I had Romneys. They would dress out at about 60 lbs at around 8 months or so.

But they are not clean legged.

One thing you should keep in mind, is that your sheep to acre ratio is 2 to 1. You will find that they will graze your grass right down to the ground if you don't rotate.

Your lambs will be grazing until they are old enough to slaughter, so your ratio will be higher when they are on pasture. And, this is with good pasture. If your have a lot of shrub, weeds, that will make your ratio even lower.

If you are just going to keep the wool from the original sheep you buy, and sell all your lambs, then you should cross them with a meat breed, to make their offspring better for meat. Coopworth would do or Leisthers, Corriedales or Romney depending on what type of wool you want.

Or, better yet, buy one ewe from 3 different breeds and cross with a meat ram.

I specialized in colored Romney wool, that was fun. I also had Cotswolds, and I loved them. I sold most of their wool for Santa's beards & crafts. A meat cross with them would produce a quicker & larger meat animal I think.
And they were the prettiest things to look at out in the pasture!

M

Thanks for the info M! We have a rotation schedule all worked out and an extra few acres of pasture across town in case of emergency. The grass is excellent quality with plenty of clover. I've been looking at Cotswolds and have to admit I'm smitten. My husband is the livestock manager at Buckwheat Blossom and The Morris Farm, both of which deal with Coopworths. I've run it by him, and he loves the idea of mixing the flock until we decide exactly what works best on our land. Again, thanks for your help!
Amanda

If you want a sheep that flocks well, has reasonable fleece and meat, consider Corriedale. We had a Corriedale flock for 20 years. The first 5 or so years, we only had fences on 2 1/2 sides of our large pasture. They never left. (We now have Rideau Arcotts, they are forever breaking through fences.)

Don't collect sheep from different farms. That is an invitation to disease.

If you want to maintain good spinning wool, you will need to keep your flock relatively young, as the wool quality deteriorates as the sheep age.

Cross fence your 3 acres into at least 3 paddocks for grazing rotation.

Goodness, I would sure want a bigger lamb than 80# at 8 months! We do market lambs for 4-H, with the black faces and legs, white or grey body. Suffolk or Hampshire breeding. We need them 130-150 pounds at Fair, usually about 6 months. Our lambs get pastured to save money, but are getting grain as well.
When we had pet sheep, we kept the lambs until about 9-12months old, to gain the weight before butchering at 150 pounds. Rate of gain depended on our grazing then, we only grained those lambs the last month. You want to end up with some meat to bring home! With 130 pound lambs you get about 75 pounds back from the butcher. Lamb chops that are bigger than a 50 cent piece. A decent sized leg of lamb for roasting, plus other meat cuts and burger.

The fleece on these market lambs is not wonderful, but I do clip ours in April, May and June to help them gain weight better. Wool is about 1/4"- 1/2" all the time in warm weather. They eat better if not hot. The trimmed wool is short, so I just wash it and have stuffed a bunch of pillows with it. Works very well, comfortable pillows. I run the wool thru the washer on hot with Tide, rinse twice, then thru the dryer, to clean it. I wash the pillows on warm and dry them if needed later. Such short clipped wool makes little fluffy balls when dried. I plan to try some felting with it this year.

Our friends had colored Corridales, said they were very nice sheep once they knew you. They used lambs for meat and wool was sold to hand spinners. The lambs did achieve some size, but not like meat breeds. Perhaps a cross would suit the purposes you have better.

Our other friends have Cheviots for handspinning, but thier lambs are still small at older ages. Hardly reach 90 pounds before a year old. So MAYBE 35 pounds of meat. Tiny lamb chops. Not much meat to offset butchering fees. Cheviots are PRETTY lively, need GREAT fencing, but wool is SUPER so they keep them on.

Have you checked out Tunis or Columbians? They are larger sized, wool was very nice when petting them at the Fair. Corridale and Merino get extremely greasy wool, so it always looks dirty. Great lanolin for the hands though and long to spin up.

Dorsets tend to stay small, finished lambs are 110 pounds. Anything bigger is just grease, not meat. Nice wool though wrinkly to shear. Mixed use sheep.

Any lamb not meant to keep, should be butchered before it gets adult teeth at about a year. Lambs on good pasture seem to mature faster, so pay attention and don't wait too long to send the lambs to butcher. The taste of meat goes bad then. I can't eat mutton, tastes like chewing candles!! Taste of lamb is incredibly good, not anything like eating sheep. Amazing what the difference teeth do to the meat. We never buy store lamb, not even close to what homegrown lamb tastes like!
If you just want to eat a lamb, you should check out the local Fair, buy at their meat animal auction! Our local Fair even has free hauling to the butcher. The buyer just goes to pick up their bags of meat! Usually a real bargin in meat buying, with meat quality extremely high when buying from the kids. We find Fair lamb prices better than store bought.

Pasture needs will vary. Our two market lambs never get the pasture grazed down. Actually is a small horse paddock. Mowing the grazing often, will keep grass coming up better, like a lawn. I cut the fields when grass is about 8", mowed to about 5". Letting grass set seed will finish any new grass growth. 5" tall protects roots from sunburn, long enough leaf to feed well developed grass roots. Makes grass tougher to survive well in drought or wet periods.

" I had Romneys. They would dress out at about 60 lbs at around 8 months or so. " This was mis-quoted.

The operative words here are "dress out" which means that was how much the carcass weighs after gutting, etc. Not the live weight! Any long wool breed will take a little longer to get to market weight because they are putting so much into producing wool.

The live weight was 110-120 lbs.

Romneys are a dual purpose breed. Obviously, they will not be as heavey as a pure meat breed at the optimum time to slaughter, but taking in the fact that they provide you with a great wool with a long staple for spinning, they are satisfactory and the meat is good.

I've never eaten Cotswold, so I don't know about their meat, but I loved the wool, and bred them to sell for breeding stock, not meat.
M

I caught goodhor's mistake about the Romneys, don't worry :) And, mixing breeds shouldn't be a problem if we select from old farms with quality, closed flocks. Plenty of them here in Maine. I've talked to our know-it-all friends (she's a regional rep with Heifer Int'l, and he's a sheep shearer) and they think mixing's a great idea. They were Coopworth all the way in the beginning, but now he admits to liking Corriedales and she admits to liking Cotswolds. I asked them about Navajo Churros and Blue Faced Leicesters, but they said they're respectively crazy and hard to shear. Is that so? They also said Romneys are perfectly respectable animals. Some of their flock are Romney crosses, in fact. So, it looks like I'll be in the market for a Coopworth, a Cotswold, a Corriedale, and a Romney come next spring, unless of course I can weasle my way into getting a Churro instead. Now-does anybody have any breeder friends in Maine or thereabouts?

Hi!
I ran across your post concerning an interest in BFLs and felt compelled to write and rhapsodize on my favorite sheep. :^)
It looked like you have heard that Bluefaced Leicesters are hard to shear, which could not be farther from the truth! I shear my own rams, and our shearer always comments on how easy the ewes are to shear and how he wishes his other customers had them, too. They don't have any wool on head, legs, bellies, so they can be haltered and sheared standing up if you want. The wool is fine and silky, and cuts like butter. They are also so mellow and gentle that its easy to handle them, too, even the big rams.
I suppose by now you have decided upon and purchased another breed, but thought you'd like to hear about BFLs anyway. There are some breeders in New York, Vermont, etc.
If you get a chance, attend the festival in Rhinebeck in October next year. The BFL is the featured breed, so there will be lots of them being shown, and the breed association has big plans for educational displays, classes in using the wool, special fleece and yarn and finished goods contests, etc.

Best
Lisa at Somerhill
www.somerhillfarm.com

Here is a link that might be useful: Loads of pictures of BFLs and their wool

We ran Corriedales, kept 35 ewes on a 5 acre permanent pasture and pastured aftermath corn and oats. My son used the Corriedale lambs for his 4H market lambs and did ok, you cant beat the black face breeds there. As another poster mentioned, only buy from the best farms and dont get them helter skelter. We sold much of the wool to spinners.

This has been a most interesting read! Now I'm thinking I might need to get some sheep, too. I'll have to convince DH first. Actually, we don't have the pasture space right now, but I have a good friend who does. Maybe if I help fence they would let us raise a few there.

I have another question, though. We don't get many sheep farmers around here and the only one I know of locally doesn't have a "sheep dog". What he does have is a donkey. Yes - a donkey! He pastures it with his cattle/calves and with the sheep, when he has them. Apparently, it's just as good a protection as a dog! We have a lot of coyotes around here, and he loses very few calves or sheep with his donkey around. So, my question is: are there donkey "breeds" and if so, which are more recommended? Anyone have any experience with this?

there are different donks, size is the most noticable difference, all would probably work but the minis are quite small, a standard would be my choice. Llamas are also used as stock gaurdians.
Sheep do not have to be kept on largwe pasture, they can be kept in a dry lot and you supply their feed. Sheep are more difficult to manage than some livestock, they do need sheared at least once annually. Do some research before getting any.

Donkeys kill more people than sharks each year.

Brendan, I have never heard of a donkey killing a shark, so I guess what you say must be true.

If you have familiarity with the Coopworth breed and good ones are available locally, that would be a very good way to get started. Since Coopworth's were developed from very careful selection of crossings of Border Leicester and Romney, those breeds would blend well into the flock -- similar size, feed requirements, temperament and so on. We have had very, very good success crossing black-faced rams on Border Leicester and Coopworth-type ewes. (We have purebred Oxfords for the most part, and just a handful of handspinner sheep.) The lambs come out brockle-faced and seem to display a great deal of hybrid vigor, making fast and excellent butcher lambs. You would get very similar results using a Hamp or Shrop ram.

For a small, all-purpose flock, you should probably give some thought to feed conversion too. We have had Columbia's and Corrie's in the past, and found that they require a good deal more feed and drier climate.

Donkeys kill more people than sharks??????

I'm assuming that you mean donkeys kill more people than sharks kill people? I've NEVER heard of a death due to a donkey, but then again it's not as sensational as a shark attack. Where did you hear this? Is there some information that I should be looking at when considering a donkey? I know they can be pretty stubborn animals, but I wasn't aware they were vicious. I'd like to know more.......

Balsam

Think about it. All over the world, people use donkeys for beasts of burden, working alongside them every day.

How many people are exposed to sharks on a daily basis? :^)

I am more likely to be attacked and killed by a dog than by an elephant.....my husband is more likely to be trampled and gored by a bull than mauled by a grizzly. :^) :^)

Sure, donkeys can kick or bite, and you should do your homework and meet and get to know the animal before buying one. We have livestock guard dogs with our sheep, and I suppose one of them could bite us or a trespasser. Llamas kick and spit and bite, too.
Heck, I know of an elderly couple in Ohio recently that were killed by their ram!
Each type of guardian animal has its good points and bad points. Just be sure to read and ask questions and educate yourself, and find people who already have guardians to ask questions of and get advice if you have a problem.

Lisa at Somerhill
www.somerhillfarm.com

Thanks for the grin, Lisa :)

My answer to brendan was actually "tongue in cheek" - I do clearly understand why more people might be killed by donkeys. I was trying to make light of a rather negative, not very helpful answer.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. If I decide to get sheep, I will certainly do some research first. I'll also research the donkey thing. Actually, now that I've been thinking about it, I know another fellow with donkeys. I may just go talk to him. He did have llamas and still has a couple of emus,too. He kind of "collects" animals and is pretty knowledgable about them.

Locally, the folks adopt the BLM donkeys. Some a single animal, while others get a pair, to keep each other company. These donkeys average 12-13 hands tall. Those donkeys are REALLY good at dog hunting! Some are not really tame at all, hard to handle. While others get tame with attention, may or may not accept vet work.

Donkey needs to be kept in slim body condition. They will founder from too much rich feed, same as a horse. Donkey is designed for rough ground, not lush grazing, plus grain feed. Sheep feed has Urea, not good for Equines, so sheep feed must be fenced away from donkey.

Donkey will need feet trimmed at least a couple times a year. Soft ground does not wear hoof down, so may need attention even more. Crabby donkey will get tranquilized for care, instead of fighting with them. Safer, easier for the people. Most donkeys don't miss when the kick or strike.
They will need yearly vaccinations, tooth care, worming every couple months. Wild conditions are very different than pasture, animal will need more help to stay in good condition.

I have not heard of any donkey killing any people, but they can be quite determined, will fight, when they don't want to cooperate. They WILL kill a dog if they can catch him. Hooves are hard, have power behind them when animal kicks or strikes out. Don't believe that sleepy appearance, fluffy long eyelashes, floppy ears, fool you about personality! This is not a stuffed animal.

Mini donkey does not have the size or power to fight off large dogs, especially if there is more than one. Mini is cute, but sure not the best sheep protector choice.

Just so you know that turning a donkey out with sheep is not the end of your responsibilities. Wild donkey is not the same as a pastured donkey, needs different managing. Does require human interaction to stay healthy and well cared for.

Try Old English Babydoll Sheep. They are gentle, often have twins, have excellent wool for spinning, the rams do not have horns.