Meat and wool: how to breed sheep on his farm

Sheep - one of the "crisis" of animals. In the 90s, where there were conditions for grazing, almost every family kept for 20-30 animals. Then life is somehow stabilized and sheep descended from the agricultural scene, replaced by birds, rabbits, and even pigs. Now the sheep breeding again in the trend: people are starting to buy several yarochek and ram them into the company; it does not say, difficult times lie ahead with sheep fun. This article discusses how to raise sheep at home.

Lao Czy (User FORUMHOUSE):

To feed an average family is only two or three ewes and one ram.

These animals have many advantages, the main thing - simplicity. All they need: a modest Sheepfold (in Siberia, where every winter stable is -30, the sheep are kept in the sheepfold of the non-insulated boards), a place for grazing and clean water. In winter - the hay and a little grain, preferably oats ( "sheep loves oats").

In the happy place where snow and frost almost never, possible content of sheep on pasture all year round. There are places where the sheep, on the contrary, decided to breed sheep in a closed stall mode. But most of the sheep in the winter keep the sheepfold, briefly releasing in good weather and in the summer - pasture. Sheep meat without grazing impossible.

Lao Czy:

In the absence of grazing, standing on the fattening meat is too fatty. As my father, our sheep no meat - solid fat.

sheepfold

to the sheepfold requirements are minimal: perhaps this farm building is the simplest of all. Do not need to allocate any separate boxes for each ram, all the flock keep together. The only prior to lambing blanch separate corners in (breeders use special shields of boards) uterus and offspring. By the way, reproduction - a separate issue, the number of animals in a herd can grow much faster than expected to master.

These animals do not require a large area, these are the rules determined in the Soviet GOST sheep for their growth:

• ram - 1.5-1.7 sq.m.
• uterus with lambs - 1.8-2.0 sq.m.
• young - 0.8-4.0 sq.m.

But in amateur sheep follow these rules rarely, so the room can hold a 6x6 and 25 goals.

Sheepfold needs no special insulation, but do everything you need to make it ventilated and protected the animals from the drafts and rain. Dampness and drafts - the main cause of lung pneumonia in lambs.

Rekacs (User FORUMHOUSE):

For the rams importantly, to avoid drafts. They withstand a frost of 30 degrees without problems.

Thick litter in the sheepfold will work blotter: all the liquid is absorbed quickly and leaves the ground.

grazing

To pasture these animals impose more stringent requirements than to the sheepfold. Without a good grazing sheep breeding is impossible. They love to graze and they graze thoroughly. In agricultural universities explain: first need to graze the horses, which eat only the tops of the plants, then the cow; Sheep do not leave anything. Where, in the USSR were ovtsesovhozy tribal, native vegetation partially recovered until now. When around - endless expanses of Altai and the steppes of Astrakhan, on the norms of grazing nobody thinks, but sheep are now grown even in the Moscow region... The lack of grazing can be a problem.

According to the collective sheep FORUMHOUSE, sheep breeding in the home depends on the grass.

• Where the summer sun blazes burning steppe (in Kalmykia and the Astrakhan region), one ram requires 1 hectare grazing.
• In the Volgograd region pastures are better, and on one hectare can be kept 3 sheep.
• In the central region can increase the rate of up to 5 sheep).

Oleg121968 (User FORUMHOUSE):

If there is no place to graze free, it does not make sense to build a sheepfold, unprofitable.

In many towns and villages of our vast country sheep owners in the summer combine their wards into one large herd and chipped hired shepherds. Animals spend grazing all summer, and return home in the late autumn.

ration

The fattening diet sure to include:

• green fodder and the hay, particularly legumes (clover, alfalfa, sainfoin).
• Wheat and barley straw.
• And in the winter and summer in the diet of added grain (about two faceted glass on the head).
• Root vegetables: potatoes, carrots and beets. Concentrated feed: of pregnant uterus or womb, which feed the lambs, by lambs and rams.

More nutritious food is better to give in the afternoon; in the morning and at night - less nutritious. Silage feed before water, concentrated food - after. It is important that in sheep manger always been salt and chalk.

These animals cleanly and picky about the quality of feed, they will be "to touch grub" and will not eat chalk, if it gets some dirt, and it is almost inevitable. Therefore, we can just chalk mixed with fodder: 10 kilos of regrind (best oatmeal) - 100 grams of chalk.

Even lambs with their usual fastidiousness will need to keep in the trough uneaten food. What is good: for them willingly eats chickens, so if you have got lambs, wind and some chickens - you'll like the results of this cooperation.

breeds of sheep

Successful breeding of sheep in the home depends on the correct choice of breed. In sheep amateur popular:

• edilbaevskaya (fat-tailed) breed,
• Romanov (beef breed, not too good for the fans fat mutton),
• merino,
• zhirohvostiki,
• Karachai breed.

About the widely publicized texels or perkosov skeptical reviews, users of our site to breed these exotic animals are in no hurry.

If you check the stories about sheep semiannual giant, weighing 150 kilograms, it would appear that the two-year sheep (and a lamb's another cost), and with the choice. A six-month weight yarochek reach 40-50 kilograms. So think for yourself and be careful.

Rekacs:

Now I want to buy 100 head of sheep edilbaevskih, as for me, so the best breed: gaining weight rapidly, a large rump, most delicious meat.

Rekacs engaged sheep long enough. He believes that the sheep Romanov breed good at breeding (one lambing is likely to be two lamb), but not so good to gain weight, even in the summer. Edilbaevskie rarely bring in a litter more than one lamb, but well gain weight: add 7-8 kg over the summer. Fat content of the meat depends on the method and content of the diet, and a bonus - kurdjuchnyj oil, indispensable for preparation of the pilaf.

Wool

Demand for lamb is always high. C wool fared much worse, breeders often simply transported Fleece - wool, which is used only for the production of fabrics in a landfill. Demand Poyarkovo wool, "lamb's-wool" or "Poyarkov" - lambs of the first haircut. She willingly take pimokaty. There are breeds of sheep whose wool is the home yarn. The home is nothing particularly complicated yarn production not master all the steps of this technology, from cutting to finished winding yarn into a ball, it is realistic. Haircut here, by the way, the easiest. Many are afraid of moving to the animals with a typewriter, Shearers hire and pay them money - nothing. Haircut is easy to handle even a schoolboy.

Irina07 (User FORUMHOUSE):

We shorn heads 15 for 3 days without straining and without experience. Speed ​​- about 1 hour in the head, including the capture process). Machine sheared almost everything, and where it was impossible, dostrigali special scissors. Without cars much longer and harder.

Shear sheep once or twice a year, rarely - three.

Another bonus of sheep - manure. Fold it into a heap or a compost pit and through the year will get excellent fertilizer, which is used mainly in greenhouses to improve the fertility of the soil, killed by years of vegetable growing.

Lao Czy:

We ZILok humus sheep manure costs about $ 250 per car.

Lambs at the cottage

Now, on the eve of the new summer season, the owners of large tracts begin to think, calculate your pastured reserves and come to the conclusion that contain one lamb and otkromit it to the fatted ram can exactly. This is a very, very bad idea. Lambs can not tolerate loneliness, one lamb is constantly bleat, literally - incessantly and run after you tail on all the garden beds, demanding not so much milk as attention. The lamb can make friends with the calf and calm down, but that's clearly not the case of summer resident, so the best solution would be to have just two lambs.

Careful with fresh clover - are allowed only very small portions, in the stomach of lamb fresh clover swells, and this can lead to very dire consequences, including death.

Often people with the sheep give birth to goats - to discuss their FORUMHOUSE maintenance and care. read about a new kind of sheep - ovchubukov - obtained by scientists from Yakutia. Check out the video, which tells about new technologies in livestock.

Discuss the article and read other materials devoted to country life you can on the websiteFORUMHOUSE.

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