MY question is about lambs. We live on 10ac. in southeastern N.C. We currently raise chickens, by the way we are to start a satelite breed of Black Java's,an old breed of chickens that date back to the eaely 1700's. We also have our dairy goats and raise around 12 litters of rabbits per year for the freezer. For eatra income we grow Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes,peanuts,field peas aand blueberries. We also grow our own field corn for grinding our feed. I want to be able to p[ut more meat in the freezer. I was thinking about raising lambs like you do hogs, you buy them in the spring ,butcher in the fall. I was planning to start with around 3 on 2-ac of pasture. Do orther folks do this.Any info will be helpful. Thank You.

-- Tony Ray Rooks (rooksfam@coastalnet.com), April 25, 2000

Answers

Sure, people raise feeder lambs just like they raise feeder pigs or calves. If you're growing them for your own use, pasture alone should be enough. If you're planning on selling them, fall in most places isn't the best time to sell lambs. You'd most likely need to finish them on grain for a bit more fat and tenderness.

Make sure you buy healthy lambs with all shots/wormings suitable for your area. I don't know how much trouble you'd have with pests as far south as you are. Talk to a local sheep owner or your vet for specific suggestions.

As long as your pasture is good, that should be enough for them. Keep an eye on them if your pasture isn't too good or drought is a problem this summer in your area. You might need to supplement them with hay and/or grain. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), April 25, 2000.

Tony,

Gerbils answer is spot on. Nothing else needs to be added! If you have good pasture it is a good venture. Kim

-- kim (fleece@eritter.net), April 25, 2000.

Make sure you've got good fencing -- they are just as bad as goats when it comes to fences. And you want to keep possible predators out. Make sure they've got water at all times, and check with a local sheep-savvy vet about supplementing with minerals -- some places need it more than others.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), April 25, 2000.

I pretty much agree, but I would suggest that you splurge for some grain. This will allow you to train them to come when called for a small coffee can of grain each day. It also helps them fill out in my experience, and others may disagree. 3 on 2 acres of good pasture is far less than the land will support, so the grain is not a necessity for growth. But why not raise 6 and sell 3? Income in the coin of the realm is always good! And by the way! Next spring, would you be willing to part with some of the fertile Black Java eggs, for a price, or a trade? Karen might also be interested, as well as a lot of the other folks who have a mutant gene that predisposes us towards liking chickens! Rest assured, this site will produce many interesting people, though other, less enlightened societies might apply the modifier "demented"! But we have fun around here, and I believe I speak for the majority when I say that those who are not in agreement can go and commit unnatural acts with themselves! If I have been too cryptic, talk to your wife or neighbor. Good luck in any case!

-- Brad (Me) (homefixer@mix-net.net), April 25, 2000.

We raise some sheep and grow pumpkins to sell at Halloween. Pumpkins work as well as corn does to 'finish' lambs. We heave the unsaleable pumpkins over the fence and the sheep and lambs polish them off. Between grass and pumpkins, and depending on the weather and pasture conditions, etc., we can sometimes skip grain altogether as a regular feed supplement and have tender mild tasty lamb.

-- Candy (ecsloma@pronetisp.net), April 26, 2000.

Your kidding, I would have never thought of pumkins. We raise sheep, the mammas are now getting 2 pounds of corn mixed with a sweet feed (they're in the process of naturally weaning), our lambs are on grain also. If I just allow them to get everything from the grasses, which in Eastern Ok., is an inferior grass than say Ill, or Iowa, then they wouldn't be ready for slaughter until Nov., with the grain I can sell them off at 7 mts, 110 pds.

-- Debbie Wolcott (bwolcott@cwis.net), May 01, 2000.