As a former shepherdess I really appreciate your videos! Here’s an important tip about mineral blocks... sheep’s teeth are designed for grass, so feed minerals in loose form not blocks that they will try to chew. You can tell a sheep’s age by the number of teeth. Loss of teeth results in loss of condition. Without good strong teeth sheep cannot survive.
This is really valuable info! I’m glad to have the feedback. I was actually wondering how their teeth would hold up. Loose mineral is on my game plan for spring. 👍🏻 -the Shepherdess 🐑🌱
@@theShepherdess One more: Watch the protein block-if I remember correctly, too much protein promotes horn and hoof growth rather than improving general condition. Sheep can usually get enough goodness from pasture grasses and legumes alone, but it is a good idea to get an analysis run.
East Tennessee here, we do really well with new grass growth by throwing seed either right before the last snow, or even on top of the last snow. It melts right down into the soil
Nice video. My experience is with dairy cattle in Wisconsin and Northern Indiana. For winter bedding we used straw, saw dust, wood chips and hay depending on cost and what we had available at the time. All of which helped capture nutrients / moisture / smell, while keeping the animals comfortably, clean and dry. Straw was our goto because of cost and it held more moisture and was easier to work with then hay. I really liked using saw dust/ wood chips, but if it was to dusty it could contribute to respiratory problems with young stock. The problem with using hay is it tends to have more weed seed in it than straw and when you go to clean out your barn it is harder to work with because it's all matted together. If you have the time and inclination, once your flock is back on pasture, pig's do a great job of rooting up and turning that bedding into better compost. Plus your farm will be introduced to an entirely new smell. 🥓🥓 Keep up the videos.
Hey shepherdess, shalom. I'm Dezmond from Nigeria, I'm just starting out as a Shepard and you keep inspiring me each day. I already ywi sheep, a nale and female. They're both a Nigerian breed called Uda, they are tall, dont make much wool but lots of meat. B'ezrat Hashem ill be increasing my flock next week probably to 10. Thankyou so much, and much love from Nigeria.
The smell thing is absolutely true. We are in northern VT and our cows have a barn they have access to all winter long. They seem to only go in there to make a deposit. We run multiple layers of wood chips and straw or hay and it completely consumes the smell. Makes some great compost for your pastures as well as it locks in the nitrogen and slow releases it. Makes the grass grow really well. Great videos
I met this lady who threw here bicycle chain off her sprockets, so as I was helping her, she said she was studying to be a veterinarian. I was very impressed and hope she succeeded, because that's got to be one be, one of the hardest courses to take and the Ag industry isn't watching corn sprout, it's hard knocks, better learn how to make your own repairs, better not throw that away, better get up early and stay with it, better not spend your money, better put extra layers on, because it's freezing outside kind of lifestyle. I truly admire all our Ag workers, whether it's growing peas, raising sheep, running dairies and feedyards or risking it all in a rodeo arena. Thank you one and all.
Great point but don't glorify "risking it all in a rodea area". That's not agriculture. That's useless thrill that only profits at the cost of broken ribs and busted spines.
Love seeing what other farmers are doing! We raise Jacob sheep in northern Illinois and have been under a couple feet of snow since late December. We are feeding an alfalfa grass mix hay and they eat about a flake of hay and 3/4lb grain each per day.
@@theShepherdess We typically are in the 20s during the day and single digits at night... The past few weeks we have been single digits during the day and -5 to -20 overnight. Like most of the country we seem to have returned to normal weather a couple days ago.
Man, I get busy for a week, come back and you have over 1,500 subscribers already. You had fewer than us just a few days ago. I think you’ll break above 10,000 before the end of the summer. Well done! Keep putting out that good quality content for us and stay safe around that trough. 😱
I watch/listen as much as possible to your channel. Thank you for presenting awesome content. It is always informative and educational. While living in Germany, I was blessed to visit some farms. It was amazing. Several of the barns were attached to the house. The only time there was a smell was usually first thing in the morning. That was when they added fresh bedding and mixed it in with the old. They would remove as much manure as possible before adding the fresh. Their barn floors are way different than here in the states.
Yes! Cost-awareness really helps me maintain stamina. Getting caught off guard hurts. 💰 Thanks so much for supporting my channel with your comment! -the Shepherdess🐑🌱
Starting your class. This message on this is information you need now master the client. It’s the cost and extra work you have to put in to keep these animals alive.
You are doing a great job building a "carbon diaper." I see pigarator pork in your future. You already build the infrastructure to house the pigs. Add layers of corn to provide incentive and feed for the compost turning pigs.
good looking couple of pups. I had a pup in training that grabbed a few baby chicks and then looked at me wondering why after a couple bites they quit squeaking. really enjoy your videos. keep on being an advocate. All for His Glory.
Love you are keeping track of the feed/hay consumed. I have 5 cows and a bull in Western Pa. We had a horrible draught one year and I had to start feeding hay in August. I kept track of the number of bales used so I knew, in the absolute worst year, what is my safety number... how much do I require in the worst case scenario. If I have more than that, I am able to sell the excess bales to make a little profit. Less than that, I better hope I can pasture a lot later into the end of the year.
Thank you!! Yes, that’s where my mindset is. I might be spending more than I expected this winter but at least I’ll know what I may need to prep for in the future. Thanks for supporting my channel with your comment! -the Shepherdess🐑🌱
Hi Grace. Where are you guys located in Texas?I would love to come to check you guys out. Beautiful sheep you got there. Keep up the good work. I just found your channel last night. May God Almighty keep on blessing you guys. 🙏🏼
Need more head room at the feeder, too much crowding. You may want to lock your sheep out of the feeding area until you have things set. Then just open the gate and get out of the way.
That was a very informative video, Thank you I have not seen anyone doing the complete breakdown for sheep before. Ive seen plenty of pigs and chickens but never sheep. It sure looks like your about right on the feed as the animals would soon tell you if your not giving enough. Also nice to see that your caring for all animals around your farm including the birds. You should try to encourage as many birds as you can as they will eat all the nasty bugs when the weather gets warmer. What you have in the barn is not smelly its gold and money in the bank, its the best stuff you can get for replenishing the field and that will save you feed and make your sheep health and fat. Thank you once again for a great video, please try not to fall in the feed trough, I nearly split my sides with that bit.
Good morning. 😊 Thanks for sharing this video with us. The sheep and other animals are lovely. The wee birds must appreciate the seeds you throw. Be well and stay warm. God bless you all. 💞💕👍🙏☝️
Thanks for brightening my day with your comment, Patricia! I couldn’t believe how many cardinals were out there. I was glad we could help them a little with some seed. -the Shepherdess 🐑🌱
You count the water in "Yardage costs". What i do for my cattle and sheep is a rough estimate of litres per day depending on season and the wattage required to pump that. I think in your case it is negligible as a cost but for anyone larger you need to count this along with labor. Farmer always forget labor too and sell themselves short. I find my labor cost consideration really forced some efficiencies when I took over here 5 year ago.
Wow! One of your best videos yet!!!! This info was super helpful!!! That’s a question that’s in the back of my head all the time. How much could I expect to pay for each one of my farm animals if I had to provide 100% of their nutritional requirements. neat to see this question answered about sheep.👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻Keep it up!
My ewes here in Missouri are walking past the hay bales and digging thru the snow to graze. They ate some hay when it was -10 and also when it was snowing hard. I'm too old to enjoy getting knocked down feeding in the pen. If your ground is frozen , you should be able to just throw the pellets over the fence on the snow. Good luck.
Awesome videos!!! Thanks for sharing ur experience and its really helping me on personal level as an newbie. But please decrease ur ISO, there's too much light in each and every video u upload especially these snow season videos, its hard to watch and concentrate when ur eyes are bleeding because of white light...
I'm not sure what type of pellets you're feeding, but have you heard anything about grain causing dorper sheep to grow horns and hooves? When we first started we fed some grain to ours and the hooves on our ewe and ram started growing. We had them out on pasture and they were able to wear them back down before they got too bad. (Maybe because we weren't giving them a lot.) The ram grew big, long horns that curled around and started contacting his eyes. I had to take a hacksaw and cut them off. I have since heard from several sources, grain makes horns and hooves grow. We bought a ram from a man last summer and he was feeding his sheep grain. He had to trim their feet and I helped him cut the horns off his older ram because they were also growing into his eyes. We stopped feeding grain a few years back and I have never had to touch their feet.
This is some great insight! I cut the grain for this season, so I'll be interested to see how it affects the hooves. I didn't have any horn growth, but I did have quite a hoof trimming day last spring.
@@theShepherdess best to keep the round bale under cover and just unwind as much as they will eat in a day. That way you are putting fresh, rather than weathered hay in front of a small flock which will take a long time to get through a big bale. Those small bales sound very expensive, ten of those to a well made round bale. Sheep also prefer soft leafy hay.
If parasites are a big concern for sheep, wouldn't putting the soiled bedding out on the pasture increase the risk of parasites? We are not raising any animals yet, but we are working toward that goal, so I'm just curious about this.
Nice video.. I just recently been watching ur video since u uploaded about the animal food prices.. anyway I'm planning to get sheep and I live in Kilgore..
@@theShepherdess do recommend me buying a barely 2 months old lamb? I'm planning to get 2 lambs.. will they survive without being their mom and milk by themsleves and grace grass and feeds? Thanks
Just had a thought anyone want to chime in? If throwing some bird seed down for birds to eat and leftovers would help pasture long term? Or will all of that seed just die?
So happy to see this- The "needs" of sheep seem to vary greatly from site t site. I wish I could get mainland pricing for feed, and though this video is from a year ago my post is Jan 2023 and my current price per bale of hay at the Big Island Hawaii Tractor Supply is 54$ a bale pelleted feed is 23.95$, Its the volume I need to feed that is vexing me. I have 12 sheep- 5 adults, 7 lambs and it feels as though they are eating a lot. I see the figures 2%-4% of body weight per day per adult animal. Mathematically, it works out to about 3 pounds each. Is that what you are at?
@@tylerlauderdale8362 we have 30 acres! Plenty of room to grow my flock (like I very much hope to do!). Thanks for your enthusiasm about my videos! It keeps me energized about making more. -the Shepherdess 🐑🌱
Thank you so much I'm working with 15 acres and was just wanting to get an idea of how many sheep I can work with on it .. you've been alot of help thank you so much
Yes! I plan to sell the lambs for other farmers to raise their own flocks. I plan to make a video about it once I have lambs ready to sell. -the Shepherdess 🐑🌱
@@theShepherdess okay that’s good, whenever you start putting a list of people together let me know please. I’m looking to buy few ewes from you if I can, We live in southwest Louisiana and dorpers seem to be hard to find over here. Thanks!
just found your channel. cool videos. 25 dollars per day. ouch! i'm up in canada and feed about the same-- 25 sheep/goats and im coming in at about 10 dollars a day-- completely confined too. big difference is hay cost as 1000 lbs costs about 100 and we go through about 3 big bales a month. those buggers can eat!
Glad you found my channel! What breed are you running? Yes, this was painful... haha! I'm glad it only lasted 2 weeks. Someone else also mentioned the cost savings of round bales vs. square so I'm going to give that a shot this winter and see how I come out cost-wise. Thanks for watching! -the Shepherdess
Great video! If it costs roughly $1 a day to feed the sheep, so it's safe to say that you'd need to sell the 1-year old lambs over $365 just to break even!
Thanks so much for commenting! There are some other costs like electric fencing, farm supplies, land rental, etc. The good thing is that even though there are a lot of other costs, my sheep eat grass for 90% of the year so the feed cost isn’t here for long. 😍 -the Shepherdess
@@theShepherdess i had to learn that too, i also learned that if you were just raising a few for the years meat you should keep track of those numbers as well, dont think that this is a cheap way to get your meat cheaply, that is what wal-mart is for! the way i look at it if i am raising my own why not raise more for the market as well?
That’s a good question! I don’t have the answer for sheep. The animals I am working with now are breeder ewes and I don’t track that kind of gain. Please let me know if you find and good info on it! -the Shepherdess
I have a question.. @the Shepherdess do recommend me buying a barely 2 months old lamb? I'm planning to get 2 lambs.. will they survive without being their mom and milk by themsleves and grace grass and feeds? Thanks
As long as the feed works out less than MY dietry cost (2.2lbs) per day, 1 dollar is cheap. Plus I know what goes down my gullet. Now how many sheep can I keep in an apartment? 😂
What do you use for bedding? I have been told that I should not use straw for bedding because the sheeps might eat it and they cant digest it. Is that true?
Thanks!! Yes, they are very comfortable, but not waterproof so I have to let them (and my feet 😅) dry out at the end of the day. Thanks for your comment! -the Shepherdess 🐑🌱
@@I.equitazione we don’t get snow in Texas! It was a crazy and unusual blizzard last week. I usually wear rubber boots for the rain, but will check out your recommendations for boots. They sound great! -the Shepherdess
@@theShepherdess Yes,they look are great!!! I recommendation brown leather Dublin boots or brown leather Dubarry boots both are waterproof,so very comfortable for snow,rain and mud and also very comfortable for cold.
I see a huge problem with this video. It's a very large problem. There's all this white crap all over the ground. That means it gets...*shudder*cold enough for there to be...*gag*SNOW!.
