I think I am done testing out the sheep breeds, except I do have some new lambs coming this fall, Romneys. The Romney breed is an old English breed reknown for their fine wool and larger carcass, so a dual purpose sheep. They tend to be slower growing than some of the new breeds that reach 120 pounds in 100 days for market lambs. Some of my adult ewes are not 100 pounds!
Of the breeds though, I defiinitely like the unimproved, primitive ones best, particularly Jacobs. I don't know how all Jacobs are, but the ones I have had are smarter than most of the other sheep except the Icelandics, hardier, better mothers, a little wary but not skittish and have nice wool Really there is not much not to like except they are small in comparison to the meat breeds. Since my goal was never to raise sheep for meat, that should not matter.
Today was a good example of how smart the Jacob sheep is. I let the sheep out and then opened up the bush. They love the bush. It has new leaves and tender shoots of grass and tasty weeds. It was not very well developed because we have not had any rain and little snow over winter, but they have no pasture either, so it is the best there is. Another bush area is being fenced for them this weekend. The shep were in the pasture beside the gate and divided by a fence. The sheep ran to the corner of the fence to get in the gate and baaad loudly when they could not. I can understand the young lambs not figuring out that they had to go back, but the adult sheep should have gotten the idea.
So, who is the leader? Yes, the Jacob ewe! You can see her in the first picture leading the way. Her lambs did not follow her and were left in the corner looking for a way in. Once Jean Jacob led the way, some of the other sheep followed her, but some were just too sheepish and remained in the corner and Robbie and I had to go shoo them back to the gate to come down to the open area. Gotta love that Jacob though. Perhaps instead of keeping different varieties of sheep for their unique wool, when I decide to cut back, I will just have Jacobs and Babydolls, maybe the Romneys too, but I don't know about them at all yet. Thanks for thinking Jean Jacob. You are awesome!
Of the breeds though, I defiinitely like the unimproved, primitive ones best, particularly Jacobs. I don't know how all Jacobs are, but the ones I have had are smarter than most of the other sheep except the Icelandics, hardier, better mothers, a little wary but not skittish and have nice wool Really there is not much not to like except they are small in comparison to the meat breeds. Since my goal was never to raise sheep for meat, that should not matter.
Today was a good example of how smart the Jacob sheep is. I let the sheep out and then opened up the bush. They love the bush. It has new leaves and tender shoots of grass and tasty weeds. It was not very well developed because we have not had any rain and little snow over winter, but they have no pasture either, so it is the best there is. Another bush area is being fenced for them this weekend. The shep were in the pasture beside the gate and divided by a fence. The sheep ran to the corner of the fence to get in the gate and baaad loudly when they could not. I can understand the young lambs not figuring out that they had to go back, but the adult sheep should have gotten the idea.
So, who is the leader? Yes, the Jacob ewe! You can see her in the first picture leading the way. Her lambs did not follow her and were left in the corner looking for a way in. Once Jean Jacob led the way, some of the other sheep followed her, but some were just too sheepish and remained in the corner and Robbie and I had to go shoo them back to the gate to come down to the open area. Gotta love that Jacob though. Perhaps instead of keeping different varieties of sheep for their unique wool, when I decide to cut back, I will just have Jacobs and Babydolls, maybe the Romneys too, but I don't know about them at all yet. Thanks for thinking Jean Jacob. You are awesome!
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