Any sheep/goat/llama/alpaca ranchers/owners as a hobby or for income?

[gaillardia]

We've been doing research on sheep, etc. lately, not sure why, and I don't personally know anyone nearby who right now owns sheep.

What kind do you have?

How many do you have?

Do you live on the same property as your creatures?

Do you have guard dogs to protect them? Tell me about that too, what kind of dog(s) do you have?

Do you raise them for the meat or the wool or milk or just for the experience and interest?

Do you shear them yourself or pay to have it done?

How or where do you sell the wool?

Do you process your wool yourself, from sheep to sweater?

Do you rent them out to someone with land?

Whatever else you want to tell about raising them...

[ElizabethB]

Well, I would drive up to 12 hours for sheep milk ice cream, if you are within 12 hours of me, I vote for dairy sheep and I will buy some milk to make ice cream. I miss ice cream!!

 

I don't know anything about raising them, but have mildly considered it after my husband retires just to have a source of ice cream. I have e-mailed all the major sheep milk companies in the U.S. trying to get them to make ice cream, no luck.

[Margo out of lurking]

...

[gaillardia]

You are a sheep ice cream fanatic! 12 hours. Major sheep milk companies? Didn't know they existed either! Dairy sheep. Oh! For their size, they won't produce as much as a cow or a goat, so I guess the sheep milk companies think it wouldn't be a very good money machine.

Sounds to me like you have found a niche and you will raise sheep and make ice cream. What would be your favorite flavor?

[ElizabethB]

You are a sheep ice cream fanatic! 12 hours. Major sheep milk companies? Didn't know they existed either! Dairy sheep. Oh! For their size, they won't produce as much as a cow or a goat, so I guess the sheep milk companies think it wouldn't be a very good money machine.

Sounds to me like you have found a niche and you will raise sheep and make ice cream. What would be your favorite flavor?

 

Chocolate!!

 

I am not really a fanatic, I just have a ton of food allergies that I have developed. I am allergic to all the ice cream substitutes. They make sheep milk ice cream in Europe, but I'm not willing to go that far for ice cream. It's now been about 6 years since I've been able to eat ice cream. They make sheep milk cheese and yoghurt here, but no ice cream yet.

[gaillardia]

Originally Posted by gingerh

We've been doing research on sheep, etc. lately, not sure why, and I don't personally know anyone nearby who right now owns sheep.

What kind do you have? alpacas

How many do you have? guessing 6 of their own, plus they board another 6 or so

Do you live on the same property as your creatures? yes

Do you have guard dogs to protect them? Tell me about that too, what kind of dog(s) do you have? one watch llama

Do you raise them for the meat or the wool or milk or just for the experience and interest? goal is for additional income through breeding/selling; also raise for wool; friend is a (paid) fiber judge at shows

Do you shear them yourself or pay to have it done? shear themselves; teen son bought shearing tools a few years ago and has sheared as a summer business for income

How or where do you sell the wool? I'm not positive that she sells it; she processes it partway herself, sends it out to be finished, and knits with it

Do you process your wool yourself, from sheep to sweater? (above)

Do you rent them out to someone with land? as above, they board several animals at their farm

Whatever else you want to tell about raising them...I think you have to have a true passion and love for the animals, over and above just a "business." They've been doing this for four years, and I don't think it's been any true source of income; if anything, I'm pretty sure it's still running in the red. It's also hugely time consuming. They give their own vaccinations, but vet bills for everything else are astronomical. One animal has a blood disease; one had a stillbirth a few weeks ago. It's never-ending, and it's HARD work.

Alpacas, while adorable and with such fine, sought-after wool, do seem to be a very expensive hobby or love. I researched cost of purchase, breeders recommend buying a starter herd of five, for at least $10,000. I forget the exact price. I found one as low as $3,900, the highest I found, even though I wasn't searching for a high price, was $28,900. :eek:

I appreciate your comments on alpacas. They are at the bottom of my list because of cost, but I still would like to get to know them better.

[creekland]

Originally Posted by gingerh

Alpacas, while adorable and with such fine, sought-after wool, do seem to be a very expensive hobby or love. I researched cost of purchase, breeders recommend buying a starter herd of five, for at least $10,000. I forget the exact price. I found one as low as $3,900, the highest I found, even though I wasn't searching for a high price, was $28,900. :eek:

I appreciate your comments on alpacas. They are at the bottom of my list because of cost, but I still would like to get to know them better.

 

They are definitely an expensive hobby. My neighbor bought into them with the whole "great money making farm thingy" that went around back in the positive economy days and, while she loves them, they certainly haven't paid for themselves much less made anything. They're easy to buy, but difficult to sell (unless you get someone else who "buys" into it). They're also expensive to keep and showing is a must if you want to have any value to your animals (this is all hearsay from her).

 

She has guard dogs - Great Pyrenees I think. They have a male and a female and both love to wander off given half a chance (they make that half themselves sometimes). Fortunately, my ponies have gotten used to them. Our rooster wasn't so lucky a few years back.

[Brigitte]

Here is the website for our local alpaca farm: Dreamland Alpacas. I am sure they would be more than willing to answer questions for you.

[In The Great White North]

We had sheep for awhile. They were Icelandic. I had 5 -10. I sold the meat from one lamb for exactly what the slaughterhouse charged me . The wool was fun and I liked playing with it but it is an expensive hobby. I never managed to sell any wool. The major expenses (one you own the critters) are serious fencing and the vet.

 

I eventually gave them away because I couldn't find a buyer when we decided the fence needed more repairs/upgrades than we were willing to pay.

[FaithManor]

I farm sit for a fiber farmer. She has six llamas, one alapaca, one australian shepherd herd dog, and 40 romney sheep. She's had a breeding program for years in order to get some of the best quality romney fleece. Her fiber is exquisite.

 

That said, she travels to 12 fiber shows per year to sell roving (washed, carded, and died fiber), spinning wheels and looms, yarn, felting materials, etc. It's time intensive work and after expenses she only breaks even and that's in the years in which the sheep do not require any medical care. She loves it but she and her husband are in their mid-60's now and do not feel they can keep up. Michigan is in such bad shape economically that she can't sell her sheep or llamas. No one wants the up keep of more animals. So, as they fall sick or become injured, they will be put-down one by one until they are gone.

 

She has a low cost operation too. She and her husband bought their farm about 20 years ago for a song. It was a dairy farm that had gone bankrupt and the bank was selling the property for pennies on the dollar because the barns and house also needed complete remodeling. She and her husband did all of the work themselves, three barns total including a riding arena for the horse work because previous to it being a dairy barn, it had been a thoroughbred race horse breeding and training facility. All of the fencing was in great shape. Their investment was low. At the time, they also kept angora rabbits and cashmere goats. Over the years, she's simplified...no more goats - the escape artists of the animal world - and no more bunnies who have to be constantly groomed.

 

If you don't learn how to sheer well, you will pay a lot for that. Bad sheering leads to lots of ruined fleece with second cuts that damage the best fibers. Additionally, llamas and alpacas do not always take that much handling very well. Some have to be sedated in order to be shorn. That costs a bit too. I've assisted with sheering day. It's back breaking labor wrestling sheep to the ground all day, worming them while they are all penned up, looking over their general health, making decisions on who to keep, who to cull, etc. and don't start me on lambing season. Lambing is a love/hate relationship. The first lamb of the season will inevitably be during the worst weather possible. So in Michigan, the first one is born when the wind chill is 10 degrees below and a blizzard is pounding the barn. It's nearly always a first time mother who doesn't know what to do with her lamb. We check the barn five times a day and depending on the weather in August, lambing can begin as early as the last week in January and end the middle of April. So, don't plan on going anywhere. Llamas and crias are just a whole " 'nother" story. They birth standing up and the cria literally falls out. If babe doesn't land properly, a broken neck has been known to occur. But, llamas give almost no signs of being pregnant. Unless you wrangle them down after breeding and have ultrasounds done at great expense (sometimes these aren't accurate either - Giant Pandas are another breed that are notoriously difficult to diagnose pregnancy in), you kind of just do not know if your getting one this year or not. That makes it difficult. We walked into the barn one day (after her males had been gelded so we thought there would be no pregnancies...apparently there was some breeding activity prior to that when one of the males jumped the fence) and one of the females was birthing. That was a scramble of activity. She was in with the sheep as a guard animal and the sheep were everywhere since they'd come in due to a storm outside. I tripped over the same ewe three times trying shue the sheep into a couple of stalls while she delivered and we made up a third stall to sequester her and babe away. Yikes! It was crazy. Fun, in a way, and yet maddening too.

 

Good pasture is the key. Your critters will cost you an arm and a leg if you have to supplement their feed year around. It's vital that they be able to graze from sometime in April until November otherwise hay costs are FRIGHTENING. Sheep need to eat pretty much constantly in order to put on the quantity and quality of fiber that makes for excellent wool. It's also best if you can dedicate a pasture to raising good hay and then cut, bale, and store your own. Some places have seen hay prices reach $8.00 per bale. If you have say ten sheep and two llamas, you'd probably need two-three bales per day if you live in wintery weather and you are keeping small breed fiber sheep. If you have meat breeds, well, in order to keep those first years growing out to a butchering weight that will get you a good price at market, you will go through a lot more hay than that.

 

The good news is that sheep and llamas have high body temperatures and as long as they have access to decent food, they tend to weather frigid temperatures quite well. You'd be suprised how much they will stay outdoors during blizzards. It's the driving rain and thunder/lightening that will drive them in and then they'll be the last animals to come into the barn with a few truly stupid stragglers out there when the tornado comes through unless you have a herd dog that brings them in while you seek shelter.

 

Also, herd dogs and guard dogs are two completely different animals. Herd dogs may attempt to guard a flock or appear protective, but they don't have the fight instincts that Akbash and such have. They aren't a "force to be reconned with" if that makes any sense. Guard dogs will do exactly that...guard the flock and be a real force. But, they will not herd them and do not possess the natural instincts to do so. So if you have a lot of land for grazing and a lot of predators, you will need one of each. The llamas tend to be good guard animals for smaller predators...the ones that would go after lambs...coyotes, feral dogs...but they cannot compete with the mountain lion/bear/wolf thing. You need a BIG scary guard dog for that or even for coyotes if they are hunting in packs which they may do when training pups to hunt.

 

It is a time-intensive, heavy labor- intensive, and expensive hobby. It is VERY rewarding in and of itself. I love bottle feeding bum lambs, handling the sheep, taming llamas, and just generally being in the barn. But, you definitely need to do a lot of research and you'll need quite a bit of start-up money if you choose to pursue this.

 

Faith

[Heidi]

We had Katahdin sheep. They are hair sheep (no wool) and are raised for meat, which is what we used them for. We owned 2 acres, lived on one of the acres and fenced off the other for the animals. Initially owned 1 ram and 2 ewes. They both had 2 lambs each. Sold original 3 sheep, kept female lambs to breed, raised male lambs to eat, bought new breeding ram.

we bought pyrenees pups but they were not worth the trouble so we sold them. Sheep did fine. If we had a large pasture and big heard they would need a guard dog. Pyrenees are great for that.

we had to bottle feed one lamb. She was the only one that would let us come near her. She became a pet. We could let her out of the pasture and she would follow us everywhere, loved being scratched.

had problems with footrot bc property was too small. You're supposed to rotate pastures. Very easy animals to keep. We didn't vaccinate, dewormed herbally, regular hoof trimming (husband have to do it).

we did get tired of eating sheep meat though. There is a market for them (sell to be butchered) if you live near a city.

great experience for the kids. They were able to watch the births a few times. The ram and even the casterated males become dangerous around 9 months old, so they will need a separated living space.

(Typed on phone :) )

[gaillardia]

:crying: Really? Thanks for slapping me out of it!:lol:

Some people make it look so easy, others not so much.

Some make it sound like on my little one acre I can raise five to seven sheep with no problems. I haven't read any actual BOOKS, just researching on the internet and asking the hive mind.

Shearing is back-breaking work? I don't suppose I can equate it with shaving poodles, that I've done. Up to $20 a head, right? I saw pix of a woman, very fit and strong looking, she was sitting on the neck of a ram, with her knees on either side of the neck, and his head was behind her. Oh.my.goodness. She was saving money by shearing her own.

I saw the Romney sheep on a video and I loved their fleece.

 

They are born looking for a way to die? I read that you spend their whole lives trying to keep them alive so you can fatten them up to eat them...

Well, my purpose wouldn't be for meat. I have weird ideas sometimes. With the drought this year I guess it would also be expensive to feed sheep.

I hear coyotes once in a while at night. I guess I'd have to put sheep in a sheep barn at night. There are dogs that wander here too, so having a guard wouldn't be good...he'd get a bad reputation for being a dog killer.

 

From the ads I'm seeing on c's list, it looks like a lot of other people bought into the llama market expecting to make a bundle and it isn't panning out with a faltering economy. It almost looks like they are desperate to get rid of them.:001_huh:

I saw the babydoll southdown sheep and fell in love. How cute are they?

 

Thanks to you all for your responses and experience, etc. Sometimes we get ideas and it helps to bounce it off of the hive wall.:lol:

Some friends just got baby pygmy goats and they had to feed them by bottle. It was time to be weaning them and the goats cried all night, keeping the whole household awake.:lol:

[creekland]

:crying: Really? Thanks for slapping me out of it!:lol:

Some people make it look so easy, others not so much.

Some make it sound like on my little one acre I can raise five to seven sheep with no problems. I haven't read any actual BOOKS, just researching on the internet and asking the hive mind.

Shearing is back-breaking work? I don't suppose I can equate it with shaving poodles, that I've done. Up to $20 a head, right? I saw pix of a woman, very fit and strong looking, she was sitting on the neck of a ram, with her knees on either side of the neck, and his head was behind her. Oh.my.goodness. She was saving money by shearing her own.

I saw the Romney sheep on a video and I loved their fleece.

 

They are born looking for a way to die? I read that you spend their whole lives trying to keep them alive so you can fatten them up to eat them...

Well, my purpose wouldn't be for meat. I have weird ideas sometimes. With the drought this year I guess it would also be expensive to feed sheep.

I hear coyotes once in a while at night. I guess I'd have to put sheep in a sheep barn at night. There are dogs that wander here too, so having a guard wouldn't be good...he'd get a bad reputation for being a dog killer.

 

From the ads I'm seeing on c's list, it looks like a lot of other people bought into the llama market expecting to make a bundle and it isn't panning out with a faltering economy. It almost looks like they are desperate to get rid of them.:001_huh:

I saw the babydoll southdown sheep and fell in love. How cute are they?

 

Thanks to you all for your responses and experience, etc. Sometimes we get ideas and it helps to bounce it off of the hive wall.:lol:

Some friends just got baby pygmy goats and they had to feed them by bottle. It was time to be weaning them and the goats cried all night, keeping the whole household awake.:lol:

 

When in doubt, start with one or two and see what you think about them. I did that when getting into breeding and raising ponies. I bought two pregnant mares and thought I'd raise the foals to see if it appealed to me (I had extensive riding and horse knowledge already). I ended up with three pregnant mares as there was an extra surprise with one mare I bought for other reasons... :glare:

 

Anyway, I fell in love and soon bought myself a stallion and a couple more mares. The past 15 years we've been raising ponies. Some have gone on to do really well showing. Others have made nice ponies for non-showing households. When the economy was good, they were also giving us a tidy side income. Overall (year to year) they paid for themselves and "ours." Now we're starting to phase out because my boys have grown up and are moving out.

 

If I had just listened to people in general, I'd have never started due to too many warnings about problems. But for me, it was wonderful (most times - there are always "those" days!).

 

If you think you'd like something like this, start by getting your feet wet and find out what "reality" is like. Don't jump in with oodles of money getting tons of critters. If this life is "you," you'll soon find out. If it isn't, it's not as difficult getting rid of 2 or 3 critters as it is getting rid of a bunch. Plus, you won't lose as much money.