High Desert Cowboy- How far is it up north?

Bruce

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We were collecting eggs for my mom and the chickens came running up and she acted like they were a pack of dinosaurs from Jurassic park!
Well they are kinda like dinosaurs and they surely do run at you with purpose when they think you have treats. A dozen hens running can make quite a thunderous pounding.

Get day old chicks and she can get used to them as they grow up.
 

Ridgetop

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I have just read your whole post. You have gotten a lot done since the beginning!

What is your projected market for your lambs? Is there a packer close where all the ranchers get together to supply lambs? Do you plan to market direct off the range or do you plan to creep to get them to market sooner? Are you planning to shear them yourself? You should check with other sheep growers to find out when the shearing crews arrive. With enough sheep in the area you might be able to get them shorn cheaply if you have a certain number. For now, if you have a sheep shearing head on your horse clippers, you will be able to do it yourself. Make sure that your blades are sharp though, have them sharpened each year and have several sets of blades on hand. Here in southern California I am paying $40 a head (that's why I am changing gradually to Dorpers) but my friend with several hundred sheep in northern California pays $5 a head. Lots of sheep up there and more shearers. I used to shear myself but can't really do it myself anymore, too old and too hard on my back.

I am glad you got wool breed sheep. Better for you if the snow is really bad since hair sheep without wool may have a hard time in those cold winters. I remember reading about 100 years ago when there was a really (May?) blizzard after the Mormon ranchers had just done their annual shearing and they lost most of their sheep (thousands froze to death as I remember the story). You could also check into pureblood Dorpers since they carry wool during the winter and then shed it out in the spring. Look up Dorper sheep breeders in Utah on the computer there are quite a lot of them. Dorpers have the reputation of eating more brush forage than traditional breeds. They were bred to grow and finish on bad pasture since in South Africa the forage is harsh and no water. The white Dorpers are supposed to be calmer than the black heads. I wouldn't recommend investing in purebreds all at once since that will come more expensive, but a ram lamb to breed to your mixed wool ewes would give you percentage Dorpers over a period of several years. Great deal too that your ewes were pregnant - got an extra ewe lamb, a breeding ram, and a ram (wether) to put in the freezer! Rams can get really mean when full grown, but maybe you can trade one of your sheep rancher friends for a new ram lamb each year to replace the old ram. Don't keep a bummer lamb as a ram though. Too many people make the mistake of making a pet out of their ram and then they have no respect for you. I like bummer ewe lambs as replacement flock ewes since they are more tractable and easily handled if necessary. I like to halter break my stud rams so I can handle them easily, but they need to know their place! LOL Since you have herding dogs, you probably won't have to worry abut being able to approach or catch your ewes. The dogs will put them where you want them.

You will need to do something about the dog attack problems though since it looks like you are having dog attacks from several sides, not to mention the BLM predators eventually. Eventually you will need a livestock guardian dog. If a guardian dog is not an option due to lack of perimeter fencing, but you can keep the sheep with the horses, I would consider getting a donkey or mule in there, they don't like dogs or coyotes and are often successful guardian animals. They will also eat, graze, and forage like the sheep.

Without perimeter fencing, another way to extend your grazing area is to run hot wires around the different grazing areas. You can get by with 1 solar charger and battery which can be moved from location to location. That is only if you have a guardian donkey, mule or llama in with the sheep, since those dogs can get at the sheep otherwise. The benefit to the movable electric fence is that you can do rotational grazing o get the most out of each paddock. Everything depends though on keeping the flock safe from the killer dogs.

With that many ranchers grazing sheep and cattle, I am surprised there are so many dog attacks around you. I would have thought any attack would have been immediately reported to the sheriff and the dogs impounded or put down.

My 3rd baby was born in September. I would put the older kids down for naps and then lay in their plastic wading pool with a book and cold drink till they woke up! Did her health issues ever resolve? All of us are praying for your family. Can't wait to hear about the new human baby too! :hugs
 

High Desert Cowboy

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Hi ridgetop. For marketing Ive toyed with various ideas as to how I want to go about it and have been making some contacts to hopefully open some new doors to me. Most of the folks in my county are cattle ranchers, and it’s only been in the last year that my neighbor decided to get into sheep. The county south of us however is sheep country, and I’ve actually gotten into contact with family I’ve never known who run a lot of sheep about 40 miles south of me. For this year with only one wether to market or place in my freezer (leaning toward the later) I’m not too worried about immediate marketing. I have talked to my neighbor about shearing next year and should be able to be to get mine in with his next year. For this year two of my ewes came sheared, my ram shed his coat, and I ended up doing my yearling ewe with hand shears (I had a good teacher who just sat and watched, figured I’d better learn how).
One thing I’ve learned about my area is that hair sheep are extremely frowned upon. So my plans for developing a hair herd starting with my ram Shaun may be changing shortly. The good news is with the birth of lambert I will have a wool ram, and this first year I may try an experiment of breeding two ewes to Lambert (if he’s ready) and two ewes to Shaun, and see how each markets. I’ve been told by everyone in my area that the wool sheep will sell better, but that could just be generations of being set in their wooly ways speaking.
Catching and handling my ewes I agree that the bottle feds are very nice to work with. Heart (the twin mom) was bottle fed and is an absolute sweetheart and runs up to get cuddles from my daughter. Ma and Bellweather (my kids named them all) have been a different story as they are range ewes who were rarely handled and I couldn’t get close to them for anything. Since Ma lambed I’ve been able to get close to her and she’s a lot better. Bellwether is still a brat and I can really only get near her if I send Dixie after her.
The good news is the neighbors problem dogs are all gone now, they proved too much a liability to their owners and at least one was put down. A few others have been shot. Now it’s pretty much just my girls and my neighbor down the street has three that have no interest in anything besides belly rubs. As to the BLM Utah offers a bounty for coyotes and due to my close proximity I try to collect on that bounty as often as necessary. Our coyotes don’t really pack up and the older ones are old because they’ve learned not to go certain places. I do enjoy their singing in the evenings though.
I have a solar charger for my Hotwire and do rotate a little with my horses but it got hot and dry fast this year so what I have on my property didn’t last long.
It’s going to be a very rough year for hay this year, and I’m working on a possible deal to graze my sheep on a friends land.
And we’re actually getting two little pools, a larger one for my wife for that exact reason, and a smaller for the dogs as Dixie insists on climbing into every water bucket, trough, and pan she can find on the property. She’s been like that since she was 6 weeks old.
 

Bruce

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One thing I’ve learned about my area is that hair sheep are extremely frowned upon. So my plans for developing a hair herd starting with my ram Shaun may be changing shortly.
Are you intending to sell animals for breeding or meat? I don't see where hair or wool would make a whole lot of difference to a buyer if it goes straight to their freezer from the slaughterhouse. This presumes of course that the flavor, tenderness, etc is equal.
 

High Desert Cowboy

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Intending mostly for meat but it’s interesting how people can be reluctant to try something new. Course it all depends on what you’re raised with I have a friend who was raised on a dairy and grew up hearing everyone talk about how great steak was. His experience was steak wasn’t all that great and it wasn’t until he ordered steak at a fancy restaurant in his 20’s that he realized there’s a big difference between a beef cow and meat from a downed Holstein. Talking to a few people they’re certain hair sheep can’t be as good and they’re not bringing much at the local auction house. Most hair sheep people are in the north part of the state
 

Mike CHS

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I can tell a difference in the taste but it's very slight. Supposedly the difference is caused by the lanolin in the wool sheep. Hair sheep don't have that lanolin. I have not looked to see if that is valid or not but I have been hearing that distinction since I first got around hair sheep 8 years ago.
 

Mike CHS

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I prefer the taste of hair sheep and have cooked many times for people that say they don't care for sheep but have only had wool sheep. The way I cook may have something to do with it but literally everyone that has eaten at our place ate multiple servings. Almost every time I see that question asked they are usually a mix with most people saying they ''like' the taste of whatever they raise. I definitely will not eat sheep imported from Down Under but the majority of that is wool sheep or at least used to be.
 
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