Dairy Sheep: It Lastly Occurred!

Hi there my mates,

Frankly, I needs to be cleansing my home proper now. There are wanted and sensible duties that demand consideration! Dusty bunnies collect within the corners as we converse. But the decision of this little two and a half acre farm I like a lot is louder – and this week is all about listening to these calls. That is the week that my want of three years was lastly realized – it lastly occurred. New creatures arrived on the farm… any guesses as to what new animal joined our homestead? 

For the report, after I do resolve to wash my home, I’ve most unimaginable cleansing focus in my arsenal. Kudos to Department Fundamentals. When you take heed to my podcast, you know the way a lot I enjoyment of cleansing (unusual?). We’re arduous on every part it appears, from counter tops to socks. It is a cleansing focus that you need to use for every part from laundry, to stains, to flooring, to home windows, to bogs, to showers, to canine kennels (ya, simply did this one.) This makes it versatile, cost-effective, and sustainable (I exploit the glass bottles and simply refill). However my level is to inform you that this cleansing focus from Department Fundamentals will get probably the most grotesque animal stains out of my garments. 

Animal stains (and smells) that I’ll now be getting from… our new dairy sheep!

AND THE CROWD GOES WILD! 

I notice that dairy sheep is probably not on everybody’s checklist of “necessities”, however I’m been searching for good breeding inventory for years and am so grateful to have lastly discovered the appropriate ladies for our farm. I can’t say sufficient good about Concord Heritage Farm, one other Washington State primarily based household. They’ve been so variety in drawback fixing, answering questions, and pairing us with the appropriate ladies for our wants. When you’re close to to me, they’ve received stunning lambs on the market every spring. You’ll be able to be taught extra on their web site right here. 

What breed are they? 

East Fresian x Rideau Arcott x Border Leicester x Finn

Finally, we actually wished to focus on bringing sturdy sheep to the farm for simple of administration. Normally, “sturdy” isn’t a phrase linked to purebreds. “Hybrid-vigor” is a genetic time period meant to attract consideration to the durability created by crossing two or extra breeds collectively. My genetics professor used to name this the solely free lunch a farmer ever will get. For us, a strong crossbreed means sheep that may tolerate 110° summers, -10° winters, maintain their situation nicely, are good moms with out intervention, and have good temperament. 

However Shaye… don’t you might have a dairy cow already?

Sure. Cece is at the moment in milk and is gorgeous as ever. Nevertheless, one problem we run into time and time once more with Cece is getting her bred. This will get a bit into the homesteading weeds, however to breed a cow that’s in milk already (which they normally are in a small-scale administration like ours), we should:

• Deliver a bull to our house in order that we are able to proceed to take advantage of Cece as regular. This presents apparent points with measurement, temperament, feed, and fences. Our fences usually are not constructed for bulls who’re desperate to chase cows or discover greener grass. We’ve had points previously with bulls I’m not eager to repeat. 

• Discover somebody to artificially inseminate Cece. Up to now, we’ve not been in a position to do that regionally. I’ve thought of getting licensed, however it will require a couple of weekends away from house and I haven’t been prepared to do this but. I took a category on AI in school however that was many moons in the past and I would want a critical refresher course to achieve success. 

• Cece may go to a farm with a bull, however that may require somebody to take advantage of her each day nonetheless OR be prepared to take her bull calf together with her. This will current it’s personal set of issues as a result of calves usually are not halter educated (usually) and are a bit spunkier than previous dairy cows. We’ve additionally made the error of sending a heifer calf with Cece to a farm with a bull, in an try and breed Cece, solely to have the heifer calf get bred means earlier than she ought to have. 

Level being, there are a number of administration selections small-holders like us should make in relation to breeding and managing livestock. We’ve to be sensible, resourceful, and down to earth about selections that may in the end have an effect on our soil, checkbook, and desk. 

Ooh – and to maintain it further thrilling, and to maintain us further humble, the phases and targets are at all times shifting barely. 

When my kids have been youthful, we have been ingesting a lot milk a dairy cow was the one cheap possibility. I weaned my infants on to uncooked milk from our first dairy cow, Sally, and he or she nourished them nicely for years. I can’t even start to depend what number of gallons of milk have been consumed – it was lots. 

That was 10 years in the past, and in that point, the kids have grown considerably. I’m not filling sippy-cups endlessly with milk anymore, so the consumption stage has modified. Uncooked milk continues to be important for us – however the demand isn’t as excessive. That presents its personal set of administration selections in relation to managing a dairy cow. The query turns into:

• Do I’ve the capability in my schedule to permit of the duties of fermenting, culturing, and processing “x” quantity of milk per day from my dairy cow? 

• Is that my precedence proper now?

If I’m being trustworthy, there’s few duties I take pleasure in extra on the planet than being a milkmaid. Once more, like cleansing, I completely enjoyment of it. However realistically, I’ve needed to let go of some of my treasured issues over the previous few years to create a bit extra space for our homeschool schedule, youngsters’ social wishes, church coops, piano classes, and creativity of their very own to chase. We’re within the thick of the very best and fullest years of our life! I believe it’s potential (and great) to have a dairy animal throughout this time of life. Nevertheless it’s not a season the place I can make investments half a day in cheesemaking. I’ll be there once more. 

Why Sheep

All of those administration selections, coupled with the truth that Cece is sort of 9 years previous now and never at the moment bred (for causes listed above), we determined it was lastly time to strive our hand at dairy sheep.

I discuss this extra on this week’s video, however right here’s a couple of bullet factors:

• We preserve a ram 12 months spherical already. Breeding dairy sheep is a non-issue for us and would require no further administration on our half in addition to exposing the dairy ladies to the ram. 

• Two dairy sheep require lots much less spring/summer season pasture than a cow and her calf. This may permit our dairy animals to have publicity to extra pasture on our small farm, thus rising the standard of their milk. 

• The 2 ladies we dropped at the farm give 1/2 – 1 gallon per day (so 1 – 2 gallons per day whole for us). This might be a lot for us to have contemporary milk in addition to tradition yogurt, kefir, and make tremendous fast cheeses like mozzarella or ricotta. 

• I really need my kids to really feel a bit extra snug milking and construct up the arrogance and ability to do all of it by themselves. The boys have realized to take advantage of Cece, however it’s not one thing we are able to simply ship them out to do alone. She’s too large, she has horns, there’s an enormous calf to handle, and cows are simply large if you’re that small.

• We’ve had sheep for over a decade. We already handle 6-20 sheep in our small herd (relying on what number of lambs we’ve and what time of 12 months it’s) and so they’re an animal that we not solely are snug with managing, however an animal that we really love having round. 

Now What? 

Each the brand new ewes are as a consequence of lamb in just some days. We’ve made our first administration selections to depart the lambs on for 3 weeks, after which, we’ll start to take advantage of. However extra on lambs/milking/scheduling later… 

We’ll proceed to take advantage of Cece in the intervening time till we resolve it’s time to dry her up. Ideally, I’d wish to ship her (dry) to a farm for breeding. After calving 9 months later, we may milk if we wished or simply let her elevate us a gorgeous fats calf for beef orelevate us a alternative heifer for the longer term. Cece has been our satisfaction and pleasure for eight years now and she is going to stay out all her days on our farm, no matter what her milking capability appears to be like like for the season. 

Phew. Sorry. That was a number of phrases. I assume I’ve a couple of passions in life: 

1. Good meals

2. Gardening

3. All issues associated to take advantage of

I hope you might have an exquisite weekend, my mates. Thanks for being right here and studying alongside us! 

Cheers,

Shaye