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Milking hair sheep. The ultimate prepper food converter

Joleneakamama

Joleneakamama

Seasoned Member
Real Person
Female

I am trying to reduce our flock. This is my plug for these wonderful animals. Look for a Katahdin breeder near you if you live in another state. :-)​


If you ever had a goat to eat grass, you did the equivalent of buying hedge trimmers to mow the lawn!

Sheep are GRAZERS. They convert grass and weeds into AMAZING milk and meat. (Not that they won't eat brush and trees too)

Super rich creamy SWEET milk. NO MATTER WHAT THEY EAT!

Very few goats give sweet milk eating strong flavored weeds.

The lambs are fast growing and are excellent meat. We make sausage, enjoy roasts, and grill chops and ribs. Mild delicious and tender, the meat is similar in texture to pork, not stringy like beef and goat.

I have more milkers then we need and am reducing the flock. Proven producers that are gentle and used to being milked that are in milk now.

Located in central Arizona. Priced at 350. For nice ewes.
Discounts on multiple animals. Please respond here for more information.

#cheesemaking #homedairy #milkers #ewe #lamb #meat #sausage
 
We are waiting to pick up 6 weaning ewe lambs in the next week or so. Need to find a young ram to cover the flock. On another note we do not drink milk and after milking 350 head of Holsteins 3 times a day in my youth I have no desire to milk anything.
 
JimandMary said:
We are waiting to pick up 6 weaning ewe lambs in the next week or so. Need to find a young ram to cover the flock. On another note we do not drink milk and after milking 350 head of Holsteins 3 times a day in my youth I have no desire to milk anything.
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But have you tasted sheeps milk?
 
I have -- and like it far better than goat's milk, which always seems to have this taste combo along the lines of eau de metal can and radish leaf.
 
After rehoming ten ewes to a neighbor, and about nine ewes and a ram + lambs to a cousin, two more ewes went to a new family last night. I had other inquiries. Hubby wants the meat animals bigger and fatter before they become freezer pets. I will need to make tough decisions again once the yearlings lamb this fall. Just made another 20 lbs or so of cheese today. Enjoyed homemade mozzarella on our pizza lastnight while watching the awesome lunar eclipse.
FollowingHim said:
But have you tasted sheeps milk?
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The folks who got sheep yesterday tried cheese and milk. The milk was raved about....and they loved the cheese too.

Excellent food converters for sure.

#milkbeatsweeds :)
 
Here is a batch of brick cheese in my new forms hubby made for me. Honey Locust wood from a tree they removed on a job. Mostly sheep milk cheese ...should be four nice loaves.
 

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Old Paths Gardener said:
Just this year we added hair sheep to our collection. They are still a bit young, but I'm looking forward to when they mature!
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They are an asset to a farm....as long as you keep them out of the garden and orchard. Keeping plants and plant eaters is a bit like keeping lions and lambs. ;-)

These are the cheeses after I took them out of the salt brine. Each loaf weighs between 4.5 and 4.75 lb. They "raised" a bit from the gas the culture produces.20220518_080619.jpg
 
Joleneakamama said:
They are an asset to a farm....as long as you keep them out of the garden and orchard. Keeping plants and plant eaters is a bit like keeping lions and lambs. ;)

These are the cheeses after I took them out of the salt brine. Each loaf weighs between 4.5 and 4.75 lb. They "raised" a bit from the gas the culture produces.View attachment 3037
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Nice!!!! Yes! Grass-eating animals can really clear a place out ... the stuff you want, and don't want 😀 We just expanded the pasture for our cows and goats; they are loving the new side. Like kids in a candy shop.
 
This is one of my favorite ewes Biscotti.
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I've lost track of her age... her dam was a very loved 50/50 Katahdin/Dorper named Spot. Her paternal granddam is another favorite. Cookie had 3 sets of twins, then two sets of triplets, then got accidentally bred out of season and had a single ram lamb. She's still going strong. Biscotti had twins as a yearling, then two sets of triplets, then an accidental set of fall twin (Nov.) lambs, (over a year old now) then triplets again a few weeks ago. She is a super good mom....though I steal her lambs anyway. It is easier to wean. She is super gentle. Easy to hand milk. Currently giving almost a half gallon a milking.
Here is her (slightly mucky)
udder. It looks far larger in real life!
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I love how Blondie is waiting her turn here.
Just a bit of wool on Biscotti's belly. She sheds well without shearing. Good here where everything grows stickers!

I still feel these are ideal family/small farm food producers. Love my sheep!
 
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Apparently the sheep streak continues. So I added katahdin to my sheep folder as a good meat and mil breed. I will however need a bit of info on that sausage recipe @Joleneakamama
I have made a mountain of venison and pork sausage and a fair amount of summer sausage of various stripes and...well lots of other types. But I have never had any sheep sausage much less made any.
Hit me with some details?
 
Joleneakamama said:
This is one of my favorite ewes Biscotti.
View attachment 6785
I've lost track of her age... her dam was a very loved 50/50 Katahdin/Dorper named Spot. Her paternal granddam is another favorite. Cookie had 3 sets of twins, then two sets of triplets, then got accidentally bred out of season and had a single ram lamb. She's still going strong. Biscotti had twins as a yearling, then two sets of triplets, then an accidental set of fall twin (Nov.) lambs, (over a year old now) then triplets again a few weeks ago. She is a super good mom....though I steal her lambs anyway. It is easier to wean. She is super gentle. Easy to hand milk. Currently giving almost a half gallon a milking.
Here is her (slightly mucky)
udder. It looks far larger in real life!
View attachment 6786
View attachment 6787
I love how Blondie is waiting her turn here.
Just a bit of wool on Biscotti's belly. She sheds well without shearing. Good here where everything grows stickers!

I still feel these are ideal family/small farm food producers. Love my sheep!
Click to expand...
Now I know what to get when we acquire some farmland! I do a lot considering we live in town (large vegetable garden, grapes, berries, fruit trees, and chickens), but would add some of these milking sheep in a heartbeat if I had a little more land. They look awesome!
 
Joleneakamama said:
This is one of my favorite ewes Biscotti.
View attachment 6785
I've lost track of her age... her dam was a very loved 50/50 Katahdin/Dorper named Spot. Her paternal granddam is another favorite. Cookie had 3 sets of twins, then two sets of triplets, then got accidentally bred out of season and had a single ram lamb. She's still going strong. Biscotti had twins as a yearling, then two sets of triplets, then an accidental set of fall twin (Nov.) lambs, (over a year old now) then triplets again a few weeks ago. She is a super good mom....though I steal her lambs anyway. It is easier to wean. She is super gentle. Easy to hand milk. Currently giving almost a half gallon a milking.
Here is her (slightly mucky)
udder. It looks far larger in real life!
View attachment 6786
View attachment 6787
I love how Blondie is waiting her turn here.
Just a bit of wool on Biscotti's belly. She sheds well without shearing. Good here where everything grows stickers!

I still feel these are ideal family/small farm food producers. Love my sheep!
Click to expand...
You named your sheep Spot?!? How is this not a cry for help?
 
The Revolting Man said:
You named your sheep Spot?!? How is this not a cry for help?
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With this many animals, a name is just a handle. Another of my favorites was never named....we just call her twentyfour the number that used to be on her ear tag....that's been missing for several years. Her son was... (wait for it) .. .twelve. lol Her grandson.....yep...six.

Spot was a black headed dorper cross with a large black spot on her back. Her son was Fido. 😀
 
When an animal is important for whatever reason and you find you need to refer to it frequently, it simply acquires a name from being mentioned a lot. I don't really name animals, but some of my animals have names. That sheep called "Dotty" happens to have had several spots of spraypaint on her all summer as she's a valuable stud animal and I wanted to see her easier in the paddock. I had been calling her things like "that good ewe lamb from this year", but once she had spots on her she just became "Dotty" because it was faster to say. Names just happen.
 
Joleneakamama said:
With this many animals, a name is just a handle. Another of my favorites was never named....we just call her twentyfour the number that used to be on her ear tag....that's been missing for several years. Her son was... (wait for it) .. .twelve. lol Her grandson.....yep...six.

Spot was a black headed dorper cross with a large black spot on her back. Her son was Fido. 😀
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Why wasn’t the son 25? Wasn’t he just one more? Why am I so invested in what you name your sheep!?!?
 
The Revolting Man said:
Why wasn’t the son 25? Wasn’t he just one more? Why am I so invested in what you name your sheep!?!?
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Well, since 24 is probably my most favorite....anything you cross her with feels like your diluting those great genetics. Her ram lamb was nice....but could only be half 24. =12
If I get a daughter or grandaughter nicer than her I'll go up with numbers....except they might have names before we know they are that good. I have a 2 year old out of another loved ewe, Cookie, and 24's son 12. She's very promising....already named Butterscotch Chip Cookie aka buttersnot. Also have 2 nice 2 year olds out of Maggie. Maggie had triplets often too....these had a brother and she had triplets this year for her new owner. One year we had 6 sets of triplets including a set from a first time lambing ewe.
It's quite the problem.....I culled quite a few nice ewes into the freezer last year....and sold a few too. Lamb is tasty and versatile...but we slaughtered close to 30 head this last fall. We can only eat so many.
 
For us, triplets are undesirable - we're raising the animals entirely outdoors on grass seasonally, aiming to sell the lambs over summer, and triplets are more prone to die and just grow too slowly in these conditions. So we try to aim for twins & singles, not triplets. A few are ok, but if we tried to get to 200% lambing we'd have so many triplets it would be impractical.
 
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