hair sheep compared to goats?

[gruberguy]

Yes, DEFINETALY get a dog! We love our great pyrenees's, although I can't speak for the others. They patrol our 5 acres all night, stayed RIGHT beside a young ram who got his head stuck in wire. Simply, they are great!

As for sheep... I started off my small herd with barbado ewes and ram. Ram turned VERY agressive, so he is now a taxidermy mount (2 curls) in my living room! I then switched to Katahdin. Love the color mixes between the two, both are fairly friendly (will eat treats from hand, but only the Kat ram likes to be petted). Both have had simliar numbers of lambs. But, I think I like the bigger size of the Katahdins. Which is why I am looking to add some dorpers in the next few years. They seem to sell better, and for more in my area (Oklahoma).

From what I've read, overall the dorpers are "friendlier" as well.

 

[eweinHiscare]

hello, i'm new here to the BYH board. I learned alot about the hair sheep here, enough to realize it was time for me to make the switch from goats.

I love the dairy goats, it's just that they do seem to take more care and the fences have to be in perfect condition or else they will notice the weakness and start trying to get
over them..
Right now the last two of my dairy goats which I will keep for awhile are in a small pasture instead of out where they used to be.
The hot wire had gotten overgrown and they had trashed the fence standing on it and stripping the bark off trees on the other side.

Now the Katahdin sheep are out in the big pasture..in the center...eating GRASS !! I have plenty of grass, they must be having the time of their life, none have wasted any time trying to get
through the fence.

The Katahdin sheep seem to be doing well so far, I've had them about a month now.

I will save so much money not having to buy all those bags of goat feed which the goats needed even in summer.
The goats were horribly wasteful of their hay. That hurts when the hay I bought was $5. / bale and even more.

So I would recommend hair sheep if you have pasture!
Christine

 

[Queen Mum]

My fences are not perfect. They are not without holes. I have goats. They rarely leave through the holes. They are easy keepers. I love them. They browse. They don't shed. They are worm resistant. I milk them. They follow me everywhere. I have had an American Blackbelly ram. (just one). If he was an example of the breed, he was a lovely boy and never rammed me. I had no trouble catching him.

IMHO, it isn't the breed, or the species. It's what you need, for what purpose. And whether you like them or not depends on you and the animal, the time you put in choosing the animal and the time you put in raising him/her/them.