Sheep Farming: 14 Things You Need To Start Your Own Sheep Farm

man good morning I'm Lynn and I'm Arnie and welcome to another day at Utopia Farms so today I'm gonna basically go through about 12 things that I think you absolutely must have if you're thinking of getting your own sheep farm and then I will do future videos to follow up on each of those topics and go into more depth on them to start the first thing you need which seems really obvious is you need a farm or some kind of acreage with a land base some people purchase their own Farms Farms used to be a really good deal because everybody was moving to the cities and you could get farms for really reasonable prices from people who were getting out old homesteads that were folding up nowadays it seems to be opposite it's almost like having waterfront property agricultural land is uh disappearing and as a result land prices are quite high and buying a farm can be quite expensive I think in most areas of the world so a lot of people will save up and buy a farm an Old Farm some will have barns already there that you can fix up some will be ready to move in and some people may just have a few acres and with no barns on at all but um once you have your farm and your land base then you can make all your decisions from there I hear quite a few people not only will rent land but they'll also rent Barns and stuff as well because they can't afford to buy them and that's another option but that's something you'll have to put into your financial plan and that leads to item number two which is you gotta have a plan so buy a plan I mean what do you actually want to achieve by becoming a sheep farmer do you want to have um 400 to a thousand sheep and do this as a full-time job and get out of the Rat Race in the city or would you like maybe to raise 20 Heritage sheep as a hobby or perhaps you like spinner like spinning and weaving wool and thought uh a little flock of fiber animals would be nice so um what you want to do or achieve with your uh sheep farm needs is extremely important because that will determine how you do all the other steps in starting a sheep farm and with that plan you also need to include the financial part are you gonna have to try uh borrow money and get a bank on board to help you get started in which case you might want to talk to them ahead of a time because in farming it's not really a stable income because you have seasons where you're pulling in a lot of money and you have seasons where you won't make any income for maybe six months before you get your next check Banks don't often like to see that they like to see a steady flow of income so you may have to depend on a second job or maybe you've got savings um do you have to invest in certain things for your sheep farm like equipment barns shelter fencing whatever but um finding out how much things cost and having the money available to achieve those goals so that you can set up your sheep farm is just import as important so um have a plan and things will go much more smoothly for you if you're going to have sheep you also need housing or shelter for them so a lot of people will have their sheep on pasture like we do some people will have them on pasture all year round but even if you have them out there all year round they should have an area where they can get shelter if they need it from heavy rains um heavy winds um really really strong Sun where it's really hot where they can get shade and all they require is a lean to like our Rams even though we're in Canada and the temperatures get quite cold in the winter time and they get quite hot in the summer our Rams are outside year round um they have access to those pastures but in inclement weather conditions they do have this lean-to at the front of the barn which is facing south where they can seek shelter and if the if it's really really bad weather we have a little area that they can actually walk into back there where they can cuddle up even more and stay warm so um likewise if you're in a pasture system um you can easily rig up with panels in a tarp or whatever just something small that the sheep can go to if they really need to get out of the terrible conditions sheep are very very Hardy they can tolerate a lot but um for their proper care they really do need to have escape from really bad conditions you can also have a permanent structure as a as a barn to house your sheep in either full-time or temporary whatever they're very nice to have we do all our lambing that in the solid Barn that we have because it um holds its heat the best in the winter time when we're lambing and it is also the coolest in the summertime so and it's also very good for breeding out of season because it's a darker Barn these old barns are darker these solid Barns and we have much better luck breeding in these dark barns if it is kind of a little bit accelerated breeding because it mimics um fall conditions but another option is the tarp buildings so at our farm as you know we have three of these tart buildings where most of our sheep are housed year-round um we we do confinement and pasture a raising for our sheep so um they are free to go to pasture most times of the year but they always do come in at night tart barns are considered a semi-permanent structure and in Canada anyway or Ontario they're insured a little differently than permanent buildings um yeah they consider these more like a tent we like these a lot um but um this is just another option for housing your sheep they're less expensive than a solid Barn but they're more expensive than a lean too and uh in future videos I will uh talk about the various types of housing and which ones we prefer and why but for now these are just some options you can have for housing your sheep another thing you absolutely have to have for your shape is feed so a sheep's main diet like we've mentioned in previous videos is grasses grasses can take the form of pastures when they're growing in the field or as hay once it's been cut and put in bail form and dried either way it is grasses and sheep need it it has to be um good good grasses like good hay there can't be any mold or dust in it at all super very susceptible to mold in the hay it can cause listeriosis which most frequently leads to death so you want to make sure your sh your feed has no mold in it dust is not great either because their heads are in that quite a bit and they'll be breathing it in and you can get coughing and pneumonia and stuff resulting from um all the dust irritating their lungs so you want to make sure you have a good source of quality hay in North America we tend to use mixed grasses and combine it with some legumes for added protein such as clovers Alfalfa stuff like that and if your hay doesn't have the nutritional levels that it should have you can always supplement with grain at our farm we use a corn barley mixture for the Youth and for the Lambs we add soy soybean soybeans to that ration because uh growing lamb needs a little bit more protein we want their daily ration to be around 16 protein Lambs may be a little bit higher but if your total feed is in that level you'll be doing fine just watch the conditions but feed is important so in your plan and with all your facilities that you want to have at your farm that's uh feeding is something else you really need to plan for like are you going to feed just hay um are you going to feed TMR are you going to just do pasture um rarely do any of those methods require only one way of feeding usually you have to supplement in some form or another no matter what system you use because nothing is perfect and you do want good nutrition for your sheep as you can see right now I'm in the Dorset Barn and I think we have maybe six Lambs way back there that aren't in the creep area everybody else is out here now eating so they're really liking this crepe pen where they don't have to feed uh fight for feeder space with their moms and this is where you'll really start to see the the Lambs changing and growing because um now they're able to eat as much as they want to eat mom's not restricting them off like you've seen it when they go to nurse a mom will let them nurse for two seconds and then off she'll go now they can eat uh what they want and the moms will start uh decreasing their milk production now as the Lambs require less and less milk and convert over to adult feed another thing that may not be as evident is the fact that sheep require salt and mineral you see me going around the barns every day we have our salt and minerals in little feeders like this and we have them in every pan most of the feed that you feed your sheep is going to be deficient in something because it's impossible to make perfect feed year-round even though you may try really hard and that's and some areas will be deficient in certain things um so the salt and mineral just gives that the sheep that option to go to it as they need it and they do know when they need it and they'll eat that along with the salt and mineral you can also add things like Limestone as a supplement to the grain which we do with our Rams to prevent stones and when they're out on Lush pasture or you're switching to a really Lush feed like high Alfalfa you might also want to include bicarb on your list of things that sheep should have readily available free choice for them and when you have those things available you should also think of how you're going to feed it to them we we've made these little um feeders that told the um salt mineral and we like these because they can get their mouths in but they can't Pawn at it with their feet it can't get wet um and it's sometimes they can poop in it but it's very difficult they have to be really trying hard to do that we tried many other containers and stuff for the salt mineral but inevitably the Sheep tipped it over or got their feet in it or it got really dirty so we find this type of system works extremely well hi hi did you just want to say something did you want to add anything I think she was going to say that having free Choice mineral salt and mineral available um is something that they will take when they need it but it's not something they eat like feed so it lasts a long time and if they do eat maybe a little too much of it they're going to poop it back out in the pasture and it's gonna be added to your field so nothing gets wasted on a sheep farm anyway another thing that you need which you would think is kind of something that everyone would know but it's surprising how many people don't have water sources set up for their sheep so at our farm we have various types of automatic waterers we had them installed the water lines are under the floors dug in because we're in a climate where um the ground freezes so the water lines are in there so that we can have fresh clean water available for our sheep every day of the year that's expensive but you have to have it you don't have to have automatic drinkers though you can have buckets and even in cold climates you can get little submersible heaters and stuff that sit in the buckets and keep the water from freezing so you can do that and you can you can run hoses but again in um in freezing climates in the winter time hoses will freeze up so you have to have some way to keep those hoses free and running also with hoses if you're using like garden hoses I probably shouldn't do that because they're not designed for um drinking so the actual stuff they're made of may contain lead or Plastics and stuff that fall off you can buy hoses that are made to drink out of and you'd have to research where you get them I don't know but things like that you have to consider because sheep drink a lot of water and they have to drink a lot of water because that's what makes their lumens function it helps them digest all the feed they have four stomachs so um lots of water is critical like we've had our uh lines freeze up in the winter even underground just because something how we like we cleaned out this the barn and we had a minus 40 or something and they actually froze and had to feed with buckets for a few days and basically we were filling up water troughs all day long that's how much water they drink now we have a lot of sheep but even when they're in jugs we feed with I think they're two gallon pails and they're easily drinking two to three of those pails each a day so water make sure you have plenty of it that they can reach at all times and if you're in pasture same thing having trough set up or or sources of water where they can get to that water easily and make sure it's clean because no point them drinking a lot of water that's all dirty and then them getting sick and parasites and stuff like that so fresh clean water very very important another thing you absolutely should have is handling equipment and I don't know if I should put handling equipment and feeding equipment in the same category but um even if you have six sheep or thousands of sheep you are eventually going to have to handle them by giving them their shots trimming their Hooves getting them sheared you have a sick sheep you have to catch her so you always should have some form of handling handling equipment where you can catch the Sheep easily and run them down a chute they're critical um but um we'll we'll talk about handling equipment in another video as well but you can go from Elite fifty thousand dollar Handling Systems to uh just having some Plywood And 2x4 is set up in your barn where you can catch them and everything in between again but I would say they are must-haves and same with feeding systems you can feed your sheep many different ways you can feed them in an Alleyway with TMR and feed carts you can feed them in basket feeders like we feed our Rams at the front of the barn you can feed them in Alleyways like we do in our coveralls they can be for round bales they can be for square bales they can have diagonal slats like we use on our feeders they can be narrow where they can be wider they can be horizontal they can be down on the ground they can be raised up like ours are you can use feeders like this that you purchase that are quite expensive where you can feed hay and grain at the same time in them there are many options for feeding you can make them yourselves but it's something to plan how you would like to feed your sheep and that lets you set up your barn so that you can feed them most efficiently how you feed the sheep will dictate how you run your farm because feeding is something you have to do basically every day unless they're out at pasture but even out at pasture um once the pastures have run out you're going to have some kind of feeding system out there so you need to prepare and plan for that and how you're going to do it and how you will incorporate your feeding system onto your sheep farm this here is Sheriff he's decided that it's easier because he's a ram you see and the Rams have bigger heads than they use and these can easily pop their heads into all our feeders but the Rams have to push them in a little harder so um like I mentioned in other videos if they have to fight for their hay they don't like that and Arnie has this round at the end of the feeder here and you can see that he rather than putting his head in like all the other user for him he finds it easier to eat straight over the top there um he doesn't wanna feel like he's being restricted and maybe he's worried about getting his head stuck so when you see sheep eating over the feeder like that there's usually a reason for it and it's usually because it's a better solution for them and easier for them so pay attention to what your sheep are doing because that's helpful in designing your feeders too and having them work best for the Sheep because it being best for the Sheep is what's best for you overall as a sheep farmer because you want your sheep eating well another thing you're gonna need is some type of equipment and quite a few pieces of equipment probably so you can equipment can range from shovels and pitchforks if you only have a few sheep to handle cleaning out your barns and forking out hay to your sheep and stuff probably you're going to need some form of tractor or a piece of equipment like a skid steer something where you can lift hay around now if you were really small and you just have a few sheep and you've got only little square bales um probably the easiest set is to have a pitchfork a shovel and small square bales and do everything by hand some pails and you're good to go because you're hiring in someone to make the hay for you and you're gonna have um it just brought in so you can just lift the Bales to your sheep and when you have to clean it all up afterwards you're gonna shovel it all out by hand and into your little manure pile which you're going to spread into your garden for instance it can be that easy or it can be um really intensive if you have a large land base on your farm and you want to grow all the feed for your sheep and you don't want to hire anybody in to do it for you you can invest in combines to bring in all the grain your sheep needs um hay blinds for cutting your hay tractors different size tractors because the different pieces of equipment often need different sized tractors things to bail up your hay um things to clean out your barn I mean you can literally spend a million dollars just on equipment or you can go the Pitchfork root and everything in between so that's part of the planning your goals where you want to be and how many sheep you have and your finances all these things need to be taken into consideration um so yes that's part of your plan what do you need um in another video I'll go through our farm you know how many sheep we have we're running about 450 use right now and we have Rams here and I'll go around and show you all the pieces of equipment we have and have had and which we've kept which we find most valuable to us which we which ones we probably could have done without or we have gotten rid of over the years um but equipment uh you need it but you have to figure out what you need most and a lot of the topics kind of overlap and interlock like um as far as shelter and feed and Equipment go because you obviously need shelter for your animals and feed for your animals and equipment to move stuff around but you also need to think about how you're going to store your feed are you going to put it in your Barnyard and cover it with a tarp are you going to invest in a wrapper and wrap it all in plastic are you going to chop it all up and store it in feed bags or in a pit um all of these things will affect the type of feed you have the type of equipment you'll need and the type of facilities or expenses that it will take to store that feed because you cannot have feed just sitting out in the yard it has to be covered to keep it fresh to stop it from molding to stop animals getting into it other animals like rats and birds and stuff getting in and eating it as well so they're all kind of an interlocking thing there but all considerations you also need to take into account when you're setting up a sheep farm where are you going to put all this feed and where and how are you going to store all your equipment another thing that can kind of overlap with housing is fencing if you're cheaper gonna be in confinement and never go outside fencing won't be uh something you'll need but if you're gonna just even let them out into paddocks or if you want them out grazing part-time or full-time fencing is going to be critical right now we're letting the Rams out they come in for the night to keep them safe from coyotes but in the morning we let them go and our farm has paddocks and fencing everywhere so we have our Fields where we're doing the crops that have no fencing but anything that has sheep in or will have sheep in is surrounded by a perimeter fence made with page wire that is designed specifically for sheep and we'll walk out with the Rams and have a look at what that is so we prefer to have all our perimeter fences to be solid permanent fencing um there are ultimate coyote proof fences we have a lot of coyotes here and in North America I believe that's pretty well a common problem for everybody so we have a perimeter fence that goes around all the sheet pastures and then inside the perimeter we have about um we have quite a few um permanent paddocks as well they're divided up into five to ten acre paddocks they're also with the Sheep page wire and then we can divide those permanent paddocks up even farther by running electric fences for rotational grazing he missed the hole figure at the top I don't know if you can see that on the camera there maybe you can see that they're bigger on the top and they get smaller down below the reason for that is that um uh coyotes tend to go underneath and the smaller spacing down on the lower portion of the fence the coyotes can't get through cow fencing would have much bigger spacing on them than sheep fencing because coyotes aren't really an issue for cows the way they are for sheep anyway also with perimeter fencing like this you want to get it as close to the ground as possible like we we have ours touching the ground because again coyotes want to go under so our our fencing is right to ground level and this is I think it's I think it's 48 inches tall our farm is has that all the way around so fencing um that's another consideration how much do you want to fence what type of fencing do you want to use do you want to use permanent fencing electric fencing are you doing rotational grazing are you not going to graze at all are you just going to have a paddock where they can get some exercise and go back in um are you not going to need them whatsoever they do have to be part of a plan though because uh fencing is also a very big expense and the reason people have fencing is so that they can have control of their sheep so they're not wandering onto your neighbor's property or onto public roads um or into your crop Fields um and maybe you want to control how well your pastures are being maintained so you're going to use them for rotational purposes in feeding your sheep but they're also used as Predator control especially in countries where predators are an issue they're an issue across Canada and I imagine in most of the United States and probably in other countries as well so along with fences another thing you might want to consider is do you want or need Guardian animals as you see we have Ben and Katie here these are working dogs but are not Guardian dogs these dogs are more almost more like equipment they help us move and handle the shape but a guardian dog is an option if you have coyotes as well as other Guardian animals donkeys llamas we've had Guardian dogs and llamas in our past um but if you are gonna also invest in Guardian animals to help protect your sheep um you need to know about the various uh types of Guardians that there are what those Guardians actually do and how they behave with your livestock and with you so it's another consideration yet again like I said we've had various Guardian animals in our past that have gone out with the sheep on their daily outings to the pasture and um each type behaves differently and not all types work well some animals work better with others and there's even variation within the breeds like you can have really really good working dogs or you can have ones that harass the Sheep all day long same with every other Guardian animal so um you really have to do your research when you're adding Guardian animals to your flock and there's been he's our he's like our Shepherd here he he takes all the Sheep out to the pasture this is his favorite job our dogs are not trained but they are from working Farms and um if you buy a border collie from a working farm where they actually have sheep and use their dogs for herding purposes you will usually it's passed on genetically the dogs will work for you even untrained you just have to do give them minimal guidance to let them know what you want Border Collies are fast learners and then there's the sundry little things that uh every sheep farm needs like the pails for water if you're doing lambing jugs and all the medical supplies you need and the marker sprays and the nipples for bottles and the tube feeders and um things restoring your milk replacer so um are you just someone who wants to have a dozen sheep and you're not gonna be breeding or lambing them then your list of supplies is a lot smaller you just need the basic stuff like uh your dewormers because no matter what you're doing you're probably going to need to be deworming maybe a halter for catching them and moving them around they're handy um hoof trimmers for sure you have to have a pair of those then there's all the lambing supplies the taggers the tail Dockers needles syringes antibiotics all that little sundry stuff um a lot of these things are really good to have on hand at all times just in case you need it and yeah we can go into that on another video as well and whether you're braiding your shape or just want them as pets it's still very handy to keep records on your sheep I have a little lambing diary that I keep which I write down all my pertinent information on our sheep each year as they go through the jugs this all gets transferred over onto a computer um we also have a stock recorder which also has all that information on it because um I figure once you get past 50 sheep it's really really really handy to have it all computerized because it can get quite confusing and those stock recorders are extremely expensive um but they are also extremely handy at um immediately if you have a sheep that's down or whatever you can go to that sheep and scan it and you can get the history on that shape right away when you're setting up breeding groups and stuff like that you can put into meds it's had when it was last vaccinated all that information can be put into those stock recorders because so they become an extremely handy tool they do break down mine have um so I do back up everything on paper but um there's something if you're getting on the larger side I would recommend having them as well I always recommend that people get a veterinarian and get to know them have them out to the farm so he can see what you're doing what your animals are and you can either pay him to vaccinate your animals and stuff for you or you can I know um the vets around here will often run them through the shoot with you and talk about how to give needles and what to do and are really good that way maybe some veterinarians don't do that um most of the ones I know do so that you can do it on your own but if it's but most sheep Farmers after a few years are doing it all on their own because a veterinarian is very expensive and most of the stuff is basic things that you're gonna have to do like the deworming and vaccinating there's no reason you can't learn that yourself but it is extremely helpful to have a professional come out and show you how to do it properly the amounts of how to store your antibiotics and stuff properly and your dewormers and when to do it and stuff like that so finding a vet that actually knows about sheep can be a little difficult you want a large animal vet for sure your basic cat and dog vet is not usually the person you're going to go to so definitely find a vet that you can establish a good rapport with and go from there and I guess um the final thing when you're getting into sheep and becoming a sheep farmer the final thing you need is the Sheep and uh that is something you need to think long and hard about as well all sheep are not the same they all serve different purposes they are all different sizes they all have different lambing ratios breed characteristics are you wanting meat sheep are you wanting mother sheep are you wanting pedigree sheep are you wanting big sheep are you for the showing at the Royal are you wanting little sheep that you can put out on pasture and are really Thrifty are you wanting uh to be a Master Spinner and you want to create all your own types of Yarns and Blended wools if you are a spinner and Weaver do you prefer colored walls to keep your your wool natural or do you like the dyeing process where you'd like maybe a finer fleece white sheep and do all the dyeing um what do you find attractive do you prefer Heritage breeds or the Trident proven sheep um do your research on your breeds so that you choose a breed that matches the goals for your sheep farming plan and again there is no perfect sheep because there are so many things the Sheep do um and yeah go around and visit various Farmers with different breeds if you don't know them read about them figure out the ones you like the sound of and maybe go visit them and see uh see them working in action um as you know we have dorsets uh Gimli here is our Dorset Ram and this was felon here he's at Suffolk Ram these are the two breeds of choice for us when we have our reasons for that if you watch our past videos you'll know those reasons but uh I imagine I'm gonna do another video on why we chose these two breeds as to be the ones we stick with but they are not for everybody so um they are very that is a very important consideration to make before you even just go get one um also if you're getting sheep don't get one I don't even advise getting two you have to have at least three Two's A couple three is a flock sheep are prey animals and they are flock animals so if they don't have fellow sheep around them they are very unhappy they are very nervous they are very afraid so they need a buddy if you had goats or something very very similar to sheep you could probably get away with having just one or two but if you don't have any similar type animals like a sheep and a pig or something or a sheep and a horse if they were the two single animals you had they would become but they would become buddies probably because both those animals would be feeling lonely um you don't want your sheep to feel lonely so um make sure that you have a little flock if you're intending on getting sheep because um if you want nice dispositions and shape that aren't unhappy you need to have them in a little group same with Rams they don't like to be alone either so Ernie is out in the field disking today he's hoping to get the fields finished off before winter today maybe tomorrow um so I figured that was a good time to talk to you all all about starting up a sheep farm I think I covered everything but there's there's just so much involved it's not a simple process so really planning is a big big part of it and knowing uh what you think you want your your plans made changes you go along fill in you're knocking me over silly boys but um if this is the life for you those are a few starting tips and like I say I will do future videos and try to expand on some of those topics a little more and if you have um specific questions please feel free to ask I try to respond to everybody who writes to me um we've been doing this for about 22 years now and I still don't feel like I'm an expert I'm still learning things every day so inputs all is Handy or things that I missed feel free to interact we like that anyway from me and Gimli because felons uh walked off now it appears um we're gonna call this a day and I hope you'll join us again tomorrow for the next episode at Utopia Farms bye for now

Channel: Ewetopia Farms

Views: 79,603

Keywords: sheep farming: 14 Things You Need To Start Your Own Sheep Farm

Id: vp83R0mYAks

Length: 46min 28sec (2788 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 10 2022