Why do we graze St Croix cross hair sheep?

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Why do we graze St Croix cross hair sheep? For folks getting started on their own homestead it is much easier to start with sheep than cattle. Sheep are easier to manage and cheaper to buy when getting started. If you mess up with your management, it does not cost you as much with sheep versus cattle. Smaller acreages are better suited to sheep because you can run more of them simply because they don't eat as much. On marginal less productive land, sheep will improve and thrive on it while giving you a profit. If you want to keep your farm profitable every year, check out my 3 grazing books that I wrote on our website: greenpasturesfarm.net/books/

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24 окт 2022

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Комментарии : 73

@slingerlandfamilyfarm1499 Год назад

Hey guys, great video, just to add on to what greg was saying about winter water for sheep…. Our sheep flock gets zero liquid water once the upstate NY winter begins. They eat snow plain and simple, it doesn’t affect the lambing rates or body condition or anything.

@kayspitzmueller7544 Год назад

Do guard dogs need water?

@gregjudyregenerativerancher Год назад

Yes they find water in the creek riffles

@kayspitzmueller7544 Год назад

@@gregjudyregenerativerancher winter= frozen here in WI

@tracygarns9611 Год назад

We're doing a similar thing with our goats and black locust. We have one 8 acre pasture that had been overtaken. When we moved, one neighbor said if we tried to manage with animals instead of Roundup it would be like trying to "piss up a rope." LOL She hasn't been back to comment yet. The pasture is now beautiful. We've left some black locust along the edge. My goat group on Facebook has told me how toxic black locust is. Despite me telling them that we've been browsing it for 9 years all through the growing season , they won't believe me.

@gregjudyregenerativerancher Год назад

Sheep love black locust leaves as well

@tracygarns9611 Год назад

@@gregjudyregenerativerancher we're planning to add them. We have 51.5 acres. We don't have it all fenced yet.

@elizebethparker5412 Год назад

Thank you for sharing your love of sheep! We acquired an additional land lease. We get to keep our 2023 lamb crop to build flock size.

@marvinbaier3627 Год назад

Thanks for the video! Sheep are awesome. All my sheep had twins for the first time ewes and only feeding them pasture and some low quality hay. I did give them a protein bucket last year just because it was super cold but when it got back in the 20s I stop giving them protein. I bet I wouldn’t have to give them the protein but I wanted to make sure they were good though. Now I have double the ewes to breed this time around. I might put ram in December 10 because my sheep had their lambs early this year by 10 days and it was a little cold out but it warmed up in the middle of May.

@davemi00 Год назад

Greg great ranching info. Benefits of Sheep…even over Cattle.

@petereldracher5660 Год назад

Thank you for getting me into sheep. I really love them and they are great for all of the reasons mentioned...👍😂

@southernwanderer7912 Год назад

Great video.

@jasonkelley4672 Год назад

great video greg! Really encouraging me to at least add sheep to our small herd of cattle with hopes of cleaning up an overgrown pasture and a newly clearcut farm.

@littlemogocreek Год назад

Hey Greg, thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge as always. I watch all of your videos because I know I'll learn something and if nothing else, I'll see some lovely countryside ;-) Just fyi, if you don't know already, when you zoom in on your phone, the sound volume gets reduced so it is harder to hear you or the lads. Zooming out turns the volume back up so it means toggling the volume for us when watching. Thought I'd mention it. Thanks again. Duncan.

@gregjudyregenerativerancher Год назад

Didn't know that thanks for the info. No more zooming out!!

@littlemogocreek Год назад

@@gregjudyregenerativerancher Zooming IN ;-) All good to zoom in as we see loads that way however, need to zoom back out :-) Thanks again Greg.

@Green_Heart_Family_Farm Год назад

Thanks for continuing to share your insights on sheep, Greg. We got started this summer with 6 St Croix ewe lambs, 3 Katahdin ewes, and 1 St Croix ram lamb. One question about crossing other hair sheep genetics into your St Croix, was it mostly for size? Our Katahdins are significantly larger than the St Croix, and I'm hoping that, with culling, the cross turns out to be both hardy and good sized for meat.

@gregjudyregenerativerancher Год назад

Crossing them have us a bigger carcass

@centralparkcoffeeco.cafeba6634 Год назад

@@gregjudyregenerativerancher What about increased lambing issues?

@gregjudyregenerativerancher Год назад

Never pulled a lamb in my life. I know it sounds unbelievable, but they lamb without us messing with them. We do not go in the pasture when their lambing except to roll up a wire so they can drift forward with their baby lambs

@victorgonzalez5565 Год назад

We just got 58 acres of an overgrown pecan orchard that not fenced. Want to introduce sheep to stop the mowing and help rebuild the soil. I have been following your well appreciating advice and think the live wired fence and guard dog would work well. Just not sure if pecans and sheep would be a good fit. Would have to move sheep out for harvesting, before nuts are eaten. Not sure if anyones asked or has dealt with this before. Thanks for great videos. A new farmer.

@gregjudyregenerativerancher Год назад

I have a customer in Florida that grazes sheep and cattle in his pecan orchard. I believe he takes them out before the pecans start falling

@patrickmcginnis6898 Год назад

Thank you for the helpful information and being a leader in this industry Greg. I am getting ready to start a flock in Central Georgia. Is there a particular time of year that you like to market your genetics, and how do you think they would do in that area of the country?

@gregjudyregenerativerancher Год назад

That’s a long way to move them. I would do 8-10 and see if the adapt okay before jumping in full force.

@charleswalters5284 Год назад

Sometimes i interrupt people before they're done talking, like you kept doing to Isaac. Isaac is very nice and patient, he hardly noticed, and didn't seem to mind.

@gregjudyregenerativerancher Год назад

Isaac is a very humble young man. We need more Isaacs in agriculture!!!

@kenyonbissett3512 Год назад

Part of it was that sheep 🐑 meat both lamb and mutton were popular with Americans. Unfortunately during WW2 Americans were fed a lot of bad mutton in Europe and came back home after the war refusing to ever eat another lamb/sheep again. With a dwindling purchasing market livestock growers switched from sheep to cattle.

@wallacewimmer5191 Год назад

👍💕

@gkseeton Год назад

Coppicing or pollarding? I like pollarding to use the regrowth for shade.

@daviddeabay7579 Год назад

I live in Maine and would like to start a small herd. I have friends that have Katahdins which I understand are cold hardy. How do the St Croix compare in cold hardiness as well as food production? I have also read that St Croix are more naturally parasite resistant. Do you feel Katahdins would be good as well as long as they are being moved?

@valeriestevens5250 Год назад

Hi, Greg. Loved the video--lots of great information. However, I'm curious if there is anything on any of the farms you graze that you have to keep the sheep away from during certain times of the year? You mentioned that the cattle shouldn't eat the acorns, is there something the sheep shouldn't eat? Thank you for any information.

@gregjudyregenerativerancher Год назад

No not really. They just seem to know what to eat and what not to eat.

@girlwalkswithgoats Год назад

Wild cherry leaves when they fall and are wilted can cause poisoning. In my experience they only eat them if they have nothing else. That seems to be how it works for most things.

@swamp-yankee Год назад

Do you guys get the deer lung worm? I think they’re call miningeal worms. I don’t worm my ewes, and I don’t have them die of barber pole, but I’ve lost a couple to the deer worms. Sheep are usually a dead end host, but they sometimes find a way to set up shop in the spine and they’ll paralyze the back legs. Seems most everybody in my area that raises sheep or goats sees a case periodically.

@mustbsavdbyjesus Год назад

Where do you raise sheep? I’m looking to get into it. South central Missouri

@kurtbognar6806 Год назад

you don't have to put a wire on the pond for sheep? Even in the winter? Or does that just go for the summer?

@JohnSmith-fi2gu Год назад

We bought an old cattle farm last April and our house will be done in 2 weeks. Cattle farm hasnt been used in a few years.. trying to figure out best animal to farm might be sheep..

@gregjudyregenerativerancher Год назад

Sheep are great for cleaning up brush and weeds

@JohnSmith-fi2gu Год назад

@@gregjudyregenerativerancher I was looking at the auction and me and my wife were wondering about certain types of sheep in certain climates. We are in Ohio and still trying to learn as much as possible. Thank you for your efforts here on youtube.

@prdeereman Год назад

In fairness though that "too much work" gets momentum from wool sheep . I wouldnt raise them things if you give them too me . Have you ever thought of investing in a Dorper ram to cross with some of your ewes and keeping young ewes to breed back ? Do you think eventually get some heavier mostly Dorper with some parasite resistance?

@charleswalters5284 Год назад

Didn't he try that, and didn't all the dorpers .. um... not make it ?

@gregjudyregenerativerancher Год назад

We tried that 20 years ago, every single one of them died.

@prdeereman Год назад

@@gregjudyregenerativerancher I guess my next question is were you practicing these same grazing technique back then ? I don't mean to come off as argumentive if that's what it appears I just don't know what all you have covered is the reason I ask .

@gregjudyregenerativerancher Год назад

Same technique, nothing but forage and mineral. No worming, the Dorper influenced animals died. If we have to worm sheep to keep them alive, we will simply not own sheep.

@cryptonym123 Год назад

What do you need to do for tick control?

@gregjudyregenerativerancher Год назад

Nothing, let them build up their own natural resistance

@jmffarm Год назад

Can you do a how to video on breaking sheep to one wire?

@gregjudyregenerativerancher Год назад

Thanks for the idea, will have to do that.

@jamesjohnson-qn7el Месяц назад

How long does it take for your St Croix to get to 70# weight

@Kirbservice 16 дней назад

How do they perform on fescue and cattle pasture

@gregjudyregenerativerancher 16 дней назад

They do fine. We winter them on fescue pasture. No hay is fed to the sheep all winter. They love foraging for their food,

@adlsaias Год назад

Greg please attach a camera to you hat, Thanks

@seandoherty4236 Год назад

Ah no, don't. I cannot watch body cam/ helmet footage. They give me motion sickness.

@gregjudyregenerativerancher Год назад

Sean your safe, I am not going to do that!!

@fuqutube Год назад

Okay sheep vs goats? AArent goats tougher? I live in very severe cold, what is better? Hair sheep?

@gregjudyregenerativerancher Год назад

In severe cold sheep are better, they grow a thick winter hair coat. Goats shiver in extreme cold weather

@fuqutube Год назад

@@gregjudyregenerativerancher Awesome. Thanks for taking time to reply. I have been watching all of your videos, and learning a lot.

@perigrine Год назад

Greg, you've talked about how the sheep and cattle complement each other, but how does the other large ruminant, White-tailed Deer affect your farms? Do they compete more with sheep than cattle. Does hunting provide the same level of pressure on deer as the selling off of your livestock?

@lb540 Год назад

Whitetail deer are browsers they dont compete with cattle or sheep only goats. Hunting pressure sadly often worsens grazing competition between animals that normally woudnt compete. The threat of being hunted with firearms wich they cant understant causes extreme trauma and can create unnatural feeding behavior. Some examples of this are: Red deer (short grass grazer) retreating into forests and stripping trees. Wild Horses (long grass grazer) eating grass down to the roots. Roe deer (low browser) chewing of sapplings when hunted at the forests edge. Wild camels (woody browser) grazing in open landscapes away from potentional cover.

@lb540 Год назад

Regarding the niches of the most commonly kept livestock: Sheep (short grass grazer) Goats (low browsers) Cattle (medium grass grazer) Zebu (medium grass grazer) Horse (long grass grazer) Donkey (high browser) Yak (short grass grazer) Gayal (high browser) Bali cattle (high browser) Water buffalo (medium grass grazer and low browser) Pig (rooting omnivore) Guinea pig (short grass grazer) I dont know the niches of north american wildlife, but the general rule is that you can have one species for every niche on one pasture without competition. Hope that Helped :)

@swamp-yankee Год назад

@@lb540 I don’t know about white tails not competing. We had a serious drought, and the white tails tipped most of my fields. I’m not mad about it, but I can clearly see their impact.

@kiddfamilyfarmllc9962 Год назад

Sent several emails last on interest to buy starter flock. Had cash on hand….. no reply either way.

@gregjudyregenerativerancher Год назад

Never saw your emails!!

@thuggoe Год назад

what's the market for sheep though? people only eat lamb?

@gregjudyregenerativerancher Год назад

You gotta have a sheep to get a lamb😊

@seandoherty4236 Год назад

The US imports about 100 million pounds of mutton, and 250 million pounds of lamb, every year. As the "ethnic" population of the US increases every year, the demand for mutton and lamb is only going to increase.

@brucemattes5015 Год назад

Do the ethnic Jewish & Muslim markets require live animals delivered to Kosher & Halal butchers?

@charleswalters5284 Год назад

@@brucemattes5015 good question. With demand up, they might come to you. Please call and talk to a few, and tell us how it went.

@brucemattes5015 Год назад

@Charles Waters I'm neither a rancher, or a farmer, and don't raise livestock. My question was one of simple curiosity. Here in Baltimore City, there is still a single certified Kosher abbatoir located someplace downtown in one of the industrial areas. Live steers are butchered there. And possibly also sheep?

@markpiersall9815 Год назад

The hair sheep cuts down on labor related to shearing and tail-docking. When are we going to get GMO Alpaca fiber bearing sheep? $$

@charleswalters5284 Год назад

Gross. Please don't try to be a villain from a science fiction movie.

@markpiersall9815 Год назад

I see a future where BT crops are only allowed to be used once every seven to ten years. I see wholesale taxes on Round-up Ready GMO seed, pesticides and herbicides. I see these regulations and alpaca fiber bearing sheep as tools to convert row crop land to sheep paddocks. This will reduce soil erosion and the amount of energy used in food production. We are reckless in our use of a precious and limited resource, our soil. Last time I checked Google Alpaca fiber was 22 times sheep wool. At that price shearing becomes profitable. I don't think people are eating Alpacas but giving them an Equine pass and just putting them in the ground.

@charleswalters5284 Год назад

@@markpiersall9815 now i see a troll crew from monsanto. Professional work, but ineffective here due to sophisticated audience. Try a channel about feedlots or golf