Meat, milk, or wool?

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.

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.


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