filthy sheep.

If it is far weed,should sheep be eatting it?

I think your right it's hard to find good pictures of it on google because when you put in "weed" you get pages and pages of the drug. Anyway I have a yellow flower that is stickey to the touch. They seem to eat the leafs off it but not the sticky flower part. I think I found where they are getting stickey from but now I have to get rid of it some how.

If they eat it long enough you will not have to worry about getting rid of it, they will do that for you. Since they seem to like the taste of it, eventually they will eradicate it. What part of the country do you live in?

I'm in colorado. I think I just need more sheep then

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/WEEDS/tarweeds.html

In CA it is very common in un-irrigated pastures. It has a yellow flowers and there is more than one species so the flower can look different. My horses never ate it, they got dirty faces while looking for grasses growing among the tar weed. Irrigating is supposed to get rid of it.

I don't know tar weed, but it sounds pretty disgusting. (Just seen the pivs. and it looks like a plant for hot, dry places.....not wet, dripping,misty places like here!).

The lanolin tends to be a bit sticky on some sheep and dust sticks to it. Following stroking sheep there's always a thick, greasy deposit on my hands. Some sheep seem to be 'stickier' than others...rams particularly so....sticky and stinky as they approach the breeding season!

How many sheep do you have on how many acres of pasture? Does it rain during the summer so you have grass and forage all the time? or does it dry out in the summer?

I have 5 sheep on 5 acres of pasture. We uaslly get enough rain throughout the summer to keep the grass growing good. But this year we have had so much rain the Grass and weeds are 4-5 feet tall. I have 70 acres to grow my sheep into just need to do more fencing as my herd grows

Wow! You are lucky to have so much green forage. I wouldn't worry about the dirty faces unless the stickiness is rubbing off on you. Instead of patting their heads, pat their necks. You will grow into the 70 acres soon enough since I assume you are planning to keep the ewe lambs and wether the ram lambs for market or your own freezer. Since you have Dorpers (and I assume the 5 sheep are 4 ewes and 1 ram), if you run them together, the ewes should lamb every 7 or 8 months. Ideally, if you have 50% ewe lambs born, then in 2 years you should have an extra 12 ewes. You don't have to worry about getting another ram for several years. The genetics on sheep are that they can be bred to the foundation sire for 3 generations. After that you have big problems. So you can breed your current ram to all the ewes including his granddaughters before you sell him in about 3 or 4 years. By then, you might need more than 1 ram to service your ewes.
With plenty of rainfall and grass, as you fence your acreage, you might consider cross fencing and rotational grazing. Sheep will eat the choicest and youngest grass and broadleaf weeds, leaving the thick older stuff alone. Eventually your pasture becomes full of old growth weeds and forage that they don't like as much while they deplete the good grazing. The idea in rotational grazing is to let the sheep totally graze the entire pasture down low before they go into the next pasture. This ensures that everything is consumed and the next growth of the pasture produces young tender stuff that is all the same age so the sheep will continue to eat everything. There are some good books out on the subject. They can tell you how much pasture you would need in each field and how many sheep to put on how many acres of pasture to graze rotationally. The fencing costs will be more expensive, but in the long run you are able to graze more sheep per acre and have higher production.
I would certainly practice rotational grazing if we had pasture. Unfortunately I am in southern California - home of the drought until El Nino comes. Then we have relentless flooding! LOL My husband and I are making plans to stock up on hay before this winter in case the hay trucks can't get to us. We will also have to stock up on grain feed. Oh yes, and 5 of our 6 Dorset ewes are due in January! The other one bred before the marking harness went on the ram. She is due in November. Luckily we have 2 12 x 12 barn stalls where they can lamb. Oops, almost forgot! Better add a lot of straw bales to that list - during the last El Nino the barn flooded and only the deep litter system and adding layer upon layer of straw kept the kids and lambs out of the 4" of standing water underneath it! But the forage that grew in was wonderful!

Wow thanks for the great post. You nailed my plan other than I have 5 ewes no ram yet I will be picking him up next month. I have my 5 acres cross fenced in half so I can rotate back and forth and keep the ram separate if I wanted. Thanks for the info on breeding I was going to ask that question about father daughter breeding but you answered it.

My pastures are starting to change from green to yellow already uaslly happens beginning of August but with all the rain it lasted to almost September. I need to go and get my stock pile of hay for the winter soon before it's gone or expencive for the year.

What's a good age to expose them to a ram? My ewes are almost 6 months old.

I was going to let the ewes out into the big pasture but it's only fenced with 5 strands of barbed wire for cattle so I was afraid they will just walk right through the fence and get lost in the big world.

But I was more worried about coyotes getting them. We have alot out here but so far I have been locking them in the barn at night and I hope the 4 foot field fence will slow the coyotes from trying to get in this winter.