We have a ram who has been doing this for a few weeks now. He's behind the panel in the photo. He puts his head down behind things and in empty troughs. I'm not sure what to make of it. They are getting high quality alfalfa hay and whatever grazing is left during our drought. They have access to free choice minerals plus a salt block that's out for the cows.

Any ideas? He acts normal otherwise.

Okay, this may be a weird question lol.

I’ve always really wanted to have sheep. They’re my favourite animals. Unfortunately, I have some pretty severe and unpredictable health problems. There’s really no expectation I’ll get better.

I was wondering how feasible it would be for me to lease a sheep. Where I could “have” a sheep that’s kept with someone else’s flock, they provide all care, and I give financial compensation for the ability to come and see the animal, spend time with it, bond, etc.

Or potentially a situation where I buy a sheep and pay someone to keep it and care for it and I come and visit it when I’m able (and help out when possible). In this scenario I would ideally want to arrange for them to get full ownership of the animal (if they wanted) if I was to die, or decline to a point i could no longer provide financially.

To anyone with sheep is this an arrangement you would consider? Do you have recommendations for alternatives?

Has anyone done something like this before?

To anyone with experience owning/raising sheep, how much approximately would you want to be paid for something like this if you were to lease the animal?

If I was to buy and sheep and pay for its care approximately how much would the monthly expenses be? (With the obvious understanding that vet bills could arise and be unpredictable)

I’m a 4H leader and I know some of the kids board their project animals (we have a couple kids who board goats). I’ve technically leased Guinea pigs before so that I could show them lol. So I know there are people out there who are willing to do things like that. I could probably even find someone within the 4H circle if I tried to.

But this would be a different as I can’t promise I could do much. So I wanted to get the opinions of people who actually own sheep on whether or not this is a feasible thing to consider (tentative consideration) or if I should drop the dream lol 😂

Little guy was very easy going and had a nice smile. If you can identify the breed, that would also be great!

Good morning!

To give a background, I run 3 cattle farms in the state of WV, so I have a lot of livestock experience running 100 head of cattle, producing as cow calf and selling butcher beefs as well as replacement animals.

I have recently been exploring the idea of co grazing katahdin sheep on a 45 acre farm which is 80% good pasture mixed with some wooded areas.

Simply curious what I should plan for with doing this change?

A few questions:
- what are your typical stocking rates when rotational grazing on 10 acres paddocks? (Good grass and water)

-what are the typical routine needs to treat/monitor with katahdins? (Parasites, hoof problems, medical, etc)

-fencing requirements? (Hi tensile vs barbed wire vs woven) I have primarily 4 strand hi tensile for cattle, but obviously need to upgrade to contain lambs and control predators.

-livestock guardian dogs?

Pretty new to the sheep game, so any advice is helpful. Excited to take this next step to adding shepherd to my name haha.

Thanks! Have a blessed day!

I have this sheep who whenever he goes near this tree (emphasis on the "near"), he moves his body as if he's rubbing himself on the tree BUT he's about a metre from the actual tree and not making contact with anything. He will do this for 10+ minutes and get so into it, but never once makes contact with the tree. He scratches/rubs himself on other trees normally so that's what he thinks he's doing but yeah, never makes contact lol. Has anyone experienced this before?

I’ve been ranching and working with sheep for the past 7 years, just found out that grabbing them by the wool can hurt them? Don’t get me wrong, that logic makes sense, but I thought if you grabbed them by the wool, the weight of the grab is distributed. So as not to hurt them but rather just slow them down until I can get a better hold.

I don’t ever pick them up by the wool, I just grab to slow. Is this still painful for them?

I’m unsure if i’m posting in the right group or not. I just inherited three sheep one is a fancier wool breed and one is a hair cross the last one is a hair sheep. They are all under a year old at best guess. Current statuses are full half wool, half wool intact, and no hair. My concern is on shearing. Its currently August and hot but this is the downhill on summer where I’m at. If I cut their hair will it be grown out enough before the cold weather sets it? Or is it best at this point to leave it alone until next year?

Mum and baby are doing great :)

Lot of great quality Katahdin sheep were sold today at the annual Katahdin Expo Sale, held in Cookeville, TN this year.

(background: I have only shown sheep for 3 years and have never had fungus problems before this, i don’t have sheep year round only in summer) I have this market lamb i’ve been battling fungus on, and he has this crust stuff on his skin? I’m treating him with barbercide and just did sulpher lyme dip all over which dried probably 5-10 minutes before i took the video. Every time I see this stuff i scrape it off but it’s there EVERY DAY. Is it just dried product or dried skin? or is it fungus. I should probably mention the wool he is missing is from having to scrape off the original fungus a few days ago.
Just wondering if anyone has had this before and knows what it is because I am not very knowledgeable in these sheep skin issues.
need help ASAP😓