Your videos have been very helpful. I recently inherited some property and am trying to not let my anxiety delay my progress. Your videos make keeping goats or sheep more approachable. A lot of people strangely gatekeep homesteading knowledge like you need to be born into it or trained on a farm for a decade first, you are very down to earth and feel like a real person doing her best. Thank you again.
Thank you so much for the incredible information! 🌷 I was in 4-H for 10 years as a kid, where I raised pigs, goats, and a lamb. Now, my husband and I are starting our small permaculture farm/homestead on our 1.7-acre property. 💃🪩 We’ve recently adopted 3 potbelly pigs from a local shelter, and they’ve reached out to us about getting two sheep. 😊 We’re new to raising livestock for land rejuvenation and grazing. In the future, we might expand our land and offer livestock rental for grazing and property restoration. 🤞 This information is extremely helpful! 🙏💐
You can do it my friend! I’ve had the same dream for years, I only make 12 and hour and just put a down payment on 20 acres in Texas hill country, I hope to be ranching in the next 5 years.
Hi there and thank you! That's a really great point. I guess I didn't think about it since my buck is not all that stinky, but I know they do get disgusting sometimes when in rut.
Great information. I am on the fence and your video is helping me make the final decision. One thing you didn't mention is the wonderful 💩 for garden and grazing land. Maybe you didn't mention it because they are both equally great for that benefit.
❤I raised both sheep and goats for 20 yrs. I prefer goats because of their funny personality, playfulness, easy to train, friendly attitude and other stuff. I raised for milk, meat and fiber. They were all trained to a collar and leash for going on walks, being shorn, having their feet trimmed, vet procedures & a host of other things. The goats were much more trainable than the sheep. When I came home from work everyday, it was the goats that came running to visit with me. I'd bring my glass of wine and climb up their 'goat mountain ' and sit down. They'd come up and lean against me or lay their heads in my lap. The sheep never did this. It was a pleasant time in my life. 🎉🎉🎉
@@reduniverse796 The Chinese word yáng refers to both goats and sheep, whereas the terms shānyáng (山羊) and miányáng (绵羊; 綿羊) refer exclusively to goats and sheep, respectively. In English, the sign (originally based on a horned animal) may be called either.
I noticed another video, where the man placed the hay behind fencing wire surrounding it so to speak, so the goats could pull out as chewing to sort of reduce abit of waste or the goats tossing more to the ground....I hope this helps.
i wonder if sheep are more timid because of their lack of horns. goats might feel more confident because they have them. would be interesting to see the behavioural differences between a horned sheep and a non horned sheep
I would have to say a goat because they are more social animals. I would really depend on the type of fencing you are using to keep your cow in. Sheep are easier to contain, where goats can be naughty. Thank you for watching.
Thanks! I tried in the past to keep some together, but found that I can keep each species happier and healthier in separate groups, where I can attend to their individual needs.
Awesome video! How much land do a few sheep need for grazing? For goats, how would you determine if you have enough brush for them? Is the food you have to purchase for goats thats high in copper very expensive?
Thanks! You can keep about 3-4 sheep per acre with good grass pasture. It's hard to tell if you have enough brush until you try a few goats and see how much they consume. There are a lot of variables to consider, like the weight/age/breeding status of each individual goat, and you would need to assess how much edible plant material would be within their reach. Goat feed or mineral supplements aren't that expensive compared to other animal feeds, but everything at the feed store is a bit pricey these days.
Imo, goats are heathens. As far as diet, my sheep eat the same diet as goats: they prefer browse over graze, but I have Icelandic and Romanov. I picked sheep for our woodland because a cow wouldn't do well here, but a member of our group got goats, and I spent all last summer chasing those heathens out of the gardens, because my fencing was made for sheep and the owner of the goats never took the time to train her heathens to the electronet. They would also play leapfrog to get out of their barn, whereas sheep frown on that practice and will stay put in 6' high walls. I don't have any skittish sheep. Take time with any animal, and they become friendly. The horns are handy! The goats are stupid with theirs, and will get tangled, whereas the sheep can feel their horns and work their way out of a tangle without ruining the fence. The horns provide handy grab bars if you ever need to stabilize and handle your sheep for whatever reason. I have some without horns, and handling them is a PITA. Goats also stink, whereas sheep actually smell pleasant :) and my dogs will eat sheep no problem, but the one time we fed goat? They wouldn't touch it, not until the meat had aged for a week! And my dogs eat pretty much anything, so...
@@YouCanFarm Breed is probably a big thing, lol... Like, I went to pick up a flock of runner ducks a couple years ago, and the guy had goats the size of donkeys that were super placid and content with staying in a 2-wire electric fence! The ones I had to deal with, however, were of the smaller varieties - I know one was an alpine, but the worst were the pygmy and the two black ones with white bellies!
Just to add about goats they don't like to get wet, so they require shelter. Male goat gives off a really pungent smell and if you touch him the smell sticks on your hands and cloths you have wash frequently to get the smell off. You need to be cautious of some weeds as they can be poisoness.
Hi. I was planning on getting some sheep for a new property that we bought. There is some pricker type plants around and poison ivy, etc. So then I thought maybe I should get 2 goats before the sheep to help clean up the area and keep the sheep rotated behind the goats. Do you think this is a good idea? I was concerned if there were remnants of copper after I moved the goats. I would love to hear you suggestion. Thank you
Unless those plants are high up or hard to reach, the sheep will probably do just as good of a job as some goats would. I would just go with the sheep, especially if that's what you would prefer to raise.
Sometimes the charge does get weak if we have an extended period of cloudy days, but the batteries can store a decent charge for a few days. My animals hardly ever challenge the fence, so luckily it's not an issue.
That depends on a lot of factors, like weight/age/sex/life stage of the sheep, as well as how much edible forage is growing in that pasture. They are also herd animals so you will need to keep at least 2 together. One quarter acre is amount the minimum for space.
I do know of people growing fodder by sprouting barley seeds for sheep, and some microgreens could be fed as a supplement, but ruminants like sheep really need long stemmed roughage in their diet in order for their digestive tract to function properly, and I don't think their is enough fiber in young greens for them.
Thanks! Yes, you can keep them together. They can interbreed so you do want to keep breeding males separate. They have some different nutritional needs too.
That would be impossible for me to answer, since it would be highly dependent on how your individual business was run. It's very difficult to make any sort of profit in farming, and there are a lot of different business models you could set up with either species.
@@YouCanFarm so if not for the financial gain then you do it for personal gain correct? You benefit from the meat and the milk which turns into sour cream butter and cheese. I know most farmers have a part time job as well. Is this the case? Also most of the time if you sell one of the sheep it breaks even since the cost of it's food is the cost of the animal itself. Your best bet is to sell early in the life of the animal but then you end up having to feed the mother significantly more food so once again break even... Correct? 😂 some would call it a savings fund of sorts. Worst case you have food from it.. better than looking at a piece of gold
I've had goats and sheep, and i like sheep better personally. They were always bullies or nuisances. We then got some baby hair sheep, sweetest things. Although our goats (both young and older) were bullying them. So now we're trying to move to just sheep
We are moving towards just goats because we find them more personable and hardier, but I will be sad to see the sheep go. Just not enough resources for both right now.
I’m kicking around the idea of getting sheep and/or goats but just don’t know if I should. I only want them to roam my property to help keep things from growing out of hand. I have both woods and larger grass areas across 12 acres.
I hope to have a real homestead someday but right now I have only a 0.2 acre lot with most of it not grazable . Still I would like to get my feet wet with meat animals. Of course I can do rabbits but I am really interested in red meat. Even mini cattle like Dexter are probably out of the question but I was wondering about goats or hair sheep feeding in a small pen. Of course pork is an option.
You could raise just 2 sheep or goats in a small pen for a short time, but they will likely not thrive and potentially have parasite or disease issues if they are not rotated to fresh pasture, or if the area is not cleaned out regularly. Pigs would be a better option.
