How do you raise your sheep

Just a thread I would like to start to generate educational, thoughtful posts about sheep production throughout the United States.

Please include:
Breed/s and/or type/s of sheep being run
Purpose of the sheep/why do you have them? (Meat, milk, wool, pets -- hobby or business?)
How many, ages/sex
How much land they're on
Location
Diet
Breeding/lambing procedures
Weaning/finishing procedures
Maintenance of the flock
Flock management practices (shearing/hoof trimming/health checks etc)and how often they are performed
Health problems experienced
Any other useful information pertaining to the way you produce your sheep

I have a total of 14 sheep (4 mature ewes, 2 yearling ewes, 3 ewe lambs, 4 ram lambs, 1 wether lamb) of the various crosses, ages, and sexes:

• 1/2 Babydoll Southdown x 1/2 Montadale ewe, one 2006 ewe
  
• 3/4 Babydoll Southdown x 1/4 Montadale ewes, one 2009 ewe and two 2012 ewes
• 1/2 Texel x 3/8 Babydoll Southdown x 1/8 Montadale, one 2013 ewe, one 2014 ewe, two 2014 rams, and one 2014 wether
• 1/2 Texel x 1/4 Babydoll Southdown x 1/4 Montadale, one 2013 ewe, one 2014 ewe, and one 2014 ram
• 3/4 Texel x 3/16 Babydoll Southdown x 1/16 Montadale, one 2014 ram
• Border Cheviot, one 2014 ewe

I raise my sheep in rural Frederick County, Maryland about one hour away from Washington, D.C. and Baltimore.

My sheep originally started as pets, but they have evolved into producing lambs for meat (auction) and wool for sale (wool pool). I have a business plan and I operate my sheep flock as a business.

The sheep have about 1.5 acres of pasture, according to the Google Maps Area Calculator. I have another pen that is roughly 8 x 28.

The sheep in the pasture are usually my ewes plus their lambs. The sheep in the pen is usually my ram plus lambs or ewes during the weaning process or ram lambs in the late summer. Sheep on pasture have a base diet of Southern States brand sheep mineral with access to water. Sheep in the dry lot have a base diet of Southern States brand sheep mineral with access to water and 2.3% of their body weight in grass hay each day. During winter, pastured sheep are fed hay in the same proportion as penned sheep.

For breeding, the ram is let in around October 5 with the ewes to breed for March 1 babies. He is fitted with a marking harness, one color for seventeen days and then switched for the next seventeen days. The ram is kept with the ewes until one week to one month before lambing is due to begin. Seventeen days prior to breeding, ewes are started with 1/4 lb of Southern States brand 16% textured sheep feed for flushing and worked up within two days to 1/2 lb of feed per ewe per day. Feeding at this level is maintained for the first fifteen days into breeding and then tapered off into nothing for the next two days after. Fertility rates are 100% ewes settled on the first heat.

For lambing, ewes are checked two to three times a day, more frequently on and around due dates. When ewes lamb, they are usually allowed to do what they wish, and be where they want within the pen or pasture. Ewes are not jugged unless there was a problem birth or if the ewe rejected the lamb. Lambs are ear tagged twice, with a scrapie tag (left ear for ewes) and a farm tag, have their tails docked with an elastrator, and are castrated with an elastrator if they are not a sire prospect by 30 days or so of age. If there are bottle lambs, they are raised inside the house on DuMOR Milk Replacer for Lambs for roughly 30 days before being weaned. When a 'real' barn is constructed, I would prefer to keep them penned up in there. Ewes are fed 1/2 to 1 lb of grain per lamb they are nursing. Ewes milk and keep condition better and lambs grow faster when ewes are fed grain at this time.

For weaning, we have done it two different ways: moving the lambs away from the dams or moving the dams away from the lambs. We have preferred moving the dams away from the lambs for several reasons: (1) We can control their diet with rough grassy hay to help them dry up faster. Lambs are weaned at 60 days of age, around the beginning of May, right when the grass is really green and nutritious. Lambs benefit more from the grass than the ewes at this point. (2) Before ewes are let out of the pen, they are checked over for general health, are weighed, and have their hooves trimmed. Moving lambs away from their dams is cheaper (less hay fed) however, they do better on pasture. We also do not grain finish our lambs unless they are going to market.

Talking about finishing... after about two to three weeks, ewes and lambs are reunited in the pasture for the summer. No grain is fed at this time. In the late summer (August), ram lambs and wether lambs are moved into the pen and started on cracked corn, grass hay, and minerals. Alfalfa pellets and SBM may be mixed in. Ewe lambs are kept on pasture with their dams and are gaining weight, getting ready for their first breeding season.

Flock maintenance is very simple. I go out once a day or every other day and count heads. Any that look off or are missing are taken care of (temperature checked, other symptoms looked at, etc). Water gets refilled as needed (I can see the level of the water from the living room window) and scrubbed out weekly. Mineral is refilled as needed.

Shearing is done once a year, usually in March or April. Hoof trimming is done once a year, either at shearing or at weaning.

2012 - flystrike, bacterial infection
2013 - none
2014 - internal parasites, and unknown rumen problem (ram died)

Breed/s and/or type/s of sheep being run?

Our main flock is registered Border Leicesters (both white and natural colored), but we have a small flock of registered Shetlands and a handful of crossbred ewes.

Purpose of the sheep/why do you have them? (Meat, milk, wool, pets -- hobby or business?)

14 years ago, we started out as a hobby because my mom loves spinning and other fiber arts. We are trying to turn the hobby into a better business by selling breeding stock, pet lambs, as well as meat. We also sell "value-added" products like wool blankets and pelts. We also do a little showing.

How many, ages/sex?

We have are 20-25 breeding ewes and several rams as well as all the lambs that we are either keeping or butchering this fall.

How much land they're on?

We have about 7 acres with access to another 10 or so.

Location?

The Champlain Valley, Vermont

Diet?

We do mainly grassfed, but we do feed grain to the lambs and yearlings all summer. For most of the summer the adult rams and ewes are pastured together. All the adults start getting grain in August in preparation for breeding season.

Breeding/lambing procedures?

Breeding: Border Leicester rams go in around Labor day so that lambs arrive in February/March. Shetland ram goes in at the beginning of October. We don't use raddle powder or marking harnesses at this time, but that is a change that I'd like to make so we have a better idea of when to expect lambs.

Lambing: We use lambing jugs to separate mammas and their new babies for a couple days, but after that, they are loose with the rest of the ewe flock.

Weaning/finishing procedures?

Weaning happens when the youngest Border Leicester lamb is around 12 weeks old. The Shetlands self-wean or their lambs are pulled in August. The ewes are locked in a paddock and fed hay until they have dried up a bit before going back on grass.

Flock management practices (shearing/hoof trimming/health checks etc)and how often they are performed?

The adult flock is usually pretty low maintenance and we just keep an eye on them. The lambs are more sensitive to parasites and such. We go through all the lambs at least once a month and check weight and condition.

We rotational graze to help reduce parasite problems and we deworm as needed (the lamb flock as been dewormed only twice this summer).

Vaccines: CD&T at 4 weeks and 8 weeks, rabies shots to sheep going to shows, we are just starting to vaccinate for clostridium perfringens type A

Health problems experienced?

Having raised sheep for 14 years, we've seen a lot. Parasites, prolapses, injuries, mal-presented lambs, etc...

We haven't had any major chronic health problems (CL, foot rot, etc...) in our flock. We try to be very hands on and be proactive about problems rather than trying to play catch up.

Any other useful information pertaining to the way you produce your sheep?

We use minimal antibiotics/drugs and we try to treat problems ourselves instead of calling the vet in for every little issue, but we don't hesitate to call the vet when something is beyond our experience.

Advice for newbies?

LEARN! Read, ask questions. Figure out how to do things yourself. If you have 5 sheep and you can't get someone to come shear them, buy some hand shears and teach yourself how to shear. Be as hands on as possible. Train your sheep to follow a bucket.