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Effective breeding and raising of sheep at home. Everything a farmer needs to know about sheep breeding

Sheep are bred for the purpose of making money from their farming productivity. As a business, this is a great idea, because the animals have first-class meat and expensive fleece. Sheep fur is regularly purchased by clothing and footwear manufacturers, and therefore there will always be a demand for these products. Sheep farming is not the most complex type of farming, but it has a number of nuances. So how to raise sheep at home and what do you need to know about keeping them?

Sheep breeding is a profitable business if the animals are properly maintained and cared for. Most animals, such as sheep of the Romanov breed, Gissar, Merino, Texel, Romney and many others, thanks to their abundant hair, are able to withstand extremely low temperatures down to -30 degrees, but cannot tolerate sudden changes, drafts and high humidity. Therefore, sheep and rams must be kept in dry and quiet rooms with heating during the cold season.

If you are going to put sheep fleece up for sale, you need to give it a marketable appearance. Since sheep are not the cleanest animals, they need to be cleaned regularly in the barn, otherwise the fur will constantly get dirty and eventually lose its color and value. It is best to clean the enclosures every 2-3 days, changing the bedding to dry ones. The ideal option in this case would be straw.

Most modern sheep breeds suffer from a variety of pulmonary diseases. The cause of the disease may be bacteria or viruses, which quickly accumulate in damp litter and even if it is regularly replaced, microorganisms begin to deposit in wood and plaster. It doesn’t matter where you raise sheep, in the country, at home or on a farm, stables, sheds and buildings must be regularly whitened with lime. This procedure is carried out monthly.

The note! A sheepfold is a barn or warehouse for keeping sheep.

The simple maintenance of sheepdogs makes sheep popular among breeders. Of course, it is impossible to cram all the animals from the yard into one barn; each female and male should have a small space to move and sleep.

For a ram you need 1.7 sq. m
For females – 1.5 sq. m
For young animals - from 0.8 to 4.0 sq. m
Ewe with lambs – from 2.0 to 2.5 sq. m

These conditions of detention were approved by the Soviet GOST and still work.

The ideal option is a farm or a house, or a cottage with a large range where animals can run and frolic. Walking will allow you to keep sheep as close to wild conditions as possible. If you raise lambs without grazing, they can immediately gain excess weight, which will affect both the meat and down qualities of the breed.

Interesting fact! Romanov sheep are kept without pasture or walking. The whole point is the timidity of animals, which in open areas will run away from the sheep farmer at any loud sound.

Feeding the lambs

It is worth taking care of the dishes for eating and drinking the sheep. Troughs should not stand on the ground; the animal will regularly defecate in them, which will lead to spoilage of feed and can cause the development of serious diseases. Containers for food and water should be installed at the height of the lamb's chest, which will allow him to exclusively feed from such dishes. For this purpose, a height of 50-70 cm is sufficient. Feeders and drinkers need to be cleaned every 2-3 days, and once a week they need to be treated with boiling water. Once the troughs are installed, feeding begins.

To effectively use all the qualities of lambs, they must be provided with the right diet. As in the wild, most of the animals’ diet consists of greens, but at a time when there are no green areas yet, proper nutrition is necessary so that the sheep receive all the necessary vitamins and minerals. The menu includes (kg per day):

Silage – 3.5-4.5 per female and 5.5 per ram.
Hay – 1.2-1.5 for a sheep, 2.0-2.4 for a male.
Straw – 0.3 per ewe, 0.5 per lamb.
Compound feed – 0.4-0.6 for a female, 0.8-1 – for a ram.
Derty – 1.0-1.2 per sheep, 1.5 – for a male.

There is nothing special in this diet, but during the absence of greens it is necessary. In spring and summer, most sheep farmers keep their animals exclusively on greenery and water, sometimes feeding them with compound feed. Adults are not picky eaters, which cannot be said about lambs.

Ewe and young animals

Reproduction of a flock is part of sheep farming. Most females reach puberty at 7 months, but if you want to mate correctly, it is better to choose one-year-old females for this purpose. Any breed of sheep is capable of reproducing without human intervention. In order for a ram to cover a female, it is enough to place the animals in one enclosure during the hunting period. If fertilization is successful, then within 130-150 days the farmer will receive a young brood.

But how can you tell if a female is in heat?

If you run a large farm with a large flock, then it will be easy to spot a sheep ready for mating: it jumps on other animals.
The genitals swell and clear mucus begins to be released.
The animal becomes restless, constantly runs around the enclosure, and bleats loudly.
She immediately calms down in the presence of a male.

In the first days, lambs feed on their mother's milk. Then the diet becomes a little richer:

Second week of life. 200 g of oatmeal is added to mother's milk. It is easily digestible, but already prepares the body for coarser food.
Third week. Dry leaves of the fruit tree are added to the lamb's diet.
Fourth week of life. It is necessary to start feeding babies with root vegetables (the ideal option is carrots). Calculation: 30 g per head. Within a week, the amount of vegetables should reach 40 g.
From the 35th day, the animal begins to be given compound feed in the amount of 50 g per head.
At two months of age, the amount of milk is reduced to 150 g, and the norm of oatmeal is 700 g. The amount of feed is increased to 150 g.
At 3 months of age, milk is completely abandoned. The basis of the diet is greens and 300 g of feed per day.

If all these steps are followed correctly step by step, you will be able to raise a sheep with first-class farming performance.

The note! On many farms, sheep are raised not for their fleece, but for their meat. The profitability of slaughtering an animal is 11-12 months. During this period, the female gains up to 55-60 kg, and the male – 80 kg. The meat yield ranges from 60% to 78%. The meat does not have high gastronomic qualities, but has a nutritious and healthy composition.

Care, feeding and maintenance are not everything. In order for sheep to please the owner, they must always be healthy, therefore they must be vaccinated.

Vaccinations

To raise strong lambs, they must first be vaccinated against tuberculosis and anthrax. There is no specific age for the procedure; vaccinations are given every spring to absolutely all livestock. Vaccinations are important, especially if you raise animals for meat for yourself, and not for selling fluff and wool. It is strongly recommended to vaccinate sheep and rams against rabies in the spring or summer. If the ewe had a difficult lambing or an abortion, she is vaccinated against brucellosis.

This is the main group of vaccinations that are best not avoided. The veterinarian administers the remaining medications only if an epidemic of the disease has broken out in the area, which rarely happens. If all domestic or farm animals have been vaccinated on time, then there is no longer any need to worry about the health of the sheep.

Now you know where to start raising sheep and if you follow the above tips step by step, your lambs will pay off in no time. Although you can find everything about sheep on the Internet, there are a number of the most asked questions about these animals.

Should a newbie farmer raise sheep?

Yes, sure. There is absolutely nothing complicated in breeding these animals, so this is a great idea for starting your own business.

Does maintenance require a lot of financial expenses?

If you have a place to keep animals, then you will only spend money on animal food, nothing more.

Is sheep farming profitable?

Certainly. Sheep are capable of producing high-quality fur, tasty meat and fatty milk, which is ideal for making expensive cheeses.

What breed of sheep is best for breeding in the country?

It's difficult to answer. Each breed has its own characteristics, but among the domestic breeders the best is the Romanov ram. These animals have ideal farming characteristics.

How to care for a pregnant ewe?

No, the main thing is to provide her with a dry and warm barn (from 12 degrees) and high-quality food.

It is described in sufficient detail how to start raising sheep, where to start and what is necessary for the good development of sheep farming as a business. This is not a difficult task and even a novice farmer can do it. Love your animals.

Sheep farming works well for those people who love animals, sheep in particular. Sheep are herd animals; they always graze together and do not scatter far. They can be grazed on any grass, even after the cows have passed. Many people allow a goat into the flock so that there is a “leader,” because the sheep and rams do not know their home well and will not go anywhere until someone confident in themselves leads them.

They are divided according to the quality of their wool into fine wool (their wool consists of only downy wool), semi-fine wool (the wool is not so fine) and coarse wool (they are bred for meat and sheepskin).

The most popular breed in central Russia is the Romanov. She gives 4-5 lambs per litter, while others give 1-2 lambs. This breed is also advantageous because their sheepskin is more valuable.

They live for a long time, up to 22-25 years, but they mate until they are 8-9 years old to produce strong, healthy offspring.

Raising sheep during the grazing period

The grazing season begins in May, when the grass has already grown a little. In the morning they are given water and driven to pasture. At the beginning of the grazing period, they are accustomed to fresh grass, that is, they are turned out to graze not for the whole day, but for 2-3 hours, then returned to the sheepfold. And so on for several days in a row.

When the grass has already grown well, all the herbivores are driven out to pastures for the entire long summer day, and they are left to spend the night in pens with a rain shelter. Despite the fact that young grass is quite juicy, they still need to be watered at least 2 times a day.

Stall period

For the stall period, it is necessary to prepare at least 500 kilograms of good hay per head, 500-700 kilograms of succulent feed (potatoes, root vegetables, silage) and 100 kilograms of concentrates, including salt, chalk, bone meal.

In the sheepfold, everything should be repaired by winter, the walls should be sufficiently insulated, doors and frames should be adjusted so that there are no drafts. If it’s stuffy in the sheepfold in winter, then the glass is removed from the windows, and the opening can be covered with fabric, then the air will pass through and there will be no draft. By the beginning of the stall period, you need to install feeders and drinking bowls. The room should not be cramped to avoid injury and disease to the livestock.

In an insufficiently insulated and equipped barn, they may not tolerate the stall period well, because in central Russia it lasts up to 7 months. The air temperature in the sheepfold in winter should be no lower than 6-8 °C, and when the lambs appear, then up to 15 °C. Suspended sheep must be kept separately. The sheepfold must be dry, clean, it must be cleaned regularly and the bedding must be changed.

Feeding during the stall period

It is better to feed lambs outside, in a pen, or under a canopy in bad weather.

It's best to do it 3-4 times a day. If you feed them at a certain time, then between feedings they behave calmly and do not scream. At night, each tree is left with 1-2 brooms from branches with leaves harvested in the summer. You definitely need to water them a lot, as they feed on dry food.

It is better to distribute feed over time: give hay in the morning, in the afternoon - hay, brooms plus succulent feed, cut into pieces and sprinkled with bran, in the evening - concentrates and hay. Individuals destined for meat are fed hay, mainly legumes and cereals. Don't forget to give them salt.

Possible diseases

To prevent lambs from getting sick, it is necessary to adhere to the basic rules of sanitation, treat the premises in which a sick animal was noticed with special substances, about which it is better to consult a veterinarian. Sick animals should be separated from others and should not be allowed to come into contact with healthy animals.

1. Diseases are not contagious

Nutritional imbalance. Lambs may lack some minerals, and as a result, they begin to eat wool from other lambs. After this, they die because the abomasum (part of the stomach in ruminants) becomes blocked. A lack of phosphorus and calcium can cause rickets, and in adults – osteoporosis.
Cold. One of the main enemies is dampness. It should be avoided in every possible way, both in winter and summer. Animals get sick from it. Colds may appear if they are exposed to rain, since wet wool cannot dry for a long time, and everyone will get sick.
Poisoning. They can be poisoned by low-quality feed, some herbs, and excessive amounts of sugar beets.
Wounds, fractures, bruises, mastitis in the uterus. In the summer, flies and other blood-sucking insects (horseflies, gadflies) lay their eggs in any wound, from which larvae grow. They begin to corrode the skin, causing the animals to experience pain and itching, and they are no longer interested in grazing. These larvae are removed and the wounds are lubricated with iodine or another disinfectant solution. It is best to lubricate wounds on the same day; for this, animals need to be examined more often for their appearance.

2. Contagious diseases

Scabies
Brucellosis
Coccidiosis
Worms. To avoid infecting your animals with worms, you need to graze them in a new place every week.

In all cases of malaise, which is expressed in lethargy, poor appetite, you should immediately contact a veterinarian.

And we should never forget that sheep are the most defenseless animals; a wolf or a large dog can not only frighten them, as a result of which the ewes may lose milk, but also destroy an entire flock, as has happened more than once.

They are ready for fertilization after six months of life, but this should not be allowed so early, as they may not be able to withstand the load on their fragile body and get sick or die. Low-quality offspring may also be born. Mating can be done at the age of 9 months and older. Best of all, after a year and a half.

Most people begin to feel the heat from the second half of summer to the end of September. This depends on the length of daylight and air temperature.

Hunting is expressed by the fact that the genitals increase significantly in size, and in some sheep they secrete mucus. Ewes become restless. This condition lasts from 18 to 36 hours.

With signs of heat, animals are separated from the flock and mated - left with the ram. In one day, a ram can cover 2-3 females. It’s not worth giving more, so that he doesn’t become overtired, which can affect the quality of the offspring. If yamkas graze in a large flock, then there should be 1 ram for every 30-40 females. In small flocks, a ram is needed for each flock.

We must not forget to ensure that there are no closely related matings, as the offspring suffer from this. To avoid this, it is necessary to replace the ram every 2-3 years. You can also change rams between flocks.

To ensure that no one gets infected with infectious diseases during mating, it is necessary to check them for these diseases at the veterinarian before this process.

Artificial insemination

If necessary or at the request of the owner, sheep are artificially inseminated. This is the highest quality insemination performed by qualified insemination technicians. This is done using special devices.

To do this, an individual is identified during the hunting period and placed in a special pen; it is located in a room with a temperature of 20-24 ° C. The sperm, tested for quality and health, is injected into the uterus. Then they mark it with easily washable paint and release it into the flock. To obtain a better result, insemination is performed again every other day, if she is still in heat. After that she is watched.

If you don’t fertilize the yarka during the first heat, she may want to breed again in 15-18 days. If she remains unfertilized the second time, then she may no longer be able to be fertilized, that is, she will become barren.

Pregnancy and childbirth

Many people do not know how long a pregnant sheep walks. The gestation period is about 145-155 days. Depending on the breed, there are 1 to 5 lambs. Ewes lamb in the middle of winter, because... They roam at the end of summer - beginning of autumn.

Towards the end of pregnancy they become more rounded and slower. Three weeks before the sheep gives birth, the diet should become more easily digestible and plentiful.

The udder 1-2 days before birth significantly increases and fills with milk. The skin under the tail becomes redder and swollen. The tail becomes soft and thick.

Before lambing, the queens begin to show anxiety, refuse to eat and look for a secluded place. They need it for a smooth birth. If possible, at this time the animal is moved to a separate lambing area or to a fenced area.

The ewe gives birth to her first lamb lying down. The birth lasts several hours in total, depending on the number of lambs and the health of the uterus. The birth of one lamb lasts up to 50 minutes. After the birth of the first lamb, the lamb licks it, licking off the waste of its birth: amniotic fluid and others. In the process of licking, she remembers his smell, so that later she will not confuse him with anyone else. She gives birth to the rest while standing. They fall onto the litter, but the fall does not harm them. She also licks the rest of the lambs. 3-6 hours after the birth of the last lamb, the placenta comes out. This means that lambing has been completed successfully.

If a ewe has problems with the birth of one of the lambs or the placenta does not pass, not to mention bleeding, it is necessary to urgently contact a veterinarian or an experienced sheep breeder.

Newborn lambs begin to suckle from the udder. This first milk (colostrum) is very beneficial for them. It contains many substances necessary for newly born babies. After 30 minutes, stronger babies can already stand, although, at first, swaying a little.

Ewes stand quietly while feeding, waiting until the lambs are full. When this happens, the babies fall asleep. In the first few days, they nurse and sleep almost all the time. The ewe is also resting; she is also very tired.

Excellent meat, rich milk, sheepskin and the warmth of quality wool are the main reasons for their breeding.

The products that are obtained from these animals directly depend on the breed. Let's take a closer look at keeping sheep, their breeding, care and feeding diet.

Keeping sheep in your own backyard is not difficult. These are hardy animals, they are unpretentious and get sick in rare cases, and are quite fertile. If sheep are compared with other livestock, they are distinguished by their high precocity. Sheep are not demanding of capitally constructed structures:

On summer days, animals have enough paddocks and areas for grazing.
On winter days they are kept in sheepfolds, where the temperature is slightly above zero.

For individuals, even the slightest vegetation is enough for growth, hair growth and weight gain. They grow excellently on food that other types of animals will not have enough.

With proper care of animals, breeding them will not be a difficult and difficult process even for inexperienced breeders. Proper care, compliance with feeding and maintenance rules are guaranteed to result in high rates of meat products, excellent milk and warm wool even in the early years.

Biological characteristics

Among all the individuals living in the farmstead, they became famous for their gregariousness and sclerosis.

Often, farmers are forced to face a problem, because individuals who have gone to pasture are unable to find their home.

Therefore, it is advised to release rams onto pastures accompanied by intelligent goats or cows.

In such a company, as soon as one sheep follows the “leader”, everyone else will follow it.

The life span of sheep reaches up to twenty years. But, kept in a private farmstead, only breeders and purebred females are able to live up to eight years. Young animals raised for meat are slaughtered for up to a year, and representatives of the wool line are kept for a little longer.

The main indicator of the advantage of a breed or an individual animal is the number of lambs per year and the number of cubs produced. Often, sheep bring a brood once a year towards the end of winter or the beginning of spring days. The gestation period lasts approximately five months; as usual, the birth of one baby is the norm for most breeds. But there are also special cases.

For example, the Romanov species is very relevant among Russian breeders due to the frequent birth of several cubs at once and the possibility of lambing twice a year. This thoroughbred feature and precocity of individuals in general makes it possible to draw up a successful, actively paying off business plan for livestock breeding.

Keeping sheep in the summer season

Sheep are a grazing type of animal and must be grazed in pastures during spring and summer. In particular, pasture greens form the basis of their diet during these periods. Pastures are distinguished by the following options:

artificial type, when the soil is sown with herbs
natural natural look
with the presence of perennial plants
with the presence of annual plants

Not all livestock breeds actively transition from the winter feeding season to the summer period. This means that animals need to be switched to green food gradually. And not all types of herbaceous vegetation growing on pasture are suitable for. Damp and marshy areas are not suitable for grazing, because unbalanced feeding provokes the appearance of various ailments in animals.

Due to the fact that sheep are not particularly agile, and they have a particularly developed herd instinct, herding them is quite difficult.

Their slowness and disorientation in space are associated with low vision, so the sheep try to stay close to each other.

It happens that after grazing, cattle still find their way home, if they are fed there.

On summer days, sheep consume up to ten liters of water, so it is necessary that a drinking bowl or pond be located not far from each pasture. The animal housing system implies a clear grazing schedule. Namely: from 5-6 am to 8-9 pm. If we raise them for fattening, we keep them in stalls both in summer and winter.

Keeping sheep during the winter season

On winter days, animals stay in stalls. They tolerate cold well, which means they are not demanding of special conditions. Feeding sheep in winter at home is practiced on the basis of feeding hay prepared in the summer, and also by adding a variety of purchased feeds. During the winter, an adult animal consumes at least five hundred kilograms of hay, at least five hundred kilograms of silage and other succulent food, and fifty kilograms of concentrates.

If there is a shortage of hay, thirty percent of it is replaced with oat and spring wheat straw, as well as legume straw. Animals also eat well twig food, which is prepared on summer days from young shoots of trees with foliage.

Almost everyone feels much more favorable if they stay in dry climatic areas.

They must be out and about constantly throughout the year.

Only in our latitudes this cannot be achieved.

Although these animals tolerate confined spaces worse than others, you need to build them a shed or sheepfold.

This is exactly the place where cattle will come from grazing, spend the winter, and also lamb.

Sheep housing needs to be as close to the natural environment as possible. Wooden walls, clay floors, there should be good ventilation, but no draft winds.

The room must be dry, equipped with lighting, which means the presence of windows and an additional light source. The interior of the barn suggests the presence of mangers, feeding troughs, and partitions. We will determine the total area based on the calculation: four hundred square meters per two hundred head of cattle. An adult needs two square meters of free space, a lamb needs one square meter. As usual, the layout of the building is angular with windows for a normal amount of light.

We will divide the room into two parts (for those who lambed and for those who did not lamb). We will have a staff room in the middle of the building. It would be more successful to build an additional outbuilding; it would be possible to place rams in it separately so that they would not attack females during the period of decline in sexual activity.

The warmth inside the premises on cold days is maintained by the animals themselves. In winter, depending on the temperature, the stall must be lined with insulation if the temperature is below -10. It happens that a stove is installed so that the lambs do not freeze, because their coat is not yet sufficient to heat themselves.

In the event that walking animals is not possible due to lack of pasture, we acquire an enclosure. We are fencing off an outdoor area that will be adjacent to the sheepfold. Sheep do not tolerate humidity well. In order for them to have shelter from the rain, they need an additional covered building, and a watering hole can be organized in it.

Lambing sheep requires a specially equipped separate room where the female will not be disturbed. The air temperature in this room should not be less than ten degrees. The usual temperature range is from 10 to 18C. Therefore, during lambing on winter days, this compartment is heated additionally. It is better to take all these parameters into account when planning the construction of a sheepfold.

We save food for animals. Diet

Adequate nutrition takes into account the animals' daily intake of two kilograms of hay, about three hundred grams of concentrates, about ten grams of table salt, as well as feed chalk and a mixture of vitamin supplements. The basis of the menu should be hay. Its volumes in the Russian Federation are stored once a year for the entire period, this is the specificity of our livestock farming. In other words, hay will need to be purchased in the summer.

The duration of grazing on greenery varies depending on the regions of Russia. In one area, animals are recommended to be grazed for six months, in another - only three months. Based on this, calculations are made of the required volumes of hay. It is sold in the form of rolls of two hundred and fifty kilograms or in bales. The average weight of a hay bale is fifteen kilograms, but a lot depends on the strength of the hay press by the machine. The dimensions of a normal bale are usually 1.2 by 0.6 by 0.4 m. Taking into account the dimensions of the bale and our own ability to stack them in a pyramid, we are able to calculate the space needed to store the hay.

It is especially important to remember that it cannot be laid out directly on the ground; you need to place the food for your pets on cargo pallets and cover it with banners on top, providing protection from precipitation. The more compacted the hay, the less moisture it will absorb.

If a farmer pursues the idea of improving the quality characteristics of meat, then the work of caring for the lamb would have to be taken into his own hands and he would have to be taken away from the female on the third day after birth. These should be fed artificially.

This variation is beneficial for a small subsidiary farm and provides the opportunity to wait for new offspring after a short time. To increase the number of individuals, both artificial insemination and natural fertilization are practiced.

Caring for sheep does not pose any particular difficulties. It only takes a few months to raise them for meat. From the age of three months, young sheep can be slaughtered. It is best to carry out this activity before reaching nine months of age.

The coat is clipped twice a year.

In the spring, most often, this is done from rams with a uniform coat.

If they have a mixed coat, then it is better to postpone the haircut until the autumn.

When breeding animals in the northern regions, when keeping individuals of the coarse-haired type, they are sheared three times a year.

If you miss this favorable period for shearing, then there is a risk of losing half of the wool as a result of the sheep’s molting.

Sheep breeds

A beginning breeder must decide on the purpose of breeding sheep and, based on this, make a choice in favor of a certain breed: meat, meat-wool, fat tail, etc. To obtain a wool product of proper quality, it is recommended to purchase the following breeds of animals: Merino, Stavropol type, Caucasian species, Altai species.

The wool-meat type of sheep produces moderately fine wool and is divided into representatives with a long coat and a short coat.
Long-haired representatives include the following varieties:

Kuibyshev species
Tien Shan species
North Caucasian species
View of the Romney March
Russian longhaired species

The short-haired subspecies is represented by Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian sheep. They grow actively, and their meat is of high quality. To create carpets, cloth and fur of excellent quality, it is recommended to look at the Tsigean and Georgian sheep representatives. The fur subspecies also include the Karakul and Romanov species.

It is noted that Romanov sheep are universal: they have excellent meat and dairy products, and high offspring. The animals experience active growth, they hardly get sick and can be considered one of the best variations for inexperienced breeders.

Balabas, Tushino and Karachay varieties give excellent marks for meat, wool and milk. To breed fat-tailed individuals in order to obtain meat, lard and wool products from them to create felt, you should turn your interest to the Edilbaev or Gissar species. Such individuals are the largest among their fellows, their weight sometimes reaches two hundred kilograms.

Profitability of sheep breeding

An inexperienced breeder who decides to start breeding sheep is initially interested in whether he will benefit or not. To do this, we calculate the planned financial costs.

According to historians, the sheep was domesticated approximately 8,000 years ago. It is assumed that mouflons and argali initially acted in this capacity.

Mouflon is a wild sheep that today lives on the islands of the Mediterranean Sea in rocky, inaccessible places. Mountain mouflons are very agile and agile, and can reach a weight of 70 kilograms. Mouflon wool is coarse, consisting of thin and short down and long and hard overcoat. Mouflon is the ancestor of the northern short-tailed sheep.

The steppe mouflon, the so-called arkar, lives in the steppes and semi-deserts of Kazakhstan and Central Asia, a larger animal with reddish hair. Fine-fleeced, fat-tailed and long-lean-tailed sheep breeds originate from the arcara.

In ancient times, Kamchatka, Alaska and Southern Altai were inhabited by argali - a high-legged wild variety of mouflon with short, coarse, dark gray fur.

In the process of long-term selective crossbreeding, livestock breeders received many new domestic breeds of sheep. For breeding animals at home, meat and dairy breeds are selected, such as:

Askaniyskaya;
Altai;
Prekos;
Kazakh;
Georgian Fattail;
Vyatskaya;
Tajik;
Gissar fat tail.

In principle, meat products can be obtained from sheep of any breed, but the highest rates are obtained from specialized breeds of sheep. If a novice sheep breeder plans to get a certain amount of wool, then he will need to buy several lambs of the Romanov breed.

Buying sheep

Having decided to purchase several sheep, you should remember that how profitable their subsequent rearing and sale will be depends, first of all, on the choice of young lambs. It is better to make a purchase from sellers with experience in sheep breeding, who can provide useful advice to a beginner in this business.

Conditions for sheep breeding

Sheep are very unpretentious animals that are able to eat any pasture, regardless of weather and natural conditions. A sheep can find food suitable for itself, sufficient to satiate itself, even in scorched steppe spaces, since it can be content with dry grass, which other animals do not do. In order to raise sheep, no conditions are required; in the summer, animals can be kept in large pens, while in winter a barn is needed. In winters that are not cold enough, sheep can spend almost all daylight hours outdoors; thick wool prevents the animals from freezing.

At night, regardless of the time of year, sheep should be driven under a special canopy; this will save a small herd from foxes and wolves, and also, most importantly, from rain. The only thing these animals cannot stand is rain; the fur gets wet, becomes heavy and dirty, and becomes tangled. After the sheep have been caught in the rain, there can be no talk of any shearing for the purpose of selling wool. You should immediately cut off all matted wool and try to dry it, but due to the lack of special equipment at home, nothing will work.

So, sheep need a spacious paddock, grazing and a barn with a canopy - that’s all. It should be remembered that a sheep cannot find its way home on its own, so to look after a small herd it is necessary to enlist the help of the ancestral friend of all shepherds - a dog. A smart dog will definitely find the lost animal and bring it home, and also save the sheep from predators. A ram can also act as a guide, the presence of which in the herd is mandatory.

There are several ways of content:

On pastures and pastures, all year round, in any weather. This method is suitable for areas with warm climates;
In the sheepfolds;
Sheep-basic method. In winter in a sheepfold, or stable, the rest of the year in the pasture

Reproduction techniques include insemination of sheep, mating period, lambing, and rearing of young animals. In order for mating to take place, at least one ram must be present in a flock of sheep. It is possible to use free and manual mating, as well as artificial insemination.

Free mating is possible only when females and mature males are kept together in a household. Experts in sheep breeding do not recommend using this type of mating, since the owner of the sheep loses the opportunity to calculate the number of mating females and, accordingly, will not be able to provide them with timely care and assistance during childbirth.

Manual mating involves keeping sheep separately, followed by monitoring the onset of the period of desire in females and the admission of rams to them. In order for a farm containing about 150 sheep to carry out high-quality manual mating, at least 10-15 rams are needed, the maximum load per animal should not exceed 50 sheep per year.

Many livestock breeders solve problems associated with the need to carry out regular matings through artificial insemination, which, among other things, has a beneficial effect on the quality improvement of the herd. This is due to the fact that wide opportunities open up for the sheep farmer to use the best rams, while the load per ram increases to 1000 sheep. Artificial insemination practically eliminates the possibility of sheep becoming infected with infectious diseases, as well as barrenness, which is common among these animals.

When choosing a method of insemination, it should be taken into account that sexual maturity of sheep occurs in different breeds at different times; some breeds of sheep become sexually mature at 4 months, others at 8 months. To avoid premature insemination, which almost always ends in the death of the offspring and the sheep itself, the animals must be separated for some time; this should be done as early as 4 months of the sheep’s life.

Breeding and raising lambs at home

In order for the mating to be as successful as possible, it is necessary to wait until the queens go into heat, which occurs approximately 1.5 months after the lambs have been weaned from the queens and milking has stopped. Mating requires lengthy preparation; the queens must be fed with concentrates, just like the rams. Females are inseminated twice, once at the beginning of the heat, the other after 10-14 hours. The main difference that is observed in the insemination of sheep is that the second time the uterus is inseminated with the sperm of the same ram.

The gestation period lasts approximately 145 days. 20-30 days before the start of lambing, the wool on the udder and near the tail is cut off from the queens. This is done for two reasons:

1.Firstly, newborn lambs will not be able to reach the udder because of their wool:

2.Secondly, after lambing, females usually undergo shearing, the purpose of which is to obtain clean wool of good quality.

Lambing of queens occurs in winter, early spring and late spring. A special problem is winter lambing, which requires the preparation of warm premises and provision of queens with a sufficient amount of high-quality feed. The lambing process must be monitored very carefully in order to be able to provide all possible assistance in time during a protracted and difficult birth.

The live weight of lambs at birth depends on the breed of sheep; on average, one lamb feeding on the milk of the uterus per day gains up to 200 grams in weight. Starting from the second week of life, lambs experience a great lack of vitamins, so from the age of 7 days the animals must be gradually transferred to concentrated feed.

During winter lambing, lambs are usually kept partly in a shed, and partly at a base - grazing, which involves separating the lambs from the females already at a week of age and visiting them during the daytime for grazing. Lambs are allowed to see the uterus only at night and are fed regularly every 2-3 hours.

In order to improve the production quality of lamb, lambs must be weaned from their uterus at 3 days of age, by transferring them to artificial feeding. With a small number of sheep - 3-6 pieces, such actions are very cost-effective, since they allow you to quickly breed again.

Feeding sheep

Sheep are fed using specially formulated fattening rations, which must include green feed and hay. Sheep quickly gain weight if you feed them legumes - clover and alfalfa, as well as cereals. To increase productivity levels, sheep should be fed concentrated feed daily at a rate of 200-300 grams per sheep.

Typically, sheep farmers feed sheep in groups of 7-12 sheep, but at home, group feeding is not cost-effective.

Sheep eat silage, root vegetables, corn, bran and cake well; the presence of mixed feed in the diet is welcome. Do not forget about constant mineral and vitamin supplements, without which sheep will not be able to lamb well and produce healthy offspring. To speed up wool growth, it is advisable to give sheep methionine, a drug that contains a large amount of sulfur-containing amino acid.

Pregnant and brood ewes, as well as breeder rams, must be fed intensively, making sure that all the food they consume is not only of high quality, but of the first degree of freshness, which is very important especially for ewes that can shed their lamb due to poisoning.

Sheep slaughter

Sheep are slaughtered at approximately 3-9 months of age; after the sheep reaches 1 year, its meat is considered unfit for consumption by gourmets. The slaughter is carried out in the same ways as the slaughter of other animals; generally, modern householders prefer to do it themselves - by simply cutting the artery, or they take the sheep to a specialized slaughterhouse, where the slaughter process is put on stream.

So, raising sheep at home is not at all difficult; you just need to have a pasture and barn of the required size, choose the right lambs, mate and fatten the sheep. Feed today is inexpensive, and if we take into account the fact that sheep spend most of their time on pastures, eating pasture, then their cultivation can be considered the most profitable from the point of view of any livestock breeder who is tired of removing manure and monitoring the replenishment of feeders.

Video: home keeping and breeding of sheep

More and more farmers are mastering raising sheep at home for beginners, since this area of the livestock business is considered one of the most profitable. Statistics show that profit from a flock of 300 heads is only 25%, so if you want to use sheep breeding as a business, and not only start it, but also succeed, we recommend keeping larger flocks. In this article you will learn all the features of caring for rams in winter and summer.

Raising sheep for meat at home

Rams are considered fast-growing animals, because after just a few months the weight of a young lamb is half the weight of an adult. If you decide to succeed in the business of breeding sheep for meat or plan to raise rams for yourself, then choose meat breeds. To obtain meat, farmers most often choose the Romanov breed of sheep. Such sheep are also distinguished by their high milk production, so you will get at least one liter of milk per day.

The photo shows stall maintenance in winter

It is important for novice farmers to know that sheep, when bred at home, do not tolerate high humidity. Therefore, it is important to build a high-quality sheepfold and insulate it well to keep the flock in winter. Straw bedding will help ensure cleanliness when keeping the pen. When keeping, do not forget to provide free access for sheep and rams to feed and water.

Advantages of sheep breeding as a business for beginners and successful farmers:

Sheep meat is considered dietary, so it can be sold at a high price.
While the lamb is growing, shear its wool, the sale of which will become a source of additional income.
Milk is also a good way to make a profit, because delicious cheeses are made from sheep’s milk.

The photo shows the arrangement of the feeder

Before you start raising sheep as a business, make a spending plan, because you need not just to buy young lambs, but to provide a comfortable place for them to live, stock up on feed for the winter and hire auxiliary workers who will walk the flock in the pasture and clean the sheepfolds. Only by following a clear business plan can you succeed in this livestock farming business.

Feeding sheep in winter at home

When breeding in sheepfolds, according to farmers' reviews, it is necessary to include grass, cereal hay, and corn silage in the diet. Bean silage can be used, and concentrated feed can be included in the diet of suckling queens. Don't forget to put lick salt in the feeder when feeding.

Table of daily diet for 1 head

4 kg of hay;
1.5 kg of grain.

This norm will decrease slightly in the spring and summer, when walking is carried out in the fields and animals can eat fresh grass.

Diet table for feeding Romanov breed ewes

If you decide to start raising sheep at home for beginners in order to get a lot of wool, then feeding in winter and summer should include a 2:3 ratio of legumes to grains.

The decrease in sheep productivity directly depends on nutrition, therefore, beginners, do not forget about mineral supplements:

phosphate without fluorine;
bone flour;

In the summer, according to reviews from experienced sheep breeders, it is worth watering the animals 2 times a day, preferably with well water rather than standing water. When keeping sheep in winter, you can water them only once a day.

Photos of feeding in winter

Another important feature of raising lambs at home for beginners is that during the transition from the winter stall period to the pasture period, succulent feed should be introduced into the diet gradually. This will help avoid intestinal disorders in the entire flock. If you plan to switch your sheep to pasture feeding in the spring, then walking should last about 12-14 hours a day, then all individuals will be well-fed and healthy.

Sheep: breeding, care, video

Watch a selection of videos about the features of caring for meat breeds:

Shepherd hangar for winter maintenance:

How to care for sheep at home

To breed and keep sheep for beginners, it is not necessary to have large areas; you can try raising a couple in your dacha. A small sheepfold can accommodate up to a dozen sheep - this is already a good start for succeeding in this line of business in the future. Sheep are not afraid of frost, but are very sensitive to humidity. If you do not want to lose your flock due to various diseases, monitor the humidity level in the sheepfold and in the pasture.

In the photo, lambs are eating concentrated feed.

In the summer, sheep can be kept in the same way as goats - under a canopy that protects from the wind and scorching sun. In winter, the rams will have to be moved to a closed, insulated room.

Each breed of sheep has its own characteristics and different sexual maturation. This is important to take into account for both beginners and experienced farmers, because although maturation can occur after 4-8 months, it is advisable to allow mating at one year of age.

The photo shows pasture breeding

If your goal is not just breeding rams and sheep at home for beginners, but also to obtain meat in a short time, after lambing, take the lambs from the sheep after 3 days. Further maintenance will take place on artificial nutrition. If you want to start a sheep breeding business and succeed in it, then use this approach when keeping 10-15 sheep. After just a few months, free or artificial mating can be carried out again.