The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: krazyman7 on January 23, 2010, 05:58:10 pm
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hi im stuck between getting sheep or goats!
if i was to get sheep i would probably rotation graze them with an electric fence on 0.4 acres and then if that doesnt work put them into my friends field behind my house. is this a good idea?? what would be the best sheep breed for meat?? or milking??
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0.4 acres is bit small for shhep. You need about an acre for 5, depending on the land and the size of the sheep. If you want big quantities of meat, Texel or Beltex. If you want top quality, go for one of the British rare breeds www.rbst.org.uk
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Here in Wales the grazing is a bit poor, so its generally considered 2.5 sheep per acre, possibly more in the summer months. It could very well become heavily burdened with parasites too. You might be better putting them on your neighbour's field. I know nothing about goat keeping, but would assume the situation would be similar. If you decide to go ahead, consider the nature of the breed you chose. Some of the older breeds do have a habit of trying to abscond as soon as the grass starts to diminish and they can be very persistant at getting out of places, but then I suppose if you are considering goats, your fences must be pretty good.
All the best.
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Goats will need a shed and lots of good hay during winter. If you can buy hay/feed in - then .4 acre should be ok. But you will need at least two goats, three are better. You can keep castrated male goats (no smell) as companion if you only want to milk one goat.
However big difference is that sheep are kept (mainly) for meat and goats for milk. So what do you need/want to get from your animals? If it is meat - with .4 acre you might want to buy in a couple of (bottle?) lambs for fattening up only and supplement with hay/concentrates at the end of summer. Depends on breed how quickly they grow. If you want to breed from your own sheep, you would probably need more land.
You will need a CPH and herd number for both animals, and if you use someone else's field they will have to get CPH number too.
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I had some sheep and goats, now I have sheep. My goats became a nuisance, jumping the fences and eating everything and I mean everything. Unless you particularly want some goats, I would suggest sheep. I keep several types and some are quite goat like in appearance but without the fence jumping eating everything in sight tendencies.