.
Thank you, sir! It feels great to be in this end of it with all of the data in hand. Onward from here. 🙌🏻🐑
-the Shepherdess
@@theShepherdess It's a game of excitement and anxiety. I bought a new pair of guard dog puppies today. 8 week old Kangal pups. Put them out in the field this evening and I can barely sit here and deal with the anxiety of them being out there all night. I know I'll break down and go check on them about 1am, lol.
@@Digger927 truth. 😅
Congratulations on a successful first lambing season Grace! I love the story of how you were able to meet your goal for growing your herd. I think it's a wonderful testament of how God always gives us just what we need, no more, no less, and the fact it was the last ewe to lamb is just the cherry on top!😄 Thanks for being an encouragement and God Bless you! (Ps how are the cattle doing? Would love to hear about them😉)
AMEN. I felt like the Lord really answered my prayer in the most special of ways. 🐑🙌🏻 So grateful for it.
The cows... they’ll be part of my spring farm update that I hope to post next week. 👍🏻😁
-the Shepherdess
Gratulations to that farming it's amazing
Just to let you know that the notifications have gone out with the time zone....It means that your 8 hours behind me. This puts your meeting at 02:00 in the morning! You never know I might be there will just have to wait and see how much my prostrate plays up. But if I am not about then you know why. Thanks again for including me.
Congrats on meeting your goal! I enjoy watching you and your farm grow. Blessings!
THANK YOU! I so appreciate you joining the journey.
-the Shepherdess
I just found your channel I look forward to watching on a regular basis .
Thank you so much, Tanya! I am so grateful you are here.
-the Shepherdess
Great job young lady!! Continued success!!
I appreciate you very much, Melvin! Thank you!!
-the Shepherdess
Your speaking style reminds me of William Shatner! Thank you for all this great information- great job =)
Congratulations on meeting your season's goal and for your transparency of the difficulties you encountered as well as how you intend to handle your flock and why. It isn't something that is owed, but freely given to help others understand your journey and possibly be empowered to take on the same or similar. My head is a little hazy and I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before, but have you looked into utilizing Justin Rhodes' sheep shaw, more specifically with the mineral feeder underneath? You could readily deploy more at any time as your flock grows, giving them the ability to exercise their natural gravitation to what they need nutritionally. While I've learned some from Justin's small flock I have been picking up more from your focus on them and its giving me more inspiration and budding confidence to go with sheep. Plenty of folks around these parts have goats, but sheep are nowhere near as prevalent so that is encouraging as well. Enough of my ramble. Journey on Shepherdess with His continued many blessings!
Thank you, Keith! I am always so uplifted by your comments.
I’ve seen the sheep-Shaw and have been giving it some thought! I may visit it for winter when my pasture nutrients dip.
I am in the same boat: sheep farming in the midst of goats. Someone asked me last night why I didn’t consider goats... I had to say that based on what I know from the Bible I would have a hard time sacrificing as much for a goat as I do for my sheep.😂😂
Love these animals!!🐑🐑
-the Shepherdess
HI Grace, I was interested in your comments about age of joining or mating. I have about 150 X bred ewes on 100 acres in South Australia. about a 21"rainfall here. It is genererly thought that to make a lamb have a lamb is to hard on her. but they wont ovulate until they reach a given liveweight so in my opinion its a lot to do with nutrition. So I am successfully joining lambs. very few lambing problems but accepting lower percentages from the maidans and they lamb a little later. I ween at 8 to 10 weeks and allow the ewe a good rest until next joining. There are heaps of other things to consider to much for comments. I really enjoy watching American farmers discover sheep and all the advantages they bring. Thank you for your videos and testimony to our Lord
Congratulations young lady on achieving your goal (that is always a good feeling). So you have learnt, done some and learnt some more. No more training wheels for you young lady, you have earned your wings. Be happy flying solo knowing that you have loads of people at ground control if you need a slight nudge in direction. Thanks for posting
Thank you, sir! I always look forward to your comments. Your encouragement has come to mean a lot to me and I don’t take it for granted. 😊😊🐑🐑
-the Shepherdess
I also wanna to become farmer...your videos are a source of hope n inspiration for me...
Can't wait to watch all your ewe lambs grow up!! What did they put your ewe count at?
I can agree with overfeeding and the problems that can cause. We here have had 150 sheep last few years, 200 before that (Small in my area in Iceland). We are mostly a dairy farm and sheep have been kind of a hobby but recently it has become very expensive to raise sheep in Iceland so we have put in some ideas either stolen or thought of our self and those are mostly focused on lambing season. Now some groundwork and info. In Iceland most people keep the sheep inside due to weather conditions. We breed every 12 months, its not really an option to wait until 14 months for the first years. Its 12 or 24 and most now have gone with 12 months. We a 100% overfeed the first years all winter. That's to ensure proper growth and maturity and with a few adjustments last 2 years we still have to assist them often BUT everything is easier and wider, their pelvis and the inside and out of the back end (Im missing all the technical terms sorry) are more loose and we have found them to be calmer but that could be another change that brought that out. Same with the grown ups but at a lower rate. We feed them very well during mating season for the ram mostly so he is in tip top condition and its important to have feed them extremely well 6 weeks before. Fertility can be affected with quality feed, I've found that a lot of pretty good has given great results, not the best just pretty good. After that the rams just get enough for a slow and healthy recovery. Usually in a form of as much as they can eat of medium to low quality hay to keep the full but not restless with energy. Same with the sheep. Now I mentioned that we keep them inside due to weather and very often its not fit for Polar bears but Icelandic sheep are though and I try to take the group for a walk regularily with our dogs. Not for grazing since its yellow grass or white snow for options and the sheep are usually very happy to get inside again, its for movement. So they get an all they can eat buffet but we control the quality for the hay. Doing this I create absolute monsters and they get very round and that's for one reason, so I can feed them absolute garbage during lambing season. Hay so low in quality that its basically something to fill their stomach and nothing more. Now that sound counter intuitive but as you said the lamb grows fastest the last few days and weeks. I do this with my dry cows, they get the same feed and what it allow's me to do is feed them until they cant eat anymore and not worry about overgrowth of the offspring. If I was feeding better quality I would feed less and the cow would need less space for the stomach so it actually shrinks and when she needs a lot of stomach after birth for milking and recovering she can eat more with this technique and its proving effective on both ends of our farm. Ironically this hay is meant for horses since they need the though cellulose hay but while I am adjusting haymaking they get better hay than the cows and sheep sometimes..
With this method we get very healthy and mature first years, sheep that are in tip top shape even after an long winter inside, increase in fertility AND less work. You just need to be sure that they have enough supplements and vitamins when feeding the last few days before birth and during mating season.
Just found out about this channel and it reminds me of when I got my goats in 2014 seeing the little adjustments and grazing plan since our goats need extra good fences. I have a moveable electric net fence. 8 fold net that I use, I got 100 meters of that and I need to use that because the kids are absolute pranksters and this is the only fence they don't get out off and if they get out the goats somehow get out but stay in when the kids stay in. Thats about a 2 month process and then the kids are big enough that normal net fences hold so I get a little freedom with them.
They are also just a hobby but unlike the sheep that are probably on zero with the net positive thing the goats are definetily under even though we don't spend a lot of money I work so much with them with the fences and everything that they are in the minus but thats not how you should look at your hobby anyway.
Keep at it, keep trying things and showing us your hard work, I appreciate it!
Congrats to you and your team. Love the tshirt also. ☺️👏🏾🙏🏾
Thank you so much!!
-the Shepherdess
Congratulations
...
Thank you, you help soo much!!! 🙏🙏
To get rid of parasites in your flock start giving them wormwood plant ( artemisia ) plant it in your pasture
Good job !!!
Good report! Keep it up. Your business.
Thank you, Robert! Your support propels me forward.
-the Shepherdess
Do you have a page? Where you could pay lambs from?
Cute lumb.♥️from india
Redmond SR65 works great for your grass to build microbes. Congratulations on meeting your goals.
Thanks so very much!!
-the Shepherdess
What part of Texas are you from?
As I’ve said in a previous comment, I’m looking at raising goats 🐐 in the future. One thing that I’ve wondered, is what plan do you use to ensure genetic diversity.
My thoughts were that I keep one breeding buck and a few neutered ones to give him company. Then every 3 to 4 years source another buck from an entirely different herd. That way I should be able to ensure that there is adequate mixing of genetics to prevent genetic diseases or conditions from cropping up.
Good question! I have 4 sets of dorper genetics from all different parts of the USA. I’m going to mix and match the breeding to keep diversity going. Here is a video talking more about it: ruclips.net/video/cqVnI60tYjU/видео.html
@@theShepherdess thanks for that 😃👍🏻
I love your all idea all
Yes I am comeback ready
Hi Sheperdess, I'm thinking of starting some sheep on my farm. You've gotten me interested in dorpers. I was wondering how they might do in a slightly colder climate then you have. I'm in north east PA. Winters can be pretty chilly up here. Some time Temps can be in the single digits for several days on end. It's not to often but it happens. Do you think dorpers would be a good choice for my area or should I find something local?
Yes, check out White Clover Sheep Farm on Facebook! They run white Dorpers in your area with a huge amount of success.
-the Shepherdess
@@theShepherdess thank you for the quick reply and thank you very much for all the educational videos. Keep up the good work and God bless.
How to you mate them?
I can't recall if you're still doing the marketing job along side the farming or are you full time with the farming?
Yes! Still working my marketing job. 😁
-the Shepherdess
Great 😎
Great job like 👋👋🎊
Thank you, sir!
-the Shepherdess
Share me your EMAIL ADDRESS
❤❤❤
I am buying this sheep in India how to import to it
I like
Hii
Blessings Sister in Christ. All that we are and have is a gift from Him. John 15:5 KJV - I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. Acts 17:28 KJV - For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. John 10:10 KJV - The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. ☝️🙏🙌👉...
AMEN, and amen!! Praise the Lord.
-the Shepherdess
why do sheep eat hair
Too much grain is filled with carbohydrates and sugars which is bad for grass feeding animals ( ruminates) too much sugar can also create a diabetic state just like in humans it looks like you have lots of grass why not just keep the grass fed and grass finished with maybe some free choice minerals?
Definitely thinking along these lines. My current winter 2021-2022 plan is to cut way down on the grain supplementation and feed a quality alfalfa hay + minerals overwinter. 👍🏻 I’ll try you keep you updated on how it goes.
Thanks so much!
-the Shepherdess
Available india
Gratulations to that farming it's amazing
❤❤❤