Should sheep be raised in confinement or on pasture???
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ต.ค. 2024
- What is better when it comes to raising sheep? Confinement or pasture? That isn't a simple answer like you may hope to get, many variables will make that decision difficult such as weather, climate, lambing season, predators, costs, benefits etc.... Let us show you the pros and cons so you can make your own educated decision.
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Freedom Farms
P.O Box 231
Roby, MO 65552
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Equipment used on our farm:
2017 Polaris Ranger 1000XP
2004 Chevy Silverado 3500
2002 Bobcat S250
2000 Tunitti 10 wheel V rake with kicker wheel
2000 M&W 1815 Rotary Hoe
1992 John Deere 1360 MoCo
1991 Bush Hog 2615 Batwing
1984 Allis Chalmers 8030 with Westendorf TA-46 Loader
1978 Gehl Bale 1500A Round Baler
1970's Kelly Ryan manure spreader (the politician)
Various Implements:
Bale Spikes
Subsoiler/Ripper
Bale Unroller
Not a sheep farmer but have been watching a while and it looks to me you got it figured out for what's best for you.
You're the one dealing with it every day in person. Just make it easy on yourself.
If it comes down to it, do what I do. Flip a coin.
Take care and God Bless
I agree it's all about finding what works best and we're just hoping that this video will help other people make that decision for themselves as well. I know you're not a sheep farmer but I do appreciate you watching Chester! God bless you too
Hello mate thanks for catch up on the farm hope you and the family are all well. Gob bless and take care till next time
Thanks for watching Hulk, hope you are doing well and staying safe too. God bless you all and see you next time.
Lobe the content keep it up
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it and I hope you get a chance to check out older videos too as you have time.
Love the videos. You've talked me in to the barn idea to help build my little flock up. On a side note, my LGD's hate birds. I don't think they came into it naturally, but picked it up from my pitbull mix that will chase flying birds all day long. 100 feet in the air and he chases them lol We do have a lot of vultures flying about so he gets plenty of exercise when he's outside and just goes nuts. So I think the big fluffys just copied him and started chasing them too. I can't imagine watching an eagle carry off one of my lambs. That sounds so horrible to witness. We rarely see any down here. Coyotes and big cats are our issue hence 3 dogs for just a few sheep.
I don't know George's just never been interested in birds at all. As far as the eagles I'm not going to lie if I got a really good video of them carrying a lamb away it would almost be worth it for a few points of view. I know that sounds cruel but I love bald eagles than it would just go nuts for good quality video of them carrying a lamb away from our farm. Overall George does really well though and protecting our flock from predators. We haven't lost any lambs or sheep to coyotes or any other land predators since he has been here. It happens though and I can't blame him it's just an incident that we will hopefully prepare better for in the future.
Sheep never stop eating. Neither do Barns, fences, tractors, balers, or anything else that rust. There will always be maintenance cost, insurance, payment, and depreciation. I have went and helped a senior citizen sheperdess that always ran 300-500 head of ewes. Made GOOD money. Working system was a few throwed together chutes and some cattle panels out under the shade trees. The further we push animals into confinement, the more cost we will incur, the more pampered our genetics will become, the higher numbers we will have to achieve, the more performance we will have to demand.... just to profit about the same as we would have if we would have kept it simple in the first place.
You have a valid point there for sure. We love our mixture of pasture and confinement but I know we will never go full pasture year round again. We also will never go full confinement either as the costs just simply don't pencil out in our favor with feed alone.
@@FreedomFarmsMo I think feed cost COULD be kept under control if you went to a TMR ration. That would demand big scale, probably accelerated lambing, and high performance out of the ewes. Just something to think about. You don't want to supplement your retirement job with your retirement income! LOL. Lots of options and none without challenges.
Then have to think about the marketing. The high ethnic market prices are pushing ALOT of people into sheep. I have been in it when it was pretty painful and now I realize I need to be prepared to weather the storms. If I have very low input and low investments in them, I will be happy when the market is high and I will survive when the market is low.
A TMR is an option but not preferred. That brings a big cost to the table, man-hours, equipment hours, that I'm not sure I want to make that leap. No I don't want to supplement my retirement job with my army retirement do I 😂
Good video and breakdown. I think every farm has its own unique required approach, even farms that are spread out on different plots just a mile or two apart present different challenges within themselves. All in all it boils down to cost in vs income out and how you put a value on your own time.
Regarding predators, I can see how eagles would really be a big problem. Thankfully it’s not an issue for us as that would rally impact how we manage kidding (goat farmers, not sheep) as we kid exclusively on pasture/woods.
Does wind impact choosing not to lamb outside at your farm? Looks like there aren’t a ton of natural windbreaks.
Our biggest problem in south central Missouri when lambing outdoors was the pastures turn to mud, this makes it difficult for lambs to maneuver and it also makes mom not want to clean them when they have mud cakes on them.
Freezing rain is the second reason as it really brings the lambs down quick, especially new borns. Predators were the last straw and made us decide on a barn. You are absolutely right every farm is different and has to be addressed differently
Awsome video thanks for the break down. So my question are just curiosity... I never heard you mention anything about the parasites that are brought into the barn, or disease that they may encounter in a smaller space. Do you clean bedding out weekly, monthly, or just clean out after their out? Also in regards to lambing, why do you guys lamb in winter as compared to spring when its greened up? Thanks again an keep up great job
We do talk about the importance of keeping bedding clean as it will minimize the chances of disease and sickness while in confinement.
We clean our barn every two weeks in order to keep it clean and provide a healthy living environment. You could prolong that time depending on flock size and barn size as well as the bedding material too.
Also we built a feed lot to administer the flocks grain, that feed lot is all gravel so that there is no vegetation for parasites to live on and get pick up by lambs or ewes. This plays into minimizing parasites in the barn as well since they won't pick any up from outside to spread in the barn through their manure.
Lambing just naturally falls in winter, we do not give hormones or pull rams to.chsnge that timeline as it works well for us since the flock will be in the barn for that duration anyhow. This gives us a controlled environment and allows us to watch mom and lambs closely too.
Thanks for watching and hope this answered your questions, if you go back to videos that show us cleaning the barn and building our feedlot it will show it and maybe add some more details I am missing off the top of my head. Please consider subscribing if you haven't. Thanks again for the comment!
@@FreedomFarmsMo thanks for your long response I appreciate that. An yes I will in time be going back through your videos beings I'm new to your channel. Also could you leave me or message me your ema I know your south of me aways an I have so questions of air I would like to ask beings that where considering moving further south. Thanks again
@@brettpayton6286 you are welcome! We started this channel and farm page to help others build their own farm. We have a Facebook page for our farm and you can message us through there. We do not have a dedicated farm email unfortunately.
We do ask that if you have questions specific about a video on the channel that you comment on that video as it gives us a reference for the question to help us answer.
We do the same as you. Your comment about the eagles reminds me of conservationists here calling farmer idiots as complained that the sea eagles were snatching live lambs and that they weren't just staying where they were released. About the same time they released some on the Isle of Wight a wildlife photographer caught one on film taking a lamb at which point they admitted they knew they did they just didn't want to admit it. I believe one of the IoW eagles moved to Oxford and 2 were tracked going towards Essex I believe 2 of the first 6 have returned there now.
I'm sure people complain here about farmers making wildlife relocate but our conversation management handles capturing and moving the animals but you do have to have proof that is the issue whether it be photos, videos, tracks, etc. The barn has stopped our problems mostly so at this point we don't want the bald eagles moved, we love seeing them and honestly if a late born lamb is the price we pay then so be it. A lamb or two isn't a big deal in our eyes but 20-30 was a problem.
@@FreedomFarmsMo biggest issue we have are rooks and crows going for the eyes even with the ewes like in The Sheep Game 's last video. The other big debate is the introduction of wolves and lynx which haven't been in the UK for over 500 years. The conservationists say they will only go after deer and won't touch sheep or calves one of the bodies involved kept pushing that they would compensate any deaths which heralded a lot of skepticism which proved to be correct after one escaped a zoo and killed 7 sheep in less than a week but barely eating any of the kills. Experts stated they were killed by the lynx which was spotted in the area but the trust blamed everything else.
But then I remember what you have as well as Australia including snakes and spiders and I am rather thankful.
I love watching the buzzards that often follow us when we are haymaking and the Sparrowhawk that likes to hunt in the sheds for pigeons and doves.
Do get many sheep with snake bites as here every so often we will get a ewe with a ballooned up face from an adder bite to the nose or face mind you ours are rather dumb that I think if they saw a rattlesnake they'd want to sniff the tail rather than disappear in the opposite direction
I imagine they would love to kill sheep and whether they eat them or not is irrelevant at that point.
We do have snakes but honestly we I don't think we have ever had an issue with them biting sheep, at least not yet anyways.
I do believe ours would be dumb enough to check it out if they saw a snake instead of running away too. Curiosity killed the sheep too, not just the cat.
I would be north of you in Missouri an we feed barely any hay we have 300+ sheep an we do intensive rotation on pasture an they normally have enough pasture for all winter
You are in that good ground in northern Missouri and able to.grow row crops too I bet. You probably have more ground and likely better quality pasture than ours. We have more maintenance to do on our pastures to get them pure grasses and thick too. Thanks for watching!
@@FreedomFarmsMo we have rough hilly land we have babied the grass for the last 5 years we worked our way up to 300 mammas
We don’t bale any hay off our land that has really helped to heal the land
last year I fed 4 bales this year was 10 bales -5x6
We have around 140 acres fenced off for the sheep
You keep up the good work it takes time
Oh you are way up north then near Iowa I guess? Our grass has really improved but like I mentioned we have a little ways to go yet. You all have quite a bit more land than we do too. We only pasture 50 acres, we have 25 acres set aside for hay ( we spread our hay residue and manure from the barn on this hay field) and custom hay neighbors property too. Since we confined during winter we need the hay more than pasture. You all are troopers lambing on pasture. It just didn't go so well for us. Sounds like you have a good setup though.
You too! Thanks for the comments and the conversation too. Hope to see you all next video too!
don't tell Mike loving the land and season's. 😂
🤣 he is too, just not the sogginess