Post by catherine on Mar 24, 2009 2:11:53 GMT -5
Well, I've located a Gulf Coast Native ewe and girl baby at a farm fairly near our own! The kids and I are going up there either tomorrow or Wednesday to see them, and if we like them, they are ours for a total of $300. We won't be bringing them home just yet though. The breeder has a new ram coming and has offered to breed the ewe for us, but due to the closed nature of her flock, can't let the ewe leave her farm, and then later bring her back for breeding. So, it's leave her to be bred, or find another means of accomplishing the deed. Besides, we don't yet have a "flock" for her to join.
So, I'm on a new quest, to locate a few good sheep to form a new flock on our Farm in Texas! I've sent out letters to just about every Gulf Coast Native or St. Croix breeder I can find listed in basically the Texas/Louisiana area (with a few extras), asking if they've got any stock for sale. The only one I've heard back from, so far, is the wonderful lady we bought our RW pigs from...Marian Van Beever! Oh, I think the world of that crazy gal. She's into so many wild and wonderful projects, and she LOVES her rare breeds, as do I. Anyway, she thinks she can find a few for us, so I'm hopeful!
You see, we are obviously very, very much noobies to this whole shepherding thing. We live in hot, muggy and parasite ridden south Texas, so I'm not even very sure how sheep are going to do here. BUT, when I was a girl, goats were reputed to do well only in dry climates but NOT humid ones like East Texas. NOW there are goats EVERYWHERE! lol. So, why not sheep too?
We are planning to get a few Gulf Coast Native wool sheep, and a few St. Croix hair sheep, and see which we like the best. Losers may be eaten. I've found a sheep dairy in Missouri that uses GCs in a dairy cross to increase the parasite resistance of her dairy sheep. She says that GCs only give about a pint of milk a day though. However, 50% dairy blood doubles that, and increases the length of the lactation. Fair enough. Then I was reading a report by a lady in Virginia who'd done a 5 year study on dairy sheep, and came to the conclusion that St. Croix produce 3 liters of milk a day and have great heat/parasite resistance. Even the St. Croix/Dairy sheep did better on both counts than say the Katadhin or Katadhin/Dairy crosses! Wait...back up...yes, I said that the St. Croix in her study produced 3 liters a day! Well, if you could up that by crossing in some dairy blood, without reducing the parasite resistance much, now we're talking some real dairying!
I know that doesn't sound like much milk as compared with our sweet Jerseys. However, apparently sheep's milk can be frozen for up to a year without losing any of it's quality for cheesemaking. So, you can save up milk until you have enough to do a batch or two of cheese. Also, it produces something like twice the amount of cheese per gallon of milk, as compared with cow's milk! That starts making up for the small initial volume of milk.
I don't know where this experiment will take us, but I'm fascinated as we go along. Apparently the GC and St. Croix are easy to learn shepherding with, due to their resistance and hardiness. That means they will hopefully be great sheep to add to our low input farm. They will hopefully help with sanitizing our pastures as our different breeds work through the fields in intensive rotations. They'll provide meat, some milk, and perhaps even a bit of wool for us. We can work with both breeds and see which we prefer. Then, perhaps we can bring in some dairy blood, and see what happens. I'm really excited about this new project, and my husband can't wait to try the cheeses! ;D
So, I'm on a new quest, to locate a few good sheep to form a new flock on our Farm in Texas! I've sent out letters to just about every Gulf Coast Native or St. Croix breeder I can find listed in basically the Texas/Louisiana area (with a few extras), asking if they've got any stock for sale. The only one I've heard back from, so far, is the wonderful lady we bought our RW pigs from...Marian Van Beever! Oh, I think the world of that crazy gal. She's into so many wild and wonderful projects, and she LOVES her rare breeds, as do I. Anyway, she thinks she can find a few for us, so I'm hopeful!
You see, we are obviously very, very much noobies to this whole shepherding thing. We live in hot, muggy and parasite ridden south Texas, so I'm not even very sure how sheep are going to do here. BUT, when I was a girl, goats were reputed to do well only in dry climates but NOT humid ones like East Texas. NOW there are goats EVERYWHERE! lol. So, why not sheep too?
We are planning to get a few Gulf Coast Native wool sheep, and a few St. Croix hair sheep, and see which we like the best. Losers may be eaten. I've found a sheep dairy in Missouri that uses GCs in a dairy cross to increase the parasite resistance of her dairy sheep. She says that GCs only give about a pint of milk a day though. However, 50% dairy blood doubles that, and increases the length of the lactation. Fair enough. Then I was reading a report by a lady in Virginia who'd done a 5 year study on dairy sheep, and came to the conclusion that St. Croix produce 3 liters of milk a day and have great heat/parasite resistance. Even the St. Croix/Dairy sheep did better on both counts than say the Katadhin or Katadhin/Dairy crosses! Wait...back up...yes, I said that the St. Croix in her study produced 3 liters a day! Well, if you could up that by crossing in some dairy blood, without reducing the parasite resistance much, now we're talking some real dairying!
I know that doesn't sound like much milk as compared with our sweet Jerseys. However, apparently sheep's milk can be frozen for up to a year without losing any of it's quality for cheesemaking. So, you can save up milk until you have enough to do a batch or two of cheese. Also, it produces something like twice the amount of cheese per gallon of milk, as compared with cow's milk! That starts making up for the small initial volume of milk.
I don't know where this experiment will take us, but I'm fascinated as we go along. Apparently the GC and St. Croix are easy to learn shepherding with, due to their resistance and hardiness. That means they will hopefully be great sheep to add to our low input farm. They will hopefully help with sanitizing our pastures as our different breeds work through the fields in intensive rotations. They'll provide meat, some milk, and perhaps even a bit of wool for us. We can work with both breeds and see which we prefer. Then, perhaps we can bring in some dairy blood, and see what happens. I'm really excited about this new project, and my husband can't wait to try the cheeses! ;D