Sheep questions...?

[nao57]

So... I was curious to ask... what happens when you breed hair sheep with wool sheep? And doing this, is it possible to produce the lambs to be wool sheep?

The reason I ask this is because all the breeds people say have high parasite resistance are mostly all hair sheep. That's kind of an issue where we're having economic problems, where we might not always be able to have parasite medicine, or such medicine might not be affordable later. So... if someone could transfer the parasite resistance of hair sheep to some wool sheep breeds this could be something amazing. (Plus right now there's not a market for wool, but this might not always be the case, especially given that society doesn't seem to have much self sufficiency right now. People want more self sufficiency and want more ability to produce without participating in a predator economy.)

Are there any sheep breeds that are wool sheep that still have parasite resistance?

Mostly when people talk parasite resistance they talk about St. Croix and a few others. (Shed their coats in summer = hair sheep.)

Its also interesting that many breeds in demand and that have the big prices right now have very poor parasite resistance. People say dorpers are known for LOW parasite resistance. Suffolks seem to have their own issues also.

...

 

[sourland]

Have you posted this in our sister site: Backyard Farms?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

If I remember correctly, you'll get wool sheep, but the wool will be too full of hairs to be worth using.

You'd have to make it a breeding project to try and keep the resistance while going towards better wool if you wanted to use it.

 

[Penpal]

I used to have wool sheep. Beautiful wool. I used rotational grazing and did not have problems with parasites. It is also useful to let anti parasitic weeds grow. If they need it, they nibble it.

 

[cassie]

Crossing wool breeds with hair sheep will most likely net you unusable fleece.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

I agree the wool would be unsuitable for use at least for the first few generations if you did make it a breeding project. As far as resistance to parasites go and general hardiness animal husbandry plays a huge role. I have seen hardy breeds have problems because they are not kept well and breeds that are not considered hardy do very well when on properly maintained pasture. If you allow your pastures to be grazed down then you greatly increase your chances of parasites and those parasites are what causes an animal to not only have a weakened immune system, but not be able to absorb nutrients. If you as suggested above rotationally graze so it never gets eaten below 4-5” and allow a pasture to rest through a parasitical lifecycle then die off you have just greatly reduced your herds chances of parasites and also boosted their overall nutrition intake. It is when an animal is Pastures that are rotated also contain significantly more overall nutrients, vitamins and omega 3 than those that are not maintained and grazed until barren. For example, I purchased a pony that is considered to be a “hardier” breed, but he was completely overloaded with parasites and underweight because he had been kept on very overgrazed pasture. He was wormed here and now we keep him on pastures that we rotate the horses through. He is now at his ideal weight and the vet said he will do a fecal float in the fall, but with the way we manage our pastures he doesn’t think it will be necessary to worm any of the horses this fall.

 

[nao57]

I used to have wool sheep. Beautiful wool. I used rotational grazing and did not have problems with parasites. It is also useful to let anti parasitic weeds grow. If they need it, they nibble it.

What kind of sheep did you do? And what was it like? Would like to hear more. Are they difficult to keep alive? Supposedly you don't have to chase them around as much as goats.

 

[nao57]

I agree the wool would be unsuitable for use at least for the first few generations if you did make it a breeding project. As far as resistance to parasites go and general hardiness animal husbandry plays a huge role. I have seen hardy breeds have problems because they are not kept well and breeds that are not considered hardy do very well when on properly maintained pasture. If you allow your pastures to be grazed down then you greatly increase your chances of parasites and those parasites are what causes an animal to not only have a weakened immune system, but not be able to absorb nutrients. If you as suggested above rotationally graze so it never gets eaten below 4-5” and allow a pasture to rest through a parasitical lifecycle then die off you have just greatly reduced your herds chances of parasites and also boosted their overall nutrition intake. It is when an animal is Pastures that are rotated also contain significantly more overall nutrients, vitamins and omega 3 than those that are not maintained and grazed until barren. For example, I purchased a pony that is considered to be a “hardier” breed, but he was completely overloaded with parasites and underweight because he had been kept on very overgrazed pasture. He was wormed here and now we keep him on pastures that we rotate the horses through. He is now at his ideal weight and the vet said he will do a fecal float in the fall, but with the way we manage our pastures he doesn’t think it will be necessary to worm any of the horses this fall.

Thanks for the comment. Have you tried feeding them pumpkins? People say pumpkin stuff for a few weeks can de-worm, push out some types of parasites. And there's people that have talked about that here.

Unfortunately... I don't know if pumpkins can be given to every type of livestock out there and what dosages are safe. Like horses (ponies) before my dad retired the most common veterinary call he'd get for horses was colicky horse.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

What kind of sheep did you do? And what was it like? Would like to hear more. Are they difficult to keep alive? Supposedly you don't have to chase them around as much as goats.

Sheep like to play the game of "how can I get killed today".

 

[ShrekDawg]

Sheep like to play the game of "how can I get killed today".

Oh boy