# Best sheep breed for Meat and Wool



## Dreamfarm (Dec 10, 2011)

Thinking of getting some sheep. What is the best breed for both wool and meat. preferably without horns and good for beginners to sheep.

Also is it okay to run a few goats with my sheep. I was thinking a total of about ten animals. Would love your feedback. Thanks in advance


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## dlskidmore (Apr 18, 2012)

What kind of wool? Do you like meat mild our flavorful? Sized to fit in a kitchen freezer or as much meat as possible for your butcher fee?


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## dlskidmore (Apr 18, 2012)

Goats and sheep mix well most of the year, but separate at breeding time.


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## PricklyThistle (Feb 6, 2014)

I might be biased, but I would say Shetlands. They have lovely fleece and though the carcass is smaller than some, they're absolutely delicious.


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

It all comes down to marketing. Are you going to use all of the wool yourself? Are you going to eat all of the meat yourself? If you have surplus, how are you going to market it? You might want a heritage breed, so you can sell purebreds, or you might want to go with Suffolk and sell club lambs, although the wool wouldn't be quite as desirable for handspinning. Maybe just a commercial type mixed breed, and you could sell your surplus at the sale barn. It is awfully expensive to keep a ram around just to have a couple of muttons to butcher. I would want at least a half a dozen ewes around to justify keeping a ram. If you already have goats, I might assume that they are dairy goats? Maybe a Boer buck would make them throw a meatier carcass if you just want freezer meat, unless you have a particular desire for mutton. Personally, mutton is not my thing, but I've messed with sheep my whole life, and the stuff is just too much like a sheep! However, I am continually amazed at how much children, even picky children, seem to relish mutton, it seems to be the anti-broccoli.


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## purplequeenvt (Mar 3, 2013)

Border Leicesters! They have beautiful long (coarse) wool and the lambs grow out quickly. Their shiny locks are very popular with handspinners, needle felters, and other crafters.


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## Dreamfarm (Dec 10, 2011)

I dont have any goats or sheep yet. My family loves to eat lamb and they have a local spinning and weaving group. We could probably go through about 4 or more each year. I was thinking perhaps 2 dairy goats, seven ewes and one ram.


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## dlskidmore (Apr 18, 2012)

Dreamfarm said:


> I dont have any goats or sheep yet. My family loves to eat lamb and they have a local spinning and weaving group. We could probably go through about 4 or more each year. I was thinking perhaps 2 dairy goats, seven ewes and one ram.


How will you freshen the dairy goats? Will someone loan you a buck? AI?


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

The only down side with running goats and sheep in the same pasture, is the sheep can not have as much copper.
You can get around that by using loose minerals for sheep and giving the goats copper boluses when needed.

There are so many wonderful breeds of sheep. See what is near you, go check the flocks out, run your hand in their fleece.
If you want friendly sheep, see if they will come up to you for treats.


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## ErikaMay (Feb 28, 2013)

barnbilder said:


> It is awfully expensive to keep a ram around just to have a couple of muttons to butcher. I would want at least a half a dozen ewes around to justify keeping a ram.


Really? Other than some hay in the winter and damage to your fences whne you have someone who wants to knock his head agains something all day (*sigh*) rams seem to be pretty low cost to me. MUCH cheaper than boar pigs. I'm curious why you say they are expensive?


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## ErikaMay (Feb 28, 2013)

So....you live in central Oregon or Washington, I assume? If you want fiber animals I suggest going to one of the many fiber festivals around that have live animals and seeing which ones YOU like and you can talk to the shepards there about their animals.

Shetlands are cute and all, but the ones I've seen are *tiny* Seems a waste to raise up an animal for so long only to dress out a few lbs of meat. Then again, easy to handle if you are a small person. I'm not sure how they would do in the high desert conditions, either. 

If you are in Oregon I highly recommend the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene in June. Its alot of fun and 100's of sheep there to pet, look at and fall in love with. And you can talk with breeders about their meat quality. You should get a breed you love and enjoy.


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## Dreamfarm (Dec 10, 2011)

I am in WA east of the Cascades. I have contacted a few local farms and will try try to look at a few breeds in person. Thanks for everyone's help


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

My view of the expense of keeping a ram, would be the purchase price of said ram, more than the actual feed he will eat. Generally, anything worth breeding to is going to cost more than stockyard price. Plus the expense of an extra male animal pen. This time of year just keeping an extra water bucket thawed out is a physical "expense" in many ways.


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## InHisName (Jan 26, 2006)

We are in Wa east of Cascades- also take in mind what the sheep like to eat- our sheep do a great job eating knapweed! Some of the sheep are better foragers, so you might consider that when picking a breed. I have several sheep, a few different breeds, to make the yarn I want. They are all dual purpose at our farm.... 
Our sheep ran with goats for 5 years- but we just removed the goats, and it helped calm the sheep. (the goats were being bullies) 
I would find out the fiber groups in your area- for instance, in Colville there are a great group of ladies- group called "fiber friends" that are dedicated to their sheep. Lots of different breeds, most of them would welcome someone to their place to check out their sheep. 
http://www.woolco-op.org/
this website is for the North American Wool Cooperative- based out of Oroville area-
they are working on getting a fiber mill here in Washington state. Hurray!
I have had a few different breeds- flighty Jacobs, though not all Jacobs are flighty. Icelandics, super meat and fleece, easy to raise. Some can be flighty. Shetlands- again, some flighty. We just keep the tame ones now, but they are great foragers, and I can pick one up and put it on the goat stanchion myself. (If I can catch it) 
Love BFL and crosses-Finn and crosses, Romney and crosses (except they are big for us to handle- as well as the Wensleydale- be sure to keep that in mind- how am I going to handle this sheep? can I catch it? will I hire a shearer, or do it myself?)
Editing one more time- predators. Here we have cougars. I have not personally had one- but across the road they had a cougar eat the tethered goat. (kids forgot to bring her in) Just something else to consider- we have dogs that keep the coyotes at bay, and a 3 sided barn where they stay close to the house at night. A bear also got a friends alpaca here....


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## gimpy (Sep 18, 2007)

Dreamfarm said:


> I dont have any goats or sheep yet. My family loves to eat lamb and they have a local spinning and weaving group. We could probably go through about 4 or more each year. I was thinking perhaps 2 dairy goats, seven ewes and one ram.


Why not get dairy sheep and skip the goats? That eliminates the copper issue. You can cross breed. Get a polled ram of some breed and maybe some combination of Icelandic or Freisian ewes?


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## PricklyThistle (Feb 6, 2014)

Might want to get cream and butter from goat's milk? That's why I got some dairy goats.


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## Dreamfarm (Dec 10, 2011)

my hubby wants milk sheep for feta. I want a sheep because I like to eat lamb, fiber is a bonus. we are very near Colville in fact someone told me about that group, was looking at Corriedales since they seem to be dual purpose, and then perhaps a few milking sheep, but a weed eating sheep would be awesome. Have decided NOT to keep a ram and only one milking goat.


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## InHisName (Jan 26, 2006)

Then we are neighbors! Hope you can make it to that group- they meet at the fairgrounds on Mondays. I am part of it, though only make it about 1x per year. If you would like some sheep contact info, pm me- lots of sheepy friends there! Also, there are some great Finns on that side of the mountain...


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## gimpy (Sep 18, 2007)

After doing some reading, I guess it depends on what you want to do with the wool as to what's the best for wool. There's a lot of variance of opinion on commercial wool producers, but apparently the best for hand spinning is Soay. Talked to a guy who told me that their teats are nowhere big enough for milking, but if you crossed them with Friesians, I wonder what you'd get?


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## purplequeenvt (Mar 3, 2013)

Soay are little primitive breed sheep that have a wonderfully soft baby fleece, but they shed their wool making harvesting it a challenge. While never having personally handled them, I have been told that they are very agile and flighty sheep. Not one I would want as a "production" animal.


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

purplequeenvt said:


> Soay are little primitive breed sheep that have a wonderfully soft baby fleece, but they shed their wool making harvesting it a challenge. While never having personally handled them, I have been told that they are very agile and flighty sheep. Not one I would want as a "production" animal.


I had two wethers from the Blue Mountain flock. They were a real challenge to halter train and tame down, but they did in time. Then they became pocket pets, so to speak. 
And yes, their fleece was super soft, what there was of it, as it is super short.

Not all Soay lines have really soft fleece. 

If you want tame lambs right from the start... pick up some bottle babies if you can.


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

There's a thread going about Polypay and targhee breeds. You might want to look at them. I've been quite impressed with what I read about each breed. Fine-wooled, larger, quick growing. Or a Blue-faced leicester crosses. Just to give you a few more to think about. LOL!


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## jbo9 (Oct 30, 2012)

Since I asked about the Targhee and Polypay, I'll offer my plan here. My wife wants to try spinning and we both enjoy eating lamb. With the fine wooled ewes, I should be able to get enough wool to spin and sell any extra commercially. At one time, the wool crop used to pay expenses, and the lamb crop was all profit. But with the commercial wool market falling, wool has been more of a challenge to market. That seems to be changing. For a ram, I would use a black faced breed like Suffolk or Hampshire for crossbred lambs that should grow out well. The Targhee are very good keepers, they do well on the arid plains of Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas. At one time, eastern Washington and Oregon were home to many big bands of sheep.


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