Sheep & Goats: Make More Money Now! Start Producing More Twins and Triplets! 

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There is a considerable spread in operational considerations between 300 pasture only raised sheep and a 100% confinement operation. Our videos are not made in a vacuum and I’m sure you can appreciate that GENERALLY speaking for the AVERAGE farmer, having ewes that can raise and support twins reliably is good economically and environmentally. I personally don’t care for triplets because of the issues you bring up. It seems there is generally one that doesn’t fair well and in my opinion, just takes from the twins that will be productive. We expect our first time moms to average 1.25-1.35 lambs. 1.75 is a great number for anyone to average. As to your comment about triplets, you seem to have a lot of confidence you can simply make that happen. This reminds me of the guys in the gym that say, “I don’t want to get too big…” just to let everyone know they could be huge but choose not to. If you have found a way to reliably produce triplets with NC cheviots on pasture, you should write a book. We will even market it for you free of charge. Thank you for watching the video and thank you for taking the time to respond. You have a lot of good points and it is appreciated.

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Very nice. I was born and raised between DeMotte and Rensselaer. I am glad we have been able to help you out. Thank you for watching and taking the time to leave a message. Good luck to you and your family this season. 😬

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@@LinessaFarms I am new to goats since last July. I am trying to learn as much as I can. I was a nurse and want to take great care of the goats. Had two litters born first weekend in March.

Hi Lynne! Being a nurse will help you out a lot when it comes to taking care of your animals. Veterinary work is hands-down the most expensive part of raising any livestock. Also knowing how to research and obtain reliable information can be a challenge as well. Keep watching our videos and we will do our best to help you out!

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Hello, Joyce. I am flattered to have you watching our videos and greatly appreciate you taking the time to leave us a kind message. I have read your articles in the past and appreciate all you do for the industry! I doubt I can teach you anything at all but again, thank you for the kind words. I would love to meet with you some time and see your operation. I believe you are not far from us in NW Indiana. Kind regards, Tim.

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@@LinessaFarms We have just recieved the 1st delivery of Boer Goats and Sheep, from South Africa, 1 Buck, 2 Dows, 1 Dopper Ram and 2 ewes, Will follow all your advise to become successful.

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Hello and thanks for watching our videos. This is a great question and it depends on the ram. If all the ewes are synchronized together through hormones, you will want to be very careful and may only be able to put 1 ram to 20 ewes. If you allow them to cycle naturally, the estrus will be more spread out and you can increase numbers substantially to closer to 40. Hopefully this helps. In the end, always make sure your ram is healthy and ready to go before putting him in with the ladies.

@@LinessaFarms thanks for the reply, you might have covered another question here 😊 cause I think you’re talking about the breeding Rams but I wanted to ask about the teaser Ram. Will one be enough for a 100 Ewes let’s say ?

You can breed back almost immediately and sheep and goats can get pregnant when nursing however we don’t advise it. Attempting to breed out of season (fall) might require some additional medications. In our opinion, we would just wait until this fall.

It can be difficult to find a breed that meets all your requirements specifically. We like the horns when it comes to handling and we don’t like the horns when it comes to damage of property and getting their heads stuck. With a polled doe, you’ll have a 50% chance of getting polled babies if you breed her on a horned buck (generally speaking).

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Also - I offer unlimited Goat minerals and baking soda. It's really -- how much alfalfa and how much grain is needed?

When we talk about grain, this is a very general term. This could be oats, soybean, corn, etc… just consider it a general term for loose grain based sheep/goat feed or pellets. Unless you are going to get on the technical side of this and start mixing your own, a simple 12-16% goat feed should serve you well. Most goat feeds are a corn base with soybean meal used as a protein booster. Corn, generally speaking is about 7% crude protein, oats come in around 10-12%, and soybean meal is around 40%. We have some videos available regarding mixing your own feed, as well as how to calculate protein percentage. Just do a search for “Linessa Farms mixing” or “Linessa Farms Feed”. You can also search for the protein calculation video as well. If you have any problems finding these, just let me know. We have an online forum on Facebook you might find helpful as well. This is Linessa Farm’s Tack Box. Regarding how much to feed, this is a matter of body condition, breed, and quality of the feed. With you offering alfalfa hay and free choice minerals, they might not need anything more. You would need to check their body condition by feeling the amount of fat cover over the rib cage. If you feel all ribs, they are too thin and if you feel no ribs at all, they are too fat. Your aim should be ribs that feel somewhere in between like the back of your hand. A good kicking off point with alfalfa hay would be one flake per head per day and one pound per head per day of 12% protein feed specifically designed for goats. You can follow their body condition through regular examination and adjust your feed (slowly) as needed. As an added note, any males given grain products should have their feed specifically looked at for calcium to phosphorus ratios. This is the culprit of urinary calculi. To avoid potential urinary calculi, feed should have a calcium amount at least 1-1/2 times higher than phosphorus. Urinary calculi in females is a non-issue and phosphorus for increased milk production is actually important (along with other reasons).

Hello Ramesh and thank you for watching our channel. Lab grown meat is on the horizon and I think it is more of a certainty that it will eventually go mainstream and become part of our everyday life. Complete proteins are limited to meat, fish, dairy, eggs and soy. This creates an issue when attempting to feed the ever growing population of the earth. There are definitely religious and ethical concerns about the production of meat but again, I think it is coming. I personally will not be lining up to try any.

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Justin, I don’t think you have enough separation to make any difference regarding estrus induction, etc... in your case, physical separation is the best thing you can do to help time pregnancy. If you aren’t concerned about the timing of pregnancy, I would just run them all together. The other option would be to purchase only ewes and bring a ram in at a later time when you are ready to breed.

@@LinessaFarms I will have to think about that. I can see the importance of timing. That would give more control on when breeding takes place and align more with the market. I also could see the benefits of running them together since I will be such a small operation. I haven’t seen much information on running them together. I will try and research that some more. Thank you. You have a great channel. Makes me think and realize how little I know.

@@justinkaub5038 maybe you could rent a ram and save on feed and care.. not all farms need the Rams at the same time as others and some has extra..

This is a tough one. There are lots of factors in play. Generally speaking, male sperm are faster but are less resilient than female sperm. A lot of the science stems from this. I will try to make a follow up video. Male sperm (Y-sperm) are often considered faster swimmers than female sperm (X-sperm) due to their smaller size and lighter weight. This difference in size and weight affects their motility. Y-sperm have less genetic material and fewer organelles, making them lighter and more agile, allowing them to swim faster than X-sperm. However, it's important to note that the speed difference between male and female sperm is relatively small and may not significantly impact the overall chances of fertilization. Female sperm (X-sperm) tend to have a longer lifespan than male sperm (Y-sperm) inside the female reproductive tract. While male sperm are faster swimmers, female sperm are hardier and can survive in the female reproductive system for a longer period of time. This difference in lifespan is one of the factors that can influence the chances of conceiving a male or female child.

Hello, James. We actually slightly decrease about 15-20% grain a few weeks prior to flushing and then add back what we took away plus 10% when we start flushing.

Hi, Melissa. This is one of the most common stressors people have and one we need to spend more time discussing. We have some videos coming up regarding sales to include methods and options. Not to spoil the surprise but I think in the end, if you’re not raising show stock, GENERALLY you are going to make the most money and the most consistent amounts by taking to the sale barn/auction. You don’t need a lot of animals to use the sale barn. If you have 3 or 300, it can work for you! We look forward to hearing from you again in the future!

Hello, Michael. Keeping rams miles away would keep their scent away from the ewes and could help to benefit what is known as the ram effect. This requires a large distance so they cannot be smelled and would more than likely exceed the distance you would be able to provide on your farm. This is the “natural” way some producers try to tune their females when it comes to breeding. There are many options available that are more reliable and user friendly such as CIDR implants. If you are going to attempt to breed ewes out of season, this is probably your best bet.

Make sure you take into consideration the prevailing wind directions. As Tim said Ewes should not smell the Rams scent, and I guess if also Rams didn’t smelled the Ewes scent it would be better, I’m guessing less fights between Rams

Most goats can and will go into heat throughout the year. Depending on breeds, some tend to cycle when the temps cool off and the days get shorter in the fall. For the most part, they will go into estrus and breed when the opportunity presents itself. So, for instance, if you have a group of does who have not been around a male in a year or so and you introduce a male in May, they will breed that male in a few weeks (if not sooner). Sheep on the other hand tend to be very heavily conditioned to only breed naturally in the fall (with some limited exceptions).

Hello! Thanks for watching our videos. I think for this small number you should be fine. Just keep him fed and you should be ok. We see problems occur with a ram or buck trying to service 20-30 females. They all cycle at approximately the same time and it makes it difficult. Keep us posted on how things progress. If you haven’t followed our Facebook group “Linessa Farms Tack Box”, check it out. It’s a great place for you to ask questions and get answers.

@@LinessaFarms Thanks! That's a relief.

Chris. Thanks for watching the videos and thanks for the idea. We have an upcoming series about “things pros do that may surprise you” and we will get into suppositories and synchronizing ewes and LAI. As we get closer to fall, we will probably put out some videos on how to actually do it.

@@LinessaFarms wow..LAI = Laparoscopy Artificial Insemination? Exciting. I've subscribed your channel so will be notified whenever you upload new video. Thanks.

This is a good question and you are not alone as most people do not have a mile of space to separate livestock. Chances are you will not be able to have an effective response based on your current situation. Ewes and Does are very sensitive to the scent of a buck or ram and they are difficult to fool. In many cases, bucks can scent ewes and rams can scent for does, etc. You have other options. Small farms dealing with this situation benefit greatly from the use of CIDR implants. The progesterone is safe and gentle on their system and the HCG injection is considered vary safe as well. If you would like to time your pregnancies together, we personally feel this is your best option. With this being said, we understand hormone treatment and usage is not for everyone and we appreciate that. In this case, we would keep the males and females separated and then reintroduce them when you feel they are in heat. Farms that cannot separate their livestock at a distance and choose not to use hormones will often put a marking harness on a vasectomized ram and will watch to see when he is marking ewes. Since ewes will only stand for a ram when they are in heat (and usually cycle in close time frame to one another) once the producer notices ewes getting marked, they will immediately swap out the "teaser ram" with the actual fertile ram. If none of this works for you, keep your boys and girls separated and reintroduce them once we have less than 12 hours of daylight. Throw a marking harness on your ram and you should be good to go. Hope this helps.

@@LinessaFarms Fabulous information! Thank you!!

@@LinessaFarms We put our ram in and the first of our girls willingly stood for him within a few days. 8 of the 11 were seen to stand for him at least once in the next 14 days. There’s been some rebreeding since. My concern is possibly with our ram. He will breed but I’m wondering if he’s too polite. Physically he looks well developed so I’m wondering if we just aren’t seeing him in action? Is the politeness a sign that he’s got problems? He certainly didn’t run himself ragged pestering the ewes.

@@kansmill Rams do their thing mostly at night, that’s why I think you didn’t noticed..

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Dorper are very popular right now. They do not have any more babies than the average sheep for the most part. When you review the breed website you will see they claim 1.8 babies per ewe per birthing cycle. There is nothing wrong with the breed but I have yet to see any evidence showing they are superior to any other breed in any specific way. They are not the largest, they do not have the best feed to growth ratio, they don’t have the highest average offspring per lambing, the list goes on. You will read subjective statements like “they are worm resistant” but this depends a lot of many other factors. They don’t need to be shorn and this may be a good factor for you. A lot depends on what you are looking for and what works best for your situation. If you are looking for highest prolific behavior and high lamb numbers, Finn sheep are difficult to compete with.

Great question. Yes. They say it’s just smell but having them be able to see one another through the fence seems to help. Hope you have strong fences. 😬

A teaser must be an intact male in order to have the hormones needed to produce the scent and drive to attempt to breed the females. If you want to be 100% sure the male cannot breed the females, they would need to be vasectomized. Otherwise, you will have to be sure to pull the male before the females go into estrus. You will more than likely have a few go into early estrus so we advise not using a male as a teaser you do not consider appropriate to sire.

@@LinessaFarms Gotcha I think I’ll just let my ram run his self silly lol I don’t have enough ewes at the moment to justify 2 rams and don’t think I want to spend the money for a vasectomy on a sheep but when you do the flushing do you start 2 weeks before the teaser ram in introduced or the day the teaser is introduced and do you continue with the extra feed through out the breeding season or stop the on day 14 at introduction of the breeder ram

@@loganluttrellfishing652 flushing is a temporary increase in feed. You would do this prior to the introduction of the male. If you only have one male, you are still better off keeping him separated from the girls until breeding time. You could just keep him away and then introduce him when you are ready to breed them and leave him in there with them. It’s not ideal but we understand your situation and it’s probably the best given all things considered.

@@LinessaFarms I recently acquired 3 more properties and up until this year I’ve always kept everything together and my lambing season was always strung way out and never knew when it’s start and lambing rate wasn’t where I wanted it to be but now that I have enough locations to where I can separate my ram from ewes by about 20 miles i’ve decided to experiment with some stuff to see if I can achieve a 200% or better lambing rate with second lambing ewes I run a primarily grass based system but I feed grain about 3 times per week just to keep them bucket broke for easier moving. this past lambing I had a decent lambing rate this past season but still not what I want all but 1 ewe is twin born so my genetics should be what I’m looking for for the most part so I’m starting to look at nutrition and other variables at play.

Inez, Hello and thank you for watching our channel. We appreciate the subscription and the question. We would advise keeping the buck separated from the does until you are ready to breed them all. When you are ready to breed them, go ahead and put your buck in and leave him with the does until you are sure he has bred all of them or for at least 45 days. In the case where someone has a “teaser” ram/buck for the sole purpose of causing the does to go into heat, we would pull him after 14 days. In your case, since you only have 1 buck, this isn’t an issue. If you don’t have a large flock, your buck probably won’t get as worn down as one would expect with a flock of 20-40 does. Also, there are marking harnesses any powders you can use to help you know when your does have been bred. I have attached some links below. www.premier1supplies.com/p/flockmaster-marking-paste?gclid=CjwKCAjw6qqDBhB-EiwACBs6x1G_BnUoIK20th2R55N418HxGo-rSpL8P_QHLMoDKSz_UvsII6mrmxoC1-cQAvD_BwE www.premier1supplies.com/p/deluxe-marking-harness?criteria=Deluxe+Marking+Harness

Thank you for your response. We do keep our buck in a separate pen! He has a wether with him. My concern was the length of time with the doe's together. To assure pregnancy.

That’s great you keep him with a wether. They always need someone with them for mental health! We understand your concern about wanting to keep the buck in long enough. We would advise you to use some kind of a marking system. This will help you for multiple reasons. Keep a log of every day your buck marks a doe. If for some reason she didn’t take, he will remark her again in 14 days. If she doesn’t get remarked, chances are more than likely the first mating took and she is pregnant. Some does will have to cycle a few times to take and this is normal. You will have a few does get marked after 7 days, most after a few weeks, and a few again at around 1 month. This is normal. I’m sure you’ve noticed the marking harness goes on the brisket of the buck and since the doe will only stand for the buck (aka allow him to breed her) when she is in heat, he will mark her when he mounts her. You will clearly see a mark on her back. As you know, bucks will attempt to mount does even when they are not in heat... marks from breeding will be significantly more pronounced than a small mark from an attempt. 👍🏻

@@LinessaFarms Thank you Tim, we have one Nubian buck and 2 Nubian sister doe's that he has mated last year. They kidded triplets each! One had two bucklings and a doeling, the other had 2 doelings and a buckling. 3days apart. This year, they each had quadruplets! Each had 3 bucklings and one doeling. We were outside from 3:30 pm to 3:30am. This is wonderful and a pleasure for us! As we are in our late 50's. And have never had any interest in farm animals! I guess our genes are screaming!!! Country living! We have been in our country setting for 5 yrs!

Hello and thank you for watching our videos! Different parts of the world call this practice by different names. Here in the United States we refer to these as “teaser” rams or bucks. The process is used to synchronize the females to have their babies at or around the same time. We will be covering this in detail in our video coming out in the next few days! Yes. The teaser ram/buck can cause pregnancy if not done correctly or if proper precautions are not taken.

@@LinessaFarms i will wait for your video and God bless you ♥️

Sure. It just depends on the genetics you are looking for. Think of AI as a way to get genetics you need/want when they are not readily available to you. You’ll just have to look at the price and see if it makes sense for you. There are some awesome St. Croix out there if you look. A lot of people think St. Croix are small, slender sheep. There are some massive ones out there, you’ll just have to spend some time doing the leg work.

Hello. This is a good question. Usually, the fertility issue, if there is one, has to do with the female. A male with even an average sperm count can usually service a female with no problems. A typical female might only drop a couple eggs during ovulation whereas a typical male will deposit millions of sperm. With this being said, the sperm have a much more difficult journey on their way to the egg and timing is a huge part of the success. Male sperm tend to travel faster but tend to live shorter lives. Female sperm travel slower but tend to live longer. The environment of the female at the time of insemination is important as well as the pH of her reproductive tract and other issues can help or hinder the sperm on its journey to the egg/eggs. The only time using multiple males would be useful is if they were not healthy from a reproductive standpoint. You’re much better off focusing on keeping your females as healthy as possible. 👍🏻 On a side note, a female with multiple males at the time of conception can in fact carry multiple offspring and have one baby from one father and another baby from another father. So on and so forth. Hopefully this helps. Thank you for watching our channel and thank you for the question.

Sir. Thank you very much for your long answer.^____^ You are my angel today! You are so kind~

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