Meat, milk, or wool?
Sheep are multi-purpose animals, raised for meat, milk, and
wool. They are also valued for their skins and hides. While sheep
have been used to control unwanted vegetation for centuries, grazing
as a fee-based service is a relative new opportunity.
One of the first and most important decisions a shepherd must
make is to decide what aspect of sheep production to focus on.
While most sheep are multi-purpose, there are breeds which are
better suited to meat, milk, or wool. Production practices will
also vary according to the emphasis of the flock.
Meat Sheep
In the United States, most sheep and lambs are meat-type animals
kept primarily for the production of lambs for meat or dua-
purpose breeds kept for both meat and wool production.
Meat sheep producers sell either slaughter lambs or feeder
lambs. Slaughter lambs are usually purchased for immediate slaughter.
The average slaughter weight for lambs in the United States
is 135 lbs., though lambs sold into ethnic markets tend to be
much lighter (< 100 lbs.). Increasingly, there is a market
for slaughter lambs of any weight.
Feeder lambs are lambs kept for the purpose of feeding for
slaughter. Feeder lambs range in weight from 50 to 90 lbs.,
with the demand usually being the highest for 60-70 lb. lambs.
Increasingly, lamb feeders have to compete with the ethnic markets
for light weight lambs.
In a meat sheep enterprise, the primary factors which determine
profitability are percent lamb crop, lamb growth rates, and
market prices. Unless feed costs are very low, it is difficult
to make a profit from a ewe that produces just one lamb.
Lamb Feeding
Commercial lamb feeding is a traditional sheep enterprise in
the U.S. and is becoming more common in other countries. In
some parts of the U.S. lamb feeding is a seasonal enterprise,
occurring primarily in the fall and winter. In other areas (e.g.
Texas, Colorado, and the Corn Belt), lamb feed lots are a year-round
business. Many farmers feed their own lambs out.
In a lamb feeding enterprise, feeder lambs (50 to 90 lbs.)
are purchased and fed to finish weights of 100 lbs. or more.
The major cost in finishing lambs is feed. Lambs can be finished
on a variety of diets: complete pelleted rations, whole grain
rations, or high-forage diets. Cheap gains can often be put
on lambs on pasture or crop aftermaths.
Hair Sheep
The declining value of wool relative to meat, along with the
decreasing number of sheep shearers, has contributed to an expansion
of hair sheep, not only in the United States, but other countries
as well. It is estimated that approximately 10 percent of the
world's sheep population is hair sheep. While a 2001 study placed
U.S. hair sheep numbers at only 3 percent of the sheep population,
informal surveys suggest much higher proportions of hair sheep
in the population.
Hair sheep do not produce a fleece. They naturally shed their
coats (mixtures of hair and wool fibers) and do not require
shearing, crutching, or docking. Hair sheep tend to be more
resistant to internal parasites (gastro-intestinal worms) and
other pests than wooled sheep. In addition, hair sheep breeds
possess many desirable reproductive characteristics, such as
early puberty, out-of-season breeding, and prolificacy. Hair
sheep are promoted as an "easy-care" alternative to
wooled sheep and traditional production systems. Hair sheep
ewes are often lambed on pasture. Lambs are commonly grass-finished.
Because hair sheep production continues to grow, there may
be a good market for hair sheep breeding stock. Many hair sheep
producers sell their ewe lambs as breeding stock and their male
lambs for meat.
Wool Production
Wool was the first commodity to be traded internationally and
is the product the public most commonly associates with sheep.
However, the importance of wool (as a product) relative to meat
has declined dramatically. In the early 1900's, the majority
of income from a sheep operation was from the sale of wool.
Today, it is the other way around. While wool tends to be more
important in range-type operations and there is a subsidy for
wool, lambs still contribute the majority of income to the operator.
Fine wool brings the most money in the commodity market.
Selling wool in the commercial wool market has limited profit
potential, but niche marketing wool can pay big dividends. For
example, while wool sold commercially may bring only 75 cents
per pound, fleeces sold to hand spinners could bring as much
as $15 per pound. Many producers process their own wool into
yarn, roving, blankets, or crafts and market value-added products.
There are several cooperative ventures in the U.S. that will
add value to producers' wool.
Fleeces sold to hand spinners need to be of high quality. Feeding,
housing, health care, and handling are all critical to the production
of good quality wool. Fleeces should be skirted. Skirting is
when you remove the undesirable parts of the fleece. Parts which
should be removed from a fleece include belly wool, tags, stained
wool, coarse wool, cotted wool, and short wool.
Some producers put covers on their sheep to prevent the fleeces
from getting dirty and guard against the sun's ultraviolet rays,
which may cause fading at the tips of colored fleeces. Wool
also grows more under covers. Covers have have to be changed
repeatedly as the fleece grows.
Sheep Dairying
Sheep have been milked for thousands of years and were milked
long before cows were. The world's commercial dairy sheep industry
is concentrated in Europe and the countries on or near the Mediterranean
Sea. The dairy sheep industry is very small in the United States,
but growing. Most sheep dairies are located in the Upper Midwest
(Wisconsin and Minnesota), California, and the New England states.
Sheep's milk is usually made into cheese. Some milk is made
into yogurt and ice cream. Fresh sheep's milk is seldom consumed.
Milk can be sold to a processor for conversion to cheese or
the milk can be processed by the producer and marketed as a
value-added product.
While any breed of sheep can be milked, there are specialized
dairy sheep breeds, much like there are specialized breeds of
cattle and goats for dairy production. Examples of dairy sheep
breeds include the East Friesian of Germany, Lacaune of France,
Chios of Greece, British Milksheep of the U.K., and the Awassi
and Assaf of Israel. These breeds will produce from 400 to 1,100
pounds of milk per lactation.
In the U.S., dairy sheep breeds are not widely available due
to strict regulations pertaining to the importation of live
sheep, semen, and embryos. Hopefully, their availability will
improve in years to come. The two breeds available are East
Friesian and Lacaune.
U.S. breeds which are best adapted to dairy production are
Dorset and Polypay. They only produce 100 to 200 pounds of milk
per lactation. Crosses between domestic breeds and specialized
dairy breeds average 250 to 650 pounds of milk per lactation.
The nutritional requirements of dairy ewes is significantly
higher than ewes being raised for meat and/or wool. Total feed
requirements will depend on lactation length. Some feeds can
impart undesirable flavors to the milk (e.g. fish meal) and
should not be fed in large quantities during lactation. Dairy
ewes have the highest water requirement of any class of sheep
at approximately three gallons per head per day.
While most non-dairy producers wean their lambs at 60 days
of age or later, dairy lambs are weaned at 30 days of age or
younger, so that the ewes can be milked when they are still
producing adequate amounts of milk. Milking facilities and equipment
will be the biggest expense in a dairy sheep operation. The
type of milking parlor may vary according to the size of the
operation. Producers milking less than 50 ewes may utilize a
platform for milking, whereas a "pit" parlor is desirable
for larger operations.
After milk is cooled, it can be shipped to a processing plant
or frozen for later use. While fresh milk may result in a product
of slightly higher quality, frozen milk has been shown to produce
very acceptable products. The ability to freeze milk on the
farm and deliver large quantities to the processor at infrequent
intervals allows the establishment of sheep dairies great distances
from a processing plant.
Seedstock
Many sheep farms specialize in the production and sale of seedstock
or breeding stock. Breeding stock includes ewes and rams, purebred
registered animals as well as commercial crossbreds. Customers
for breeding stock may be other seedstock producers or commercial
sheep producers.
In areas where there is a large commercial sheep industry,
producers may find ready markets for rams. One avenue to sell
rams is to participate in Central Ram Performance Testing Programs.
In a ram test, rams are evaluated for rate-of-gain, feed efficiency,
structural correctness, and breeding soundness. Inferior rams
are usually not allowed to sell. Consignment sales, production
sales, and private treaty sales are other means of selling breeding
stock.
Record keeping is an important aspect of seedstock production.
The National Sheep Improvement
Program (NSIP) is a computerized performance record keeping
system for small ruminant producers. NSIP allows the comparison
of sheep from different flocks under different feeding and management
systems. Producers can also do their own on-farm record keeping.
There are various computer programs available for this purpose.
Nowadays, it is recommended that breeding rams, especially
those sold to other seedstock producers, be blood tested for
scrapie genotype. Rams with susceptible genotypes (e.g. QQ)
should probably not be sold for breeding, if progeny will be
kept for breeding. QQ rams can be used to produce club lambs
or as terminal sires in commercial flocks where all lambs will
go to slaughter. Scrapie is not a genetic disease; however,
an individual's genotype determines whether it will get scrapie
if it is exposed to the infective agent.
Producers of breeding stock are also encouraged to enroll their
flocks in the Voluntary
Scrapie Flock Certification Program (VSFCP). The VSFCP is
a monitoring program for scrapie administered by USDA-APHIS.
It involves an annual flock inspection, record keeping, and
ear tagging. After five years of scrapie-free monitoring, a
flock can be certified as "scrapie-free."
Club Lambs
Some sheep farms specialize in the production and sale of club
lambs. Club lambs are "feeder" lambs (ewes or wethers)
that 4-H and FFA members purchase to develop as market lambs
to exhibit at county and state fairs, regional and national
shows. Market lamb projects are usually "terminal,"
meaning they start with the purchase of a lamb and end with
the sale of the lamb usually for slaughter.
While any lamb can be shown in a market lamb class, certain
breeds will be more competitive, unless lambs are shown by breed.
Heavy muscled lambs that finish between 100 and 135 lbs. are
usually the most competitive in the show ring. Hampshires, Suffolks,
and crosses between these two breeds are the most common type
of club lamb, as well as the most competitive.
Dorsets, Southdowns, and Shropshires can also make good club
lambs. Some shows separate lambs by weight increments, while
others separate lambs by breed. Some shows collect carcass data
on lambs and award additional prizes to youth participants.
<== SHEEP 201 INDEX