Sheep in South Central Alaska?

Hello all, I was wondering if any of you have any insights on raising sheep in south central Alaska? I would especially like to know about breeds that do well in the region, and any concerns or considerations about trying to raise them in that region.

I want tri-purpose animals for meat, milk, and wool, which would be extremely hardy and resilient. I was thinking to best way to get this would be to cross east friesans with icelandics or shetlands though I am open to other suggestions. I figure predators and a lack of pasture will be big issues, so clearing areas, getting livestock guardian dogs, and potentially growing feed for winter would be huge musts. Any input would be appreciated.

A rule of thumb with some execption is that sheeps with horn wil do better in the cold and as multi-purpose.

Dall Sheep can be found roaming  the cliffs in your area, in addition to mountain goats.

I would ask "yourself" a few questions first, and you kinda already named them.

1)Is anyone in your area able to "put up or make hay"  if NO, one will have to ponder how to feed your sheep, if no one is able to do so. At this point, breed would not matter, no feed-no sheep.

2)Are your predator's controllable i,e, will Guard dogs be enough? If others in the area have livestock and they can control that is a huge plus, if zero in the area have livestock, is this the reason? or does it go back to number 1?

3) if able to get past 1 and 2, where do you go to get stock?  (any breed)

So in short, working on 1 and 2, precludes any thoughts prior to livestock purchases

Thank you Scott for your input.

As far as I am aware we would likely be able to bale our own hay, but not in large amounts, there are places to buy hay from the mat-su area but it is very expensive so I am thinking of trying hardy, smaller breeds that need less input. We would also have to clear areas to have our own hay fields first and that will likely take a great deal of time, but its important to do the ground work necessary before jumping into livestock.

As for predators, I know they are problematic, especially once they figure out that livestock are tasty and easy prey. For example here was a post on a farmers facebook group recently where some farmers in Butte are tracking a bear that exclusively targets chicken coops. However, I figure that most LGD's very developed in regions with similarly dangerous wildlife so they should have the temperament and size to deal with trouble.

As for breeding stock, there are some sheep breeders in alaska, but I would likely need to ship up some stock from the lower 48 states. My hubby is likes the welsh mountain sheep breed so we may go with that variety and the closest breeders I can find for them are in washington.

Hey I'm from that area! I was born and raised on the Kenai Peninsula, in Homer and Ninilchik. I live in Washington now, and have Icelandic sheep, so maybe I can help here. :)

So first off, obviously the climate is quite a bit milder down here. The worst we've had was 15 degrees for about two weeks last winter. The sheep did fine in it, but your minimum is probably closer to -30, so I would say some kind of good barn is a must. I just have a little 3-sided shed until I get a barn built, but they seem to be just fine with that. In fact they sleep and wander around in the rain all the time - their wool is thick and they really don't seem to notice the wet and cold here. I believe in Iceland they pretty much lock them up for the winter and they don't spend a lot of time outside. Probably you can gauge that by what their preferences are - provide them a barn and see how much they use it during the real cold times.

As for food, I would really encourage you to get creative! Hay isn't the only answer! If you check my post history, I have a long post from last year (that I've been meaning to update) covering what else my sheep eat and what their preference seems to be for each forage as I have them clear out my forest. It's not as useful for you since your forage is different, but it will give you an idea of what they're willing to eat. Icelandics are great foragers; they'll eat almost everything they can reach, and push over stuff they really like. If you've got a big meadow of fireweed or something my guess is that they'd love that! (probably watch out for pushki, that plant is a hazard to everyone lol) I'm deep in a fir forest, so I'm using them to help work on getting it cleared of small trees and useless brush, grass planted on the bottom layer, and expanding the old orchard that was there to provide coppice trees.

So that's my next point - tree hay! There's a couple threads on here about that - basically trees can be just as nutritious as grass. In fact in medieval times that was pretty much all ruminants ate was tree hay. Most deciduous trees can be coppiced pretty easily - cut them off at about 4 feet and let the shoots grow up for a couple years, then keep chopping a few off each year and drying for winter, or feed directly to the sheep in the summer. Like I said I'm working on an orchard that's against a tall fir forest, so I'll be putting in coppice trees as I clear out the smaller stuff. We have a pretty wide variety of trees down here, but I'd guess you're looking at spruce, birch, and alder? I don't have birch here so I can't say for those, but I was disappointed they don't like my red alder trees here. Evergreens are like the very last option, but I was surprised to see them strip a cedar tree in the middle of last winter. Sometimes all they want is something green and juicy lol. However if you have willow or cottonwoods, they should love those! Plus they coppice really well and are super vigorous, so that would be a great option.

To give an idea of how much the sheep eat, I was going through almost a full bale of hay per week for five sheep, 3 of whom were pregnant. That was really expensive, so I switched to haylage, which is available in the area. I realized I was buying REALLY nice hay that was for horses, but sheep are ruminants, so they can process lower quality stuff and still get nutrition from it. The hay bales were $40 apiece, vs $65 for a haylage bale that lasts around 1.5-2 months.

One thing I heard when I was a kid was that goats and sheep don't do well in your area because the soil is really poor (probably low nitrogen?). I heard people say that a goat could starve to death with a belly full of grass. I have NO idea if that's true or not, it's just some kind of old-timer rumor I heard when I was a kid, but I would talk to anyone with livestock to see what their experience has been!

Livestock guardians! I have 3 plus puppies right now (for sale if you wanna come to Washington!) and they've done a great job. We have black bears in the area - each spring there seems to be a new yearling exploring the area, realizing there's too many damn dogs around, and moves off into the mountains later in the summer. We also have cougars, which have been a serious problem for all of my neighbors. Everyone has livestock around here, and everyone has lost animals to the cougars - my next door neighbor said she watched a cougar in the middle of the day stroll through their yard and casually grab a chicken right in front of her lol. Another neighbor has goats and a 'guardian donkey' and they had 3 cougars corner the donkey one night - luckily they noticed and were able to chase the cougars off themselves. Anyway, my dogs seem to have kept the cougars at bay, which is really nice. I haven't lost anything, and these dogs are super vigilant. I'm also somehow the only one to use livestock guardians correctly lol - they live OUTSIDE WITH THE LIVESTOCK! They're fine in just about everything, mine just slept in the snow and rain all winter. My neighbors that do have guardians lost livestock because they felt bad for the dogs and brought them inside at night lol.  If you feel like they'll actually have a chance of facing down a bear/wolverine/coyotes/wolves (vs just spreading dog smell/noise), then you should definitely have more than one. They work together, so having more than one is kind of a multiplicative effect. I think a cougar could take one livestock guardian if it came down to it, but they won't mess with two or three. They're expensive dogs to get, and expensive to feed, but I feel good having mine.

I suppose it can be done. Grizzly bears are not black bears. They are much more aggressive. determined, and have a good sense of smell. And then you have wolves. Wolves travel in packs and can overpower many dogs. Most pets are appetizers to wolves. Some people run heavy wire electric fences around their pastures. Wires about 6" apart and every other wire is hot. So the bear can't miss touching the hot and ground. And if you haven't used an electric fence, you need to keep the wire free from grass, shrubs and tree branches. Some bears can sense when the fence is off. Bears have also learned a shot means fresh meat, hunting is best done with 2 people. One to stand guard while you prepare your kill.
I had dairy, beef and horses. If I was gonna run sheep in Alaska, I'd have dogs and a strong electric fence.

Its an interesting topic, and I wonder if there was a good reason the first Nation people in the area did not farm animals.
In Switzerland, stock is moved to pastures away from the base and hay is grown and cut for winter feeding in barns.
Perhaps there is something that can be learned there.
In Australia, we often have trace elements missing from the soil, once it is added there are remarkable improvements to production levels.

Look at this;https://permies.com/t/64490/domesticate-bighorn-sheep-mountain-goats" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">v

From; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dall_sheep
'Dall sheep or thinhorn sheep, is a species of wild sheep native to northwestern North America.
Ovis dalli contains two subspecies: Ovis dalli dalli and Ovis dalli stonei. O. dalli live in mountainous alpine habitats distributed across northwestern British Columbia, the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Alaska. They browse a variety of plants such as grasses, sedges and even shrubs such as willow, during different times of the year.
They also acquire minerals to supplement their diet from mineral licks. Like other Ovis species, the rams engage in dominance contests with their horns.'

Aer Kal wrote:Thank you Scott for your input.

As far as I am aware we would likely be able to bale our own hay, but not in large amounts, there are places to buy hay from the mat-su area but it is very expensive so I am thinking of trying hardy, smaller breeds that need less input. We would also have to clear areas to have our own hay fields first and that will likely take a great deal of time, but its important to do the ground work necessary before jumping into livestock.

As for predators, I know they are problematic, especially once they figure out that livestock are tasty and easy prey. For example here was a post on a farmers facebook group recently where some farmers in Butte are tracking a bear that exclusively targets chicken coops. However, I figure that most LGD's very developed in regions with similarly dangerous wildlife so they should have the temperament and size to deal with trouble.

As for breeding stock, there are some sheep breeders in alaska, but I would likely need to ship up some stock from the lower 48 states. My hubby is likes the welsh mountain sheep breed so we may go with that variety and the closest breeders I can find for them are in washington.

I don't mean to be the "Dark Cloud" but.... Lets look at a few numbers and time events
1)  Absolutely nothing against hard work, but unless your time is worth almost nothing (read-can't produce income in any other way) then you have to consider just what it will take in time, to clear this land for hay production?  Again, has it been done before by neighbors?

2)I doubt you can realistically consider what someone is doing in other parts of the world and apply to your local, simply not the same.  I call this the  "Montana/Iowa grazing difference" and is applicable to many parts of the world, even a few 100 miles apart.  Simply, lets take grazing sheep in Eastern Montana, and need 1 acre per ewe per year to feed, and then take a well managed pasture where we can have 10 ewes per acre per year.  Is this the same, NO, is the cost per ewe the same (closer than most people think) Are the sheep the same,  NOT even close, but they shouldn't be, to get the most out of each ewe (cost of production)

3)  If some folks could consider the actual start up cost, there wouldn't be a start up in the first place.  Perhaps better said,  lets say it would cost $200 per ewe, to start  with locally purchased ones,  $2000 to get to them and back, this cost HAS to be applied to the cost of the ewe. So depending on how many are purchased, it could double or triple the cost of start up.  All of this is thrown out the window, if this is simply a hobby.

4) WE all know there are almost NO cheap hobbies, unless your a pine cone collector next to a national forest.

Best of success.

Just in case someone finds this thread who lives in Alaska and needs the information:

John Daley said, "Its an interesting topic, and I wonder if there was a good reason the first Nation people in the area did not farm animals." I think that there was a very good reason why none of the aboriginal Americans had much in the way of domestic animals (North American tribes pretty much all had dogs; in South America you can add guinea pigs, llamas and alpacas, and, I believe, some chickens and muscovies). They came to North America from eastern Russia by small boat, probably loaded down with people and supplies with no room for larger animals. Even if they crossed at the point where the two locations are closest together, it's still fifty miles or so of rough, cold water with frequent high winds and severe storms. The very earliest people groups may have been able to walk, possibly on ice or on a land bridge, but that's still a rough crossing from a very rough climate into another very rough climate. If they brought animals with them - and the animals survived the crossing (traversing the Aleutian islands region, even dry-shod, is a minimum 1,100 mile trip - just the islands, from the farthest west to the beginning of the Alaska Peninsula, which is extremely rugged and still a long distance from the mainland. Also extremely volcanic. That's not counting the distance between the west end of the islands to the Russian mainland), it's extremely likely that they ate the animals along the way just to keep themselves alive.

Scott Weinberg commented: "1) Absolutely nothing against hard work, but unless your time is worth almost nothing (read-can't produce income in any other way) then you have to consider just what it will take in time, to clear this land for hay production? Again, has it been done before by neighbors?"

I grew up on a homestead near Delta Junction, well north of where the OP lives (or lived, at the time he started this thread). We were about 100 miles south of Fairbanks, an area which gets much colder, and also gets a lot less precipitation, than South-central Alaska - the Anchorage/Palmer/Wasilla region. Land in our area was cleared by bulldozer, pushing the (small) trees up into windrows between the fields. This was done with as little disturbance of the soil as possible, rather like mowing tall grass, though they had to get the tree roots out, too (but they weren't scraping off the topsoil, such as it is). Then, when the weather allowed - deep snow, usually - the windrows would be burned. Dad had a bulldozer, and was a heavy-equipment operator and mechanic, but for a few acres, you could hire someone to do it. In South-central, the trees are a little bigger, and burning large amounts of downed trees would probably be frowned on, but slow and steady work with a chainsaw would get the job done eventually (Dad and Grandpa had 320 acres to clear between them, and economic necessity made it important to get land cleared quickly). Logs big enough to use for lumber or house logs should be set aside; smaller cut up for firewood, and then the branches burned when there is deep snow on the ground. Alaska is far too prone to wildfires to burn when there is no snow on the ground.

My father said you can grow almost anything in Alaska - if you put down some fertilizer. The soil doesn't have the good micro-organisms that you find in warmer climates, so it can be rather sterile. Getting the trees off will allow the ground to warm up more in the summer, which is a good thing in that climate. But in winter, the ground won't have the protection of the trees, either.

Fencing will be an issue. The perimeter fence needs to be solid and stout to keep sheep and LGD's in, and wolves out. VERY solid and stout, and tall, to keep moose out. Hot wire will help in the summer, but it may not be very hot in the winter - frozen ground doesn't ground out the fence properly. I would strongly suggest bringing the sheep into a closed barn at night, year-round, and keep them in all winter as long as the snow is too deep for them to paw through it. (Sheep used to be raised on some of the Aleutian islands, and are still raised on islands around Great Britain, living outdoors year-round. But those islands don't have any large predators, just foxes and hawks and eagles.) The barn will need to be ventilated, but should not have any place for bears or wolves to get inside. You'll need probably 3/4 ton of hay per sheep, assuming they'll be on pasture several months of the year. And you'll need some straw for bedding (wood shavings are not good bedding for wool sheep).

A really good resource for any kind of agriculture in Alaska is the Extension office. They have done all kinds of research for decades, figuring out what will and won't work in every part of Alaska.

Wanted to add a thought: on the aboriginal peoples and livestock. Even now, with firearms, good fencing material, and LGD's, it can be difficult to keep livestock in Alaska. Between predators and the climate, it would have been even more difficult for people who didn't have guns, who didn't have heavy wire fences or electric fencing, and didn't have metal tools. Can't say how useful their dogs would have been. They would have needed to cut hay - with stone tools? Can be done. Has been done. But it's a lot harder than with a steel scythe. They would have needed to build (and constantly repair) log fences, and barns, where even their own homes were always pretty small. It has never surprised me much that the people who met the European settlers when they arrived didn't have domestic animals other than their dogs. In South America, most of the domestic animals (llamas and alpacas, guinea pigs, and muscovies) were native animals that were domesticated. The chickens probably came with Polynesians who had been driven across the ocean in their big canoes. They usually carried chickens, and sometimes pigs, when they traveled.