Low Maintenance and Disease Resistant Dual Purpose Breeds?

So I've been making similar posts, but the title says it all.

What are some of the breeds that are fitting bill here? I try to prioritize such qualities as self sufficiency is a big key to me, and having low vet bills and low health problems helps that.

Riley Lee wrote:So I've been making similar posts, but the title says it all.

What are some of the breeds that are fitting bill here? I try to prioritize such qualities as self sufficiency is a big key to me, and having low vet bills and low health problems helps that.

What 2 purposes do you want?  Sheep or goats?  As far as I'm aware there are 2 main uses for sheep and goats.  Meat, Fiber, and Milk.

Not sure about goats, but low maintenance, disease resistance, and dual purpose are conflicting goals in sheep.  The purposes for sheep, as noted by Laurel, are meat, fiber and milk.  You can get good fiber production and good meat from some breeds, or good fiber and good milk.  You're highly unlikely to get all 3 in one breed.  

The hair sheep (which are useless for fiber and generally not great for milk) have the best parasite resistance.  Milking breeds *can* be used for meat and fiber, but the meat will be disappointing compared to more typical "meat" sheep.  That's because the best milkers won't get as bulky of a carcass as they put most of their energy into lactation.  

Good wool producers, and good milkers especially, by definition won't be low maintenance.  Dairy sheep of course require daily milking, just like a diary cow.  Wool (but not milking) sheep won't be tooooo bad, but they do require annual shearing, and depending on your location and types of vegetation they may need rescuing frequently if they get stuck in brambles.  And then you have to contend with said bramble debris in the wool when you handle them.  I have tons of Himalayan blackberries, and wool sheep are notorious for getting tangled in the thorny canes.  Hair sheep will be pretty low maintenance as they shed on their own each year, but as noted are generally only good for meat.  Some people milk them, but that's uncommon.

Laurel Jones wrote:

Riley Lee wrote:So I've been making similar posts, but the title says it all.

What are some of the breeds that are fitting bill here? I try to prioritize such qualities as self sufficiency is a big key to me, and having low vet bills and low health problems helps that.

What 2 purposes do you want?  Sheep or goats?  As far as I'm aware there are 2 main uses for sheep and goats.  Meat, Fiber, and Milk.

Personally, I would love a triple-purpose sheep for meat, milk, and fiber. Bonus if they're naturally polled.

I want goats! Sorry I forgot to put that, I get overexcited and just take off with no head on my shoulders. Sheep seem vulnerable, in my research, just less hardy overall, so they are not my preference.

I want them for milk and meat. Nubians seemed a good fit, but I don't know about maintenace and health.

Riley Lee wrote:I want goats! Sorry I forgot to put that, I get overexcited and just take off with no head on my shoulders. Sheep seem vulnerable, in my research, just less hardy overall, so they are not my preference.

I want them for milk and meat. Nubians seemed a good fit, but I don't know about maintenace and health.

Vulnerable to what?  Far as I know both are pretty equally vulnerable to disease and predators.  There more intra-species variability than anything else.

Factor in ease of containment.  I’ve heard it said that to test if your fence is goat proof throw a bucket of water at it.  If any water gets to the other side, so will a goat.  Sheep, by contrast, can be trained to respect two strands of electrified wire.  

Granted, dairy goats will probably produce more milk than most dairy sheep.

I was under the impression sheep were more frail, health wise. Apparently that is incorrect. I prefer goats because they are browsers, and to me that means I can fit more of their food into an acre than having grazing for sheep. Perhaps I am wrong on that?

Containment wise, I have an idea for a cheap, green fence, but idk if it will work, check my profile for it. Seems like a living fence would work, as long as it gets time to be establish and the goats don't eat it themselves.

Riley Lee wrote:I was under the impression sheep were more frail, health wise. Apparently that is incorrect. I prefer goats because they are browsers, and to me that means I can fit more of their food into an acre than having grazing for sheep. Perhaps I am wrong on that?

Containment wise, I have an idea for a cheap, green fence, but idk if it will work, check my profile for it. Seems like a living fence would work, as long as it gets time to be establish and the goats don't eat it themselves.

Hair sheep will browse more than wool sheep.  Maybe not quite as much as a goat, but they’ll graze better than a goat.

Too tired to look up your green fence right now (I’ll try to do that tomorrow) but I’ll be surprised if any green fence would effectively contain (and effectively protect) goats, unless it had some serious thorns, and was quite woody, in addition to being very thickly vegetated.  And anything like that would probably require years to establish.  Unless there something that grows fast while being structural that I’m unaware of.

I'm needing more info on the requirements off browsing vs grazing, especially in how animals can get food for either in winter. My preference for goats was the fact that, perhaps, there were some evergreen species that I could plant in pasture so that they would have year round food. I was under the impression that grazers had more trouble in winter with foraging for themselves. The idea is to have as little food inputs necessary, saving me work and money.

My fence idea is to make stabilized rammed earth of CEB and use that to build a fence, then put masonry sealer to water proof it, then perhaps put roof tar on it as well. It'd be very labor intensive, but affordable and most of the inputs can be easily bought or gathered.

Riley Lee wrote:I'm needing more info on the requirements off browsing vs grazing, especially in how animals can get food for either in winter. My preference for goats was the fact that, perhaps, there were some evergreen species that I could plant in pasture so that they would have year round food. I was under the impression that grazers had more trouble in winter with foraging for themselves. The idea is to have as little food inputs necessary, saving me work and money.

My fence idea is to make stabilized rammed earth of CEB and use that to build a fence, then put masonry sealer to water proof it, then perhaps put roof tar on it as well. It'd be very labor intensive, but affordable and most of the inputs can be easily bought or gathered.

Well, the more inputs you are willing to bring in the higher the viable stocking rate.  If you want to bring in nothing and put in as little work on feeding them in the winter as possible by having them rely on forage you’ll be down to around wild animal kinds of stocking rates.  Like measuring the number of acres per goat/sheep (and it’ll be shocking how much that would be even with intentional planting to minimize that).  However if you can produce your own hay or silage you can improve the viable stocking rate tremendously.  And bringing in hay or silage from outside improves that even more.  Note that you’ll need some hay for the winter regardless of the available forage as even goats will need some for the fiber at least.

My personal plan is stock my land to what it can support with intensive rotations and bring in the hay/silage needed for the dry summer and cold winter months.  If I can make silage from waste elsewhere on the property so much the better.

The stocking rates for basically hands off is low, yes, but I want to be able to provide for my animals with as little effort as possible. Not no effort, still have to make sure they are healthy and happy, but I don't want to spend time harvesting hay, silage, etc. Just let them do their thing, let genetics keep the strongest alive, and have more time for my own stuff.

As far as your original question, I can't help you with goat breeds as that has not been my focus.  But, for sheep, if you want good browsing, any of the hair sheep breeds will probably work well.  Examples include Katahdin, St Croix, Barbados, Soay, and to a lesser extent Dorper.  The Soay are probably the hardiest of those breeds, the Dorper probably the least hardy but also the largest and fastest growing.  None will really be multi-purpose.  You could milk the ewes, but probably wouldn't get much if you wanted the lambs to get enough too (obviously a ewe that either rejects her lambs, or has them still-born, or that don't survive for any of a lot of reasons can be milked without concern for lambs).  You could probably find, if you searched widely enough, someone that has selectively bred hair sheep for high milk production (likely in part by crossing in a dairy breed like a Frisian).  Or you could try to develop that milking trait yourself.  If you kept the hair sheep percentage high enough you could possibly retain the low maintenance of natural shedding plus natural parasite resistance/tolerance of the hair breeds.  But even the hair breeds need to be monitored for parasite loads, and things like intensive pasture rotation can minimize the potential for excessive parasite loads.  

Riley Lee wrote:The stocking rates for basically hands off is low, yes, but I want to be able to provide for my animals with as little effort as possible. Not no effort, still have to make sure they are healthy and happy, but I don't want to spend time harvesting hay, silage, etc. Just let them do their thing, let genetics keep the strongest alive, and have more time for my own stuff.

Essentially what you're looking for then is a more or less feral animal.  Or at least that's what you'll basically wind up with if you go that much hands off.  Consider that for such a hands off approach you'll have a heck of a time milking them as they'll be off wherever they want to be on your voluminous acreage looking for food, and flighty enough that they won't come to the milking stand just because you want to milk them.  Any successful livestock program will require a certain amount of input from you, the amount dependent on the goals and approach you take.  As mentioned earlier, your goals are at least somewhat conflicting (low maintenance, and multi-purpose).  Decide what really is the most important aspect of the goats/sheep to your plan and desired lifestyle and be willing to compromise on the others.  You'll be more successful and happy, and the animals will have a better/longer life.

I wouldn't say feral, like I'd spend time with them, feed them treats, and some food, but I want to spend as little time as possible working to get food for them except to get some to feed them for treats and bonding, and winter feed. Essentially, let them feed themselves in all seasons but winter.

I was considering pollarding trees, if that's the right word, and getting tree hay, and setting some land aside for hay/silage. Just reducing my overall workload. I feel, but don't know, that letting the animals provide for themselves may reduce their time to slaughter, but saves me time and effort. I'm not concerned with getting them up to size quickly, just long term sustainability, where they could potentially survive without me, if that makes sense.

Katahdin sheep are awesome.   Never needed a vet,  strong mothers,  easy lambing with hardy lambs that don't need heat, coats, etc.   Can graze and browse..  they'll dive right in to poison ivy,  knotweed.  Easier to contain than goats.  Not a heavy carcass but their super low maintenance makes up for it in my opinion.   You can select breed for even better hoof health and parasite resistance.   If you can rotational graze even better.