Sheep

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Mutton anyone?

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It involves a leather belt and a set of high rise bicycle handlebars. Made one for a guy I used to work with that decided I needed picking on. He was new to the area and didn't know better. He raised sheep on his farm.
 
Yeah I get teased at work all the time regarding sheep.

I will say, since having always worked with cows, I really enjoy the smaller size of sheep. You can get right in with them and do what has to be done without worrying about getting kicked and without worrying about crushed.

When making the decision whether or not to get into beef or lamb, I talked it over with a lot of sheep people and many had had beef cows and got out of it. They claimed it was too much work. Well for a dairy farmer, raising beef is pretty simple, so I figured if they felt sheep was even easier, I was all for that.

Again not having a barn on the farm means a sheep's desire to be outside in any weather means no barn is needed really (still required by Maine law). The price of lamb was another factor, but honestly, just trying something new has its appeal too.
 
Sheep Update:

Well I took the day off today because of health problems and since I was around the house, I figured no better time to test the fence. I opened up their door and let them go out and with a big huff, and slight movement, they moved to the door and stood there peering out. A half hour later they still looked out at freedom and an open pasture of green grass ready to be grazed. I never said sheep were smart...

After an hour or so #17 decided to check out the new pasture and #15 and #16 followed, but #46 was still timid. It took him 2 hours to emerge.

Anyway I had nothing to worry about. They grazed up to the fence but that was it. No wayward sheep, no big push to go through 5 strands of thin wire that they could easily snap, just grazing on grass and being content to be sheep.

Sheep: $400 bucks
Fence: $238 bucks
Grain: $10 bucks

Watching your daughter watch sheep graze quietly all afternoon...Priceless.
 
Here are some pictures. You can see in them how I have started to clear the field of trees. Again they are a little small in size, but thus far (a 100 x 100 foot area) I have got about 3½ cord of wood. Not bad.

The grass is sparse where I pushed the brush into piles to burn, but with a killing frost, green grass for the next few weeks will be going fast anyway. It will be onto hay feeding.

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Okay scratch what I just said. The fence will NOT Hold the sheep in. Last post was cut short by a scream from the bedroom. "The sheep are out!"

The Ram got loose and of course would not go out through the same hole he made, but rather made a new one. In the mean time he charged me, but apparently my impressive size scared him and he decided to head back in with the ewes. (Actually I think it was flocking instinct since he outweighs me and has a much harder head.) Anyway they are penned in for the night (thanks to the lure of grain) where I can rethink my fencing plan.
 
Do you have any predator protection for those sheep yet, or is the fence soon to be electro-fied?

I'm guessing Maine coyotes would eat sheep, especially lambs, like popcorn.
 
Do you have any predator protection for those sheep yet, or is the fence soon to be electro-fied?

I'm guessing Maine coyotes would eat sheep, especially lambs, like popcorn.
It is not coyotes you need to worry about, but dogs. Coyotes normally hunt alone and tend to kill only what they need to survive. Dogs will kill for fun and can decimate a substantial number of sheep. Dogs will attack sheep in packs. All your neighborhood Fido's will gather together for some "fun" and cause a great amount of destruction. My mother raised sheep and suffered a major loss due to a dog "pack". This dog pack went on a tear and attacked several other herds. Dogs are also poor killers and tend to injure a lot of sheep which result in them being put to death.
 
Bill is kind of right, coyotes are a problem, but statistically speaking local dogs cause more of a problem. Luckily for me there are few dogs around (few neighbors and even less that are not related to me) so coyotes are the biggest concern. My Grandparents never had a problem with coyotes, but I did have a dog that was found to be taking the sheep. We watched it one day grab a sheep and run across the field. He never made it to the other side.

I need a LGD (Livestock Guard Dog) or maybe even a Donkey to protect the sheep. Coyotes are pretty prolific here. Normally they harvest 25 coyotes on this place a winter, but last year they only got 2 because the snow was too deep to run the dogs. That is the preferred method of coyote hunting.

For an intense hunt, hunting over a dead calf or something is pretty cool too. Coyotes like to circle food to see what it is, and often times they will smell your tracks where you dropped off the animal and kind of sniff you out. A good way to hunt like this is to post a buddy outside of where you are hunkered down. On a good clear moonlit night in the middle of January (when their pelts are thick and full) you can get a nice shot in if the coyotes do go for the calf bait, but more then likely your buddy will get to nail one as they circle in on you. Its pretty intense to sit there in the cold waiting for a coyote and hearing them circle in on you. You can hear their paws on the snow breaking the crust and I am only talking a hundred feet or so away. It is intense. :eek:
 
Have you ever tried calling them in???? I called in a lot of coyotes in the years I lived in Alaska! The last few years spotlighting predators was even legal (except on Federal land:huh:). Nothing beat a full moon on a frozen river bed at -20 though! Boom ...............whop.

I have to disagree with the statement coyotes only kill what they need to survie. That is just a tad "Disney" from my perspective and observations.
 
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