favorite sheep breeds

When we first made plans for our homestead, I knew I wanted goats. I wanted dairy but we didn't have the acreage or pasture for a cow. I've never regretted my goats, but as a handspinner, I have a deep-down hankering for a few sheep for fleece. Does anybody have a spinner's flock of sheep? Any advice on sheep? What breed would you recommend and why?

Hi Leigh,
I'm a bit hesitant to answer your question since you specifically ask for a spinner's opinion, and my experience at spinning is limited (but eager  ) .

However, the lady who sheared my ouessant sheep last year is, next to having a flock of her own and being a professional shearer, a spinner and a knitter.
She praised the fleece of one of the two sheep being shorn as "excellent spinning material", and the other one was "worth a try, but in any case one could always use the wool for felting". My third sheep was just a baby at the time, she's going to get her first trim later this year.

I find the ouessant sheep adorable. They're small, hardy, curious, social and very sweet natured. Downsides are that as a primitive breed, they like to gnaw at branches and bark a bit like goats. So they do browse, next to doing an excellent job at keeping the grass mown.

The ouessant mostly come in black, sometimes brown (I have one black and two shades of brown) and occasionally white. I had a ram of the same breed with the most lustrous white wool, but had to let him go because he was too protective of his ladies for my little homestead.

I hope other sheep owners will come with their advice. Good luck with finding Your Favourite Sheep, enjoy!

I thought I'd give it a try, spinning some ouessant wool with my drop spindle. It is so enjoyable I almost can't stop and I just discovered that the little bit of lanolin left in the wool is excellent for my winter-dry hands.

One of our local crofters says that sheep are only ever working out new ways to die...

I don't have any sheep, but if I were to get some I'd like to look at Icelandic sheep - triple purpose: fleece, milk and meat. Again a primitive breed, and if they cope with Iceland winters they'd find Skye like a holiday! I believe they have short tails (so no docking) and the fleece could be rooed (combed out) instead of sheered.

I had Icelandic sheep, a triple purpose breed as noted above.  They all had horns, and although they were tame, I still felt the horns were a hazard for me.

I have a Finn ewe.  Finns are multiple birthers.  They have a wonderful fleece.

I’m planning to milk my ewes this year.  I don’t know much about it yet… so, ask me next summer?😁

I have a Lacaune ewe, she’s large, and the breed was developed for dairy.  She’s easy to get along with, but the Ouessant described above sounds very attractive for smallness and the wool.

The other breed I have is the Awasi.  A dairy breed with a long tail (I docked mine).  They are from the deserts of Arabia I think.  A very hardy breed, they have VERY coarse wool, more for rugs and felting than soft warm blankets and shawls.  Awasi were crossed with the Lacaune and East Freisian which are both kind of fragile.  So fragile the east Freisian already died!

I got my sheep to help with pasture and soil development, and I thought I would like high quality fleeces, and would give sheep dairy a try.  As I said, it’s a work in progress, I have just begun.

I am liking the Finn sheep pretty well at this point, but I haven’t tried milking them yet.

My Icelandics didn’t roo, they needed shearing

I've been debating about sheep. Parasites are such a problem here that, in spite of regular worming with the recommended wormers for our area, I've had high losses in my goats. There are several breeds of sheep that are highly parasite-resistant; most of them are hair sheep, but the Gulf Coast Native/Florida Cracker do have fleeces. I'd like to get away from having to use chemical wormers, so I'm considering switching out the few goats I have left for one of these sheep breeds. Personally, I'm inclined towards the hair sheep for my situation, but the Gulf Coast Native/Florida Cracker sheep would be worth considering if you want wool.

I have East Friesian, Lacuane mix ewes.  They're like little divas, but fun.  Certainly very milky, I wish I was using their wool for something more useful but are very soft.

Hello Leigh!

My biggest suggestion with sheep is to look at the context of where you live and help that make the decision for you.

Being that you are from the SE USA I would suggest Gulf Coast Natives or Florida Crackers as your top breeds. They were originally brought here by the Spaniards over 400 years ago and since then have naturalized to the Southeast US. They were considered the same breed until 1980's and were split into two types. They have a HIGH parasite resistance and a really nice fleece.

My second suggestion is not to get Icelandic sheep in the SE US. I live in MO and have a Shepherdess / Spinster friend who originally had them and they couldn't handle the heat, humidity and parasites that come along with it and she lost most of her flock. She then bought some GCN from me and a few other breeders to build up her flock.

GCN can be considered a tri purpose breed, however I would say they could be light on milk if they are asked to raise their own lambs as well.

Another way to combat parasites in goats (and sheep I am guessing) is to move them around, not allowing them to eat for long periods of time on tje same ground.  

The worm I am most familiar with is the barber pole worm, it attaches to the inside of the digestive tract and sucks the blood, causing anemia and death…

This worm climbs up the grass or other vegetation, and the animal ingests them with the feed.  How short the plants get grazed, how much dew is on the plants when your stock come out to graze are a couple of considerations.  If you have small enclosures, feeding from a feeder (up off the ground) will decrease exposure.

To get away from pharmaceutical wormers is a challenge.  A place called fiasco farms sells herbal wormers.  

But you may have to learn about the “famcha” chart and begin to cull animals that are chronically anemic, seem to always carry a large worm burden.  Simultaneously selectively breed for animals with greater natural resistance.  There are some breeds with very high worm resistance, like the breed mentioned up thread.  Possibly a breed called Kiko, and maybe the “Spanish “ breed.  Even so, you might want to study up on the means of minimizing reinfection.

We may have an advantage here in the desert, but even so, it requires attention and management to have a healthy flock with minimal worm burden and not utilize wormers.

Kathleen Sanderson wrote:I've been debating about sheep. Parasites are such a problem here that, in spite of regular worming with the recommended wormers for our area, I've had high losses in my goats. There are several breeds of sheep that are highly parasite-resistant; most of them are hair sheep, but the Gulf Coast Native/Florida Cracker do have fleeces. I'd like to get away from having to use chemical wormers, so I'm considering switching out the few goats I have left for one of these sheep breeds. Personally, I'm inclined towards the hair sheep for my situation, but the Gulf Coast Native/Florida Cracker sheep would be worth considering if you want wool.

Rotational grazing is essential, as Thekla pointed out. Also biochar has shown to be a great way to reduce or even eliminate intestinal parasites in sheep. Drench resistance is a massive problem in this country, especially in sheep, and it's pushing a lot of farmers to the brink.

We've run trials here in the North Island feeding cattle and sheep biochar at rates typically around 1-2% of dry matter intake, and done fecal egg counts. After 60 days of feeding, the egg counts dropped to near zero in the undrenched test mobs. The weight gain increase was as much as 25%, which is probably a result of better feed conversion efficiency as well as not "feeding the worms."

I feed it to my sheep on a regular basis, adding a little salt and molasses for palatability. They prefer small chunks, up to about 1 cm max, and dusty material makes them sneeze so I screen out the fines.

Hi, Leigh,

I have raised sheep: Coopworth, Icelandic, Romney, and East Friesian (milking)

The Coopworth were my favorite; a New Zealand breed, imported, I think, in the late 1800's. I had a coal black ram, a white ram, and an absolutely gorgeous chocolate brown ram who was too stupid for his own good: stuck his nose in a rattlesnake's face and got bit before I could breed him to the ewes. Died rapidly. Most of the ewes were white. The ewes are easy birthers, mostly twins; great mamas. They all browsed, especially liked the blackberry leaves and blackberries. They also ate freely of the large patch of Spearmint on the farm. Could not keep them out of the sweetgrass patch. Meat is good. The fleeces are fine with a high luster; I enjoyed hand spinning with a drop spindle, and felting. I had a strain of ewes who would kill coyotes; and frequently butted the dog when he got too obnoxious. Sadly, lost that strain when a cougar showed up on the property and the ewes went out to challenge the cat. Not a good idea from the sheep's point of view. The cougar was happy.

The Icelandic were easy milkers; beautiful double-coated fleeces; different colors. All had horns and knew how to use them in very imaginative ways. Good meat. Easy birthers. Browsers.

The Romneys had fine fleeces, spinning and felting. They were bigger than the Coopworths.

The East Friesian sheep gave good milk and were, more or less, easy to milk. (Not easy birthers; I had to pull all the lambs.) I was at the start of recovery from traumatic brain injury (not from the sheep) while we were milking. I would smell the fresh milk and start craving it. I ended up drinking half of each milking while the milk was still warm. It made fabulous cheese. The ram was very protective of his flock. We ate him after he attacked us one too many times. I used the wool as mulch to choke out blackberry canes; wasn't good for much else. Cut the canes down to ground level; layer on the wool. A heavy enough layer and the canes cannot grow through. I would leave the wool on the patch for about a year. When I pulled the wool off the ground, the chickens would come running and dig for bugs and other tasty tidbits. The chickens liked to rest in the wool while it was being used as mulch.

Hope this provides useful information.

I think the most important thing to take into account is one’s land, climate, topography, vegetation, in deciding which animals to have. Animals are truly happiest whwn they are most comfortable in the environment they thrive in, and certainly are healthier too. (I absolutely agree on sheep for the SE being Gulf Coast Native, Barbados Black Belly, Cracker Sheep, St Croix etc).
THEN if fibre is desired, one can pick a fiber from the animals that are comfortable on one’s land.

For ex: I originally wanted goats for a variety of reasons, but the land we ended up buying was flat and a little seasonally swampy. Not at all what is appropriate for goats. So For our conditions and method of rearing livestock (grass/browse fed and finished, northern Mediterranean climate) and size of our property, we chose Icelandics. I would say we are still a relatively cool climate, but are on the Southern extent of what the best climate is for this breed.

They have great wool, double coated, can be milked (of course any sheep can be milked, but these guys always twin and so produce fairly well, despite not being a dairy breed), and their meat is excellent. They reliably twin after 1st lambing, are medium sized and easy to handle at that size (horned or polled), and are one of the best grassfed breeds in cooler climates.  They are also a bit goaty in personality and browsing habits, which I appreciate and enjoy greatly.

Icelandics (and relatives like Finn, Gotland, Romanov, Shetlands, Ouesssants) are Northern Short-Tailed Breeds, and are not like Western sheep breeds in that they do NOT “find an excuse to die” they are very hardy in fact (though not in SE USA or other hot humid climates as others have pointed out).

They are wonderfully simple and carefree to care for IF the conditions and management are correct.
100% pastured and finished, correct mineral salts, good fresh water, *no grains*, and yes moved to new grazing areas of appropriate size for no more than 2-3 days per site, and never returning to same site until 2-3 months have passed..

The reason for grazing this way is actually that it works AGAINST the Barberpole parasite life cycle (Haemonchus contortus). The larval state L3 becomes infective after ground deposition in feces at 3-5 days, depending on climate/precipitation, and stays alive for 2-3 months also depending on climate/precipitation.
So, animals MUST move before they are infected with larvae. Grazing no shorter than 4-6” helps keep the pastures healthy, and does reduces some worm burden, but is not very effective alone for controlling these parasites.

Take all responses with a grain of salt, as what suits you best will be specific to your property and needs.
That being said, my favourite sheep is an alpaca. Alpacas are very low maintence being sturdy, independant, and weather-proof; they don't run into fences or cut themselves on them, they fend off predators, and they are endlessly amusing. And the wool is lovely to spin as they don't produce lanolin so the fibres don't need washing - just a shake-out of the dust. Gets a premium price too.

Are alpaca good dairy animals?

Thekla McDaniels wrote:Are alpaca good dairy animals?

In my experience, I would say alpacas are not dairy animals, no.

Can one milk them? Absolutely YES!

One can milk any animal. (If the animal is trained to it).
I milk my non-dairy breed of sheep. And I did milk my neighbor’s llama to help get colostrum to her cria (baby).

In other parts of the world, horses, camelids, caribou, yak, etc, are all milked.

It’s just that not a lot of milk is obtained in one milking session, and it’s also much harder to do, as the udders are very small, higher up, and teats are much smaller than our domestic cows, goats, and sheep - most especially dairy bred ruminants.

One can buy branded camel milk actually, so it’s certainly possible to milk camelids. I suspect that there may be camel breed lines or varieties that are higher producing than others.
https://desertfarms.com/?srsltid=AfmBOorzkkLgKg6SKBNKcCpzL6u8KtfZKdeeKV2PuMES5owmU4MIj4Qp


By the way:
‘Dairy’ is a standard agricultural term that refers to breeds specifically bred for high quantity milk production, as opposed to meat or wool. A few examples of these breeds:
Cows: Holstein, Jersey
Goats: Saanen, Nigerian Dwarf
Sheep: East Freisian, Assam, Awassi, Lacaune

It doesn’t mean other animals can’t be milked though, or that they don’t produce fairly well, especially Maternal breeds - another standard term.
(Dorset sheep and Icelandic sheep - would be examples of Maternal breeds not bred specifically for dairy, and nowhere near as productive as a dairy breed, but who can produce a fair amount of milk).

Just a second recommendation to make use of waste wool. It’s a great mulch that decomposes to enrich the soil. It’s especially good around newly planted trees, shrubs, etc, because it holds moisture. It can just be added to soil and is sometimes made into pellets. Very good for potted plants in hanging baskets to reduce the need for watering.

I have Finnsheep.  I really enjoy their wool for spinning and felting.  
I have a nice array of colors which makes them pretty in the field and nice to work with the contrast when I am making stuff.  

They stay pretty clean and I am able to clean and process the wool myself rather than sending it out to a mill to get it cleaned and prepped for spinning.  
I generally just run the raw wool through a picker and card it and then spin it into yarn.  I do not wash the wool before making yarn.   I usually knit the raw yarn and wash it after garment is made.  For me this saves a lot of time.
The clothing I have made gets nicer and softer the more I wear it and wash it.   It is so warm and fun to wear a sweater made out of your own sheep!!

Each sheep is different though.  The feel of the fleece and the way it runs through my hand as I am spinning.   Some are more silky and some are more soft and fluffy.   The lambs wool is the softest of course but it seems like lambswool shrinks a lot more than sheep or rams wool when washing and felting.  

My small flock of FInnsheep produce enough lamb for my family to have plenty of meat and in the spring we have milk for cheese and ice cream.  

My sheep do not make as much milk as a dairy breed but it is so rich and creamy.  What a total treat to get to drink sheep's milk!
I like that I can get wool, meat and milk from one breed of animal.  

I have been told that people will pay more for the fiber with a very tight crimp, that it is nicer for hand spinners so I have been breeding for that.  It all seems to spin up well though and it all makes lovely yarn and garments.

Samantha Lewis wrote:I have Finnsheep.  I really enjoy their wool for spinning and felting.

Finnsheep are a super interesting breed!
Is their wool double-coated like the other Northern Shorttail breeds?
(Meaning having both that soft undercoat and the more course, resistant outer coat…)

Thanks

I have had Icelandic and Finn.  I haven’t noticed the fleece on my Finns being as markedly “double”.  Finns wool is not as finely crimped like Merino, it’s more “wavy”, not as tight a curl,  but it’s not itchy, it’s soft and lusterous.

Thekla McDaniels wrote:I have had Icelandic and Finn.  I haven’t noticed the fleece on my Finns being as markedly “double”.  Finns wool is not as finely crimped like Merino, it’s more “wavy”, not as tight a curl,  but it’s not itchy, it’s soft and lusterous.

Ah nice, thanks
Is it more like Shetland?

tuffy monteverdi wrote:
Finnsheep are a super interesting breed!
Is their wool double-coated like the other Northern Shorttail breeds?
(Meaning having both that soft undercoat and the more course, resistant outer coat…)

Thanks

Hello Tuffy!

Finnsheep in general do not have the double coat.  Most of mine just have one thick layer of soft lovely wool.   I do have one ewe with the special extra coat and two of her children have carried forward the trait.  All of them are weather resistant.  They can be out in the rain or snow they just shake it off and are dry inside.