Sheep breeding: breeding sheep at home for beginners. How to start raising sheep at home - recommendations for beginners How to properly raise sheep and sheep

. This is due to the unpretentiousness of animals, the ability to receive several products at once - milk, wool, meat.

For a successful business, it is necessary to create optimal conditions for keeping sheep and breeding them.

The success of a business depends on compliance with rules and regulations.

Animal care is specific:

• it is required to form a nutritious and complete diet;
• build paddocks (insulated for the winter period, with electricity);
• provide walks (the area near the paddocks and pasture in summer).

The farm business, which is aimed at raising sheep, allows you to develop gradually.

This may be farming or a private household. In the first case, the paddocks are equipped on their own land, in the second, the site is rented.

A businessman must draw up documents for doing business within the framework of the current legislation:

• registration documents of a businessman (TIN, tax registration certificates);
• certificates allowing farming activities (including the conclusion of the SES);
• documents for ownership (if the site is personal) or for rent.

Important! There is a limit on the land allotment for this type of business - up to 2.5 hectares for the form of personal subsidiary farming.

Sales of products

Products:

• meat;
• meat products (semi-finished products);
• wool;
• yarn;
• skin;
• milk.

In 90% of cases, the sale is wholesale (agreement with wholesale buyers). The entrepreneur receives a permanent distribution channel.

Attention! The profit is 20-30%, since the prices are set to the minimum. Direct sales increase profits up to 40-65%, as cooperation takes place with retail buyers.

Permanent sales channels:

• restaurants;
• cafe;
• recreation centers;
• catering points;
• shops and large chains;
• Internet trade.

At the first stage, production equipment can be leased. Save up to 50% of the cost will allow buying used or from an auction.

Sheep farming: pros and cons

Households require material and physical investments. You need to choose sheep breeding as a business, after weighing the pros and cons.

- for their maintenance, you can install a light canopy with insulation in the compartment for newborn lambs.

Important! Pastures are an obligatory element of content. In 50% of cases, you will have to sow them yourself.

Content Pros:

• cultivation does not require special knowledge;
• the uterus is capable of producing 2 offspring per year;
• animals are hardy, withstand temperature extremes;
• fertility - 120-300% (depending on the breed);
• sheep are in good and sound health;
• types of products are diverse;
• it is possible to sell litter (for fertilizers);

Business cons:

• one-time investments - 3-4 million rubles;
• workers are needed - 3-6 people;
• not all fertile lands can produce a crop sufficient to feed the livestock;
• the need to obtain a veterinary passport;
• the area of ​​fields and meadows for pastures should be 1-4 hectares (depending on the type of business);
• land will have to be bought or leased.

. In regions such as Stavropol or the North Caucasus, it is almost impossible to find a suitable site, since sheep breeding is highly developed there.

The best breeds of sheep for home breeding

It is necessary to form a herd so that the farmer can receive not 1, but 2-3 types of products.

Breeds are divided into:

• meat;
• woolen;
• dairy;
• meat-woolen;

Meat varieties:

• prekos;
• Gorky;
• Vendean.

• Caucasian;
• Stavropol;
• Altai.

Meat-woolen breeds (wool is thin, strong):

• Tien Shan (long-haired);
• romney march (longhair);
• Russian longhair;
• North Caucasian (long-haired);
• Lithuanian (shorthair);
• Latvian (shorthair);
• Georgian (semi-fine rune);
• zigeykovy (wool makes a high-quality carpet);
• Karakul (for the production of fur coats);
• Estonian (shorthair).

Peculiarity - a sheep can reach weight indicators of 190-200 kg.

Containment room

Each animal in the flock must be kept warm. The premises for keeping should be built taking into account that after the appearance of lambs, the livestock will increase by 2-4 times.

For a herd of 100-300 heads, you need to build a sheepfold. In this case, the area is divided into pens for animals, ancillary parts and the place where the lambing will take place.

When calculating the area, you need to remember that one animal should have 3 square meters. m. Temperature indicators, optimal for flocks, are + 5 ... + 10 degrees.

Winter requires additional warming in the regions where sub-zero temperatures are observed during this period. Sheep need to put hay on the floor.

The place of lambing should be isolated. The air temperature in it is + 10 ... + 18 degrees, so additional insulation or installation of heaters powered by electricity may be required.

During the summer season there is the possibility of grazing. Fresh grass is the basis of the diet for animals.

Pastures are allocated:

• artificial (grass is sown independently by the farmer);
• natural (grass grows in the usual way).

It is important to remember that some breeds are difficult to transition from winter to summer diet, and the farmer should change feed gradually. Not all types of herbs are suitable for sheep, so animals may have trouble digesting food.

In winter, sheep are kept in stalls. Feeding - hay with the addition of ready-made feed. When harvesting hay, it should be taken into account that 1 adult animal consumes 500 kg and 500 kg of silage, 500 g of concentrates.

If there is not enough hay, then the diet can be replaced by 30% straw (wheat or oatmeal). Walking in the winter is not carried out. Additional insulation is required.

What to feed the sheep?

In summer, 80% of the time animals spend on pastures and eat grasses and succulent types of food. Top dressing consists of corn silage and cereal hay.

Also included in the meal:

• vegetables (fresh, uncooked or frozen are used, as animals need vitamins);
• grain mixtures;
• salt;
• phosphate;
• bone flour;
• chalk (it can be given out in a piece or finely ground and added to the feed mixture).

The norm of salt for adults is 10-15 g per day, for lambs - 5-8 g. Chalk is a source of calcium (there should be no impurities).

In winter, in addition to hay, you need to give fresh vegetables:

• carrots (young, fodder);
• beets (sugar, small);
• beans (corn, peas - not frozen).

Also used sunflower cake, bran. Water must be present without restriction.

The diet of queens

Queens (sheep that have given birth) require high-quality and balanced feed in all respects.

Daily meals consist of:

• hay - 500 g;
• legumes and straw - 0.5 kg;
• fresh vegetables - 3.5 kg.

Additionally, salt should be present in the diet - 15 g. The amount of hay is reduced and replaced with compound feed in the same amount 30 days before the appearance of lambs.

After childbirth, hay is introduced in an amount of 1 kg. Vegetables should be 4 kg each, concentrated feed - 500 g (this is required to increase milk in queens).

The diet of young animals

In the first 5 days, the lamb feeds on milk. Supplementary feeding is carried out as needed from a bottle, special mixtures are added (according to the weight of the animal). When the age of the young reaches 1 month, the food becomes more diverse.

. In this case, they may develop pneumonia. Sheep begin to cough, appetite drops, respiratory processes become more difficult.

Body temperature rises to 42-44 degrees. Treatment is with antibiotics (, bicillin, streptomycin). It is necessary to protect the flock, especially in winter, from drafts, keep animals warm and dry.

Sheep can get sick with rumen flatulence. The disease is manifested by loss of appetite, nervousness, bloating. The reason is the wrong diet. Treatment consists of inserting a gas tube (through the mouth) and puncturing the scar.

In case of poisoning (by a poisonous plant), gastric lavage is performed.

Interesting and important facts that a novice sheep breeder should know about:

• lambing in sheep is high - 3-5 lambs;
• childbirth takes place in 40 minutes, in 95% of cases there are no complications;
• the lamb should receive the first food within 2 hours from the moment of birth;
• acquire lambs at the age of 4 months;
• mating of sheep is carried out from 1 year;
• the ram is separated from the sheep at 5 months (the animals are kept separately);
• feeding should be carried out 2 times a day.

Lifespan

Biological capabilities allow sheep to live up to 25 years. In captivity, they live to an average of 12-14 years. The highest productivity is recorded when the age reaches 2-7 years - it depends on the breed and breeding goals.

Shearing

Shearing is carried out in spring and autumn. Fine-fleece and semi-fine-fleece do not shed in summer. Lambs born in the spring should be sheared for the first time a year after birth.

Important! 15-20 days after with disinfectant.

Caring for newborn lambs

Features of caring for newborn lambs are that they need to be wiped, slipped into the uterus. She does a lick. The lamb must eat within 120 minutes of birth.

It is important to consider that the uterus can only feed 2 cubs at a time. If there are 3-5, then the farmer must bottle feed the rest. Grass and vegetables are not given to newborn lambs.

Conclusion

The sheep breeding business requires knowledge and significant financial investments. On average, a herd will need to spend 2-3 million rubles - to form a livestock (one-time costs).

The return on investment is 2 years, the profitability of the business is 15-30% (this depends on the number of heads in the herd, the experience of the farmer, the methods of marketing products, the number of its types).

Sheep breeding in Russia has its own long-standing traditions. These domestic animals are bred in all regions of the country where there are pastures. Animals are unpretentious, but very sensitive to high humidity. This is taken into account when choosing pastures and arranging a home sheepfold. Existing breeds of sheep are selected for meat, milk or animal wool. Large farms are specialized. For home breeding, universal breeds are used.

Animal wool is used to make fabrics, warm clothes are knitted from it and felted shoes are made. Sheep cheese is prepared from milk, and lamb meat is a dietary product. The life expectancy of sheep at home can be from 20 to 25 years. For so long, no one has kept them in peasant farmsteads. Animals intended for meat production are fattened up to a year or 1.5 years, and queens for breeding offspring are used for breeding purposes up to 10 years.

Meat and wool breeds are the most widespread in domestic sheep breeding in Russia. The most popular of them is Romanovskaya. She is universal. Such animals are capable of giving meat, milk and wool to humans.

Well suited for home breeding and other universal breeds. Among them are Balabas, Tushinskaya, Karachaevskaya. In total, 39 main breeds of animals suitable for home breeding are cultivated in the country.

To obtain fat, meat and wool, going to felt, fat-tailed breeds are bred. The most popular of them is Hissar.

They buy animals for growing and breeding in breeding farms that exist in various regions of the country. To date, there are 175 of them in the country. Of these, 98 are breeding fine-fleeced breeds, 28 - semi-fine-fleeced, 45 - coarse-haired, 4 - semi-coarse-haired and 2 - meat.

Each region of the country is focused on breeding certain breeds of sheep. This is due to local climatic features. The main areas where domestic sheep breeding is widely developed are the North Caucasus, the Southern Federal District, the Volga region, the Central Black Earth strip of Russia and the Southern Urals. Sheep are also raised in other parts of the country, but this is not widespread.

Table 1. The most common breeds of sheep in peasant farms in various regions of the country

Region	Sheep breeds suitable for growing in the region
middle lane	Romanovskaya, Tsigayskaya, Volgogradskaya, Kuibyshevskaya
South of Russia	Tashlinskaya, Koridel, North Caucasian, Romanovskaya
North Caucasus	Karachay, Tushino, Ossetian
Desert regions and steppe regions	Edilbaevskaya, Romanovskaya
Siberia and South Ural	Tuva fat-tailed, Tsigai, Gorky, Lincoln, Kulunda, Northern short-tailed, Siberian short-fat-tailed, Edilbaevskaya

When buying sheep of any breed, you must carefully examine the animals. A healthy sheep or ram should have a good constitution, thick skin and a thick, shiny coat. The hooves of a healthy animal have a shine, do not have cracks, and the teeth do not stagger. You should not buy an animal that has inflammation of the mucous membrane, epidermal formations and growths.

Building a home shepherd

Sheepfolds are built to keep sheep during the cold period of time. They should be warm enough, light and dry. The temperature in the room for keeping lambs must not fall below +10°C and for adult animals +7°C. As a material for the construction of the walls of the sheepfold, wood or brick is used. The choice depends on the place of animal breeding and its climatic conditions.

Room for adult sheep

Good illumination of the room is achieved by the arrangement of windows in it. They should occupy an average of 1/15 of the total wall area. They are located at a height of at least 1.2 meters from the floor surface. At night, the shepherd is illuminated by lamps placed under the ceiling.

A huge role in keeping sheep is played by gender and the size of the space intended for keeping one animal. For the normal development of lambs in the sheepfold, 0.7-0.8 square meters are allocated. meters for each. An adult ram needs at least 3 square meters. meters. Up to 3-4 months, the lambs are next to their mother. For their maintenance in the sheepfold, a separate corner is fenced. The normative area for keeping animals includes a place for placing a feeder and a nursery.

The main requirement for sheepfold floors is hardness. They can be of various types. The most common - adobe floors. They are made of clay, on top of which a wooden flooring and straw are laid. The floor of the sheepfold should be 20-30 cm above the ground in the area. Straw bedding should be changed periodically. Dampness of the premises can lead to illness and death of animals. For bedding per animal, up to 150 kg of straw is required. Ventilation is installed in the shepherd room. With its help, supply and exhaust air circulation is provided, which allows you to get rid of the accumulation of excess moisture and unpleasant odors in the shepherd room.

In large sheepfolds, two types of gates are installed. Large, double-leaf, gated gates are installed at the entrance. Their width can be 2.5-3.0 meters, and the height is 2.0-2.5 m. The width of internal doors rarely exceeds 1.5 meters. They are installed in the opening separating the vestibule of the sheepfold from the premises for animals. The optimal size of the vestibule is 1.2 * 3.5 meters. For small shepherds, one door 1.5 meters wide is enough, which can be covered with tarpaulin or other material as insulation.

Near the sheepfold they arrange bases (a yard for sheep), placing it necessarily on the leeward side

What to feed the sheep?

The diet of sheep consists of plant foods. In the summer, animals are driven out to pastures. They feed on grass, which during this period of time grows everywhere in sufficient quantities. Sheep eat all herbs, including weeds and thorns. Water meadows and swampy areas are not used for grazing. Sheep are not driven out to pastures in dew and after heavy rain. Pastures for them are selected only in arid places.

Small-grass and legume hay, as well as straw made from cereals such as oats, millet and barley, are considered the best food for feeding animals in a paddock. They are best absorbed by animals and contribute to their good growth and development. Diversify the diet of sheep with root crops. Sheep eat pumpkin, potatoes, beets, carrots and zucchini well. At the end of summer, there comes a period when the grass begins to lose its beneficial properties. At this time it is necessary to start feeding the animals. Their diet includes greens of cereals specially grown for these purposes. It can be oats or rye. Corn, alfalfa and peas are added to the feeding ration.

Silage mixed with roughage or bean hay perfectly increases the meat and milk productivity of animals. Every day it can be fed to a sheep from 3 to 4 kg. The nutritional value of hay depends on the conditions of its storage and the composition of the herbs included in it. The best hay for sheep is harvested from contains a lot of vitamins, sugars and protein. All of them are very important for the growth of animals.

Of the root crops, sheep love most of all fodder beets, pumpkins, zucchini and carrots. Beets and carrots are especially important, as they improve the digestive processes that occur in the animal's body. These vegetables contain a lot of coarse fiber, vitamins and other trace elements necessary for the growth of sheep. The diet of pregnant and lactating females must include gourds. This contributes to an increase in milk production in the animal and the bearing of healthy offspring by the uterus. This food improves the quality of their coat. Significantly increased tension. A sheep can be given no more than 4 kg of such vegetables per day.

A special role in the nutrition of sheep belongs to concentrated feed. They represent a balanced diet and are prepared from barley, oats, wheat, beans, peas, corn, as well as cake and bran. They contain a large amount of nutrients, starch, protein, fat and minerals. Concentrated feed is indispensable in the nutrition of highly productive breeds of sheep, but the high cost limits the possibilities of its use.

Table 2. Seasonal diet of sheep

Queen feeding diet

Pregnant queens are fed only high-quality, balanced feeds. Four weeks before lambing, the amount of hay consumed by animals is reduced in the diet. It is replaced by feed. The daily diet consists of cereal hay, which is given to the uterus in an amount of up to 500 g, legumes - 300 g and straw - 500 g. concentrates and 12-15 g of mineral salt. After lambing, the amount of hay in the sheep's diet can be increased up to 1 kg, vegetables up to 4 kg, and concentrate up to 500 g.

Diet for young animals

For the first five days after their birth, lambs feed on uterine colostrum. If for some reason such feeding is impossible, then the lambs are fed during this period with special mixtures or cow's milk. Milk feeding continues until the lambs are two months old. By this time, they should switch to a two-time feeding regimen. Until the lambs reach the age of one month, they are given 50 g of concentrated feed daily as bait, after two months this rate increases to 150 g per day.

What is wrong with sheep?

Dampness and draft can cause animals pneumonia. The cause of this disease is often the gases of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, which accumulate in the shepherd room. You can identify the disease by characteristic signs. With pneumonia, the animal coughs, loses its appetite, breathes with difficulty, and has a fever. Sometimes the disease is accompanied by a purulent runny nose.

The main way to prevent pneumonia is to ventilate the sheepfold and maintain a dry and warm microclimate in it. The disease is treated with antibiotics such as:

• benzylpenicillin;
• bicillin-3;
• streptomycin;
• neomycin;
• oxytetracycline;
• biovit-80.

Give drugs to the animal along with food and drink. It is better to isolate him from the herd during the illness of the animal.

Very often, sheep suffer such a non-contagious disease as scar flatulence. It is associated with the poor functioning of the stomach of the animal and is the result of improper feeding of the animal.

Symptoms of the disease:

• bloating;
• loss of appetite;
• increased anxiety.

In order to alleviate the suffering of the animal and improve its well-being, a special gas outlet tube is inserted into the mouth. If this does not help, then the scar is punctured. This treatment is best left to the veterinarian.

Eating poisonous herbs in pastures causes sheep to poisoning, which is accompanied by diarrhea, loss of appetite, vomiting and stoppage of the stomach. They cleanse the body of a sheep from poisons by washing the stomach with vegetable oil and Glauber's salt. They are mixed with warm water. For 0.5 liters of water, 100 g of oil and 50-100 g of salt are taken.

During periods when the sheep does not have enough food, it begins to eat its own wool. It leads to bezoar disease. The essence of the disease is that the gastrointestinal tract of the animal is clogged with a ball of wool. Very often, such a disease can be found in small lambs, the uterus of which has poor milk productivity.

Animal hooves can infect purulent bacteria that cause pulp inflammation. This makes it difficult for the animal to move and can cause lameness. The rot that has formed on the hoof must be cut off.

It is very important to monitor the composition of trace elements included in the diet of animals. The lack of vitamin E in it, as well as some other trace elements, can cause dystrophy of the muscles of the animal's skeleton. A very effective means of preventing this disease is a vitamin complex, which is introduced into the diet of the ewe. Small lambs should also be given vitamin E.

The most dangerous for animals are infectious diseases. They are the most difficult to deal with and are very quickly transmitted from one sheep to another.

The worst infection for sheep - listeriosis. It is caused by bacteria that are very resistant to environmental influences. The nervous form of this disease causes 100% mortality in animals. This disease is practically not treated.

No less dangerous bradzot. It is a general poisoning of the body. This disease leads to 100% loss of livestock. As a preventive measure for this disease, animals are vaccinated and they are not allowed to walk on wet pastures.

Pulmonary adenomatosis or hyperplasia causes coughing, frothy nasal discharge and difficulty breathing in animals. When a disease is detected, the animal is immediately removed from the herd, eliminated, and the case of the disease is registered.

Another unpleasant infectious disease for an animal is mastitis. The udder of the animal with this disease becomes inflamed and pus can be released from it. The most common cause of this disease in sheep is improper management and improper care. The disease is treated, but it is necessary to start fighting mastitis immediately after its discovery.

Timely vaccination is an effective prevention of such infectious animal diseases as smallpox and enterotoxemia.

The wingless fly causes melophagosis in sheep. This skin disease is accompanied by intense itching, which causes the animal to tear its fur. The disease can cause intestinal upset and a rapid drop in animal weight and milk production.

Improper care of sheep can lead to the appearance of worms in their body. The disease is treated with medicines. The dosage and type of drugs for the animal is determined by the veterinarian.

Book: Diseases of sheep and goats. You can download the file from the link.

1. To prevent scabies in animals, they should be bathed 2-3 weeks after spring shearing in a solution containing disinfectants.
2. Lambs for breeding do not need to be taken younger than 4 months. At this age, they require special care and feeding with milk.
3. After 5 months, lambs and ewes cannot be kept together. During this period, they begin puberty. Closely related mating, which can occur between animals, leads to infertility and the birth of weak, non-viable offspring.
4. It is better to mate animals when they reach the age of one to 1.5 years.

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Video - How to raise sheep

One of the profitable areas of home business is sheep breeding. Depending on the breed, a sheep can provide the farmer with meat, milk, fat, and wool. In this article, you can find answers to questions about keeping and breeding sheep at home for beginners.

Before buying sheep, a novice farmer needs to familiarize himself with the features of keeping and breeding these animals at home.

Sheep belong to herd animals, which do not have the habit of scattering in different directions, but prefer to graze all together. Thanks to this feature of their lifestyle, a farmer can keep a large livestock in a small sheepfold.

For a beginner sheep breeder, there are no better animals to be found. Growing sheep is not a particularly laborious process. Sheep unpretentious in feed and any field with grass will suit them for walking. But, damp and wet places should be excluded. After such walks, animals can get sick.

According to the quality of wool, rams are:

• fine-fleeced;
• semi-fine-wool;
• coarse-haired.

The sheep breeding process begins after the business plan for breeding sheep, choosing the right breed and acquiring the required number of cattle. Farmers divide the content of sheep into the following stages:

• For regions with a warm climate, a year-round pasture method is suitable.
• For cold regions in sheepfolds.
• A combined method that allows you to adjust the content of animals depending on the season.

At the initial stage of sheep breeding, it will be enough to purchase up to 20 heads. The main criteria for evaluating animals is their ability to quickly gain weight and female fertility. With the implementation of wool, too, there will be no problems.

Today there are enough enterprises that accept sheepskin for processing. It is advisable to find all the enterprises and clarify prices even before buying livestock.

Before buying and breeding animals, it is advisable to choose suitable place for pasture. It is advisable to choose a flat place without lowlands and swamps. With a poor diet, animals will need additional food.

If the animals are kept in a sheepfold, then it is recommended to give them corn and grass silage, cereal hay. One ram per day should be spent at least 3 kilograms of silage.

Feed should be prepared taking into account the following proportions: 6 quintals of silage, 5 quintals of roughage, 2 quintals of hay. First of all, weakened nursing queens and breeding rams need concentrated feed.

As an alternative to their nutrition, you can use bean silage or hay. Add a small amount of lick salt to the feeders. If animal hair is a priority in the home business, then animal feed should consist of legumes and cereals in a ratio of 40% to 60%.

For the rapid growth of rams used concentrated feed but they are not cheap. Animals need minerals, so chalk, fluorine-free phosphate, and bone meal are used as additional feed. The productivity of sheep is reduced in all directions with a lack of minerals in the animal body.

Animals do not need much water to drink. In the summer, it is enough to water the animals twice a day. You can solder one more time at night at high temperatures. In winter, the drinking regime is reduced to one time. It is better to take water for drinking animals from a well to avoid health problems.

How to keep sheep

If the winter in the region where animals are kept is not very fierce, then the barn can not be insulated. The main purpose of the sheepfold can be considered the possibility of sheltering animals from strong winds and precipitation.

Premises for lambing queens are built at the rate of two square meters per sheep. Animal housing should also meet some requirements:

1. It must be kept dry.
2. It should be ventilated, but animals should be protected from drafts.
3. The floor should be covered with sand and straw.

To avoid intestinal upset of sheep after the winter period transition to pasture forage gradually. It is better to start grazing when lateral stems form in forbs and reach a height of five centimeters in cereals and legumes.

When mowing grass, sheep can be grazed in this area only after 25 days. To keep animals exclusively on pasture, their grazing time should be 14 hours per day.

Breeding sheep at home begins when the animals reach puberty, which, depending on the breed, occurs between 4 and 8 months. Good offspring a sheep can only give upon reaching one year of age. The average gestation time is about 145 days.

Approximately 25 days before the expected lambing sheep being sheared near the tail and udder. A sheep endures childbirth on its own, without resorting to human help. Lamb can be transferred to concentrated feed after a week of age.

If the farmer needs to improve the quality of the meat, then the care of the lamb should be taken into his own hands and taken away from the mother on the third day after birth. These lambs are fed artificially.

This method is beneficial for a small personal farm and allows you to get new offspring in a short time. For breeding sheep, both artificial insemination and natural insemination can be used.

Caring for sheep is not difficult. It takes only a few months to keep and raise sheep for meat. Already from the age of three months, lambs can be slaughtered for meat. And it is desirable to slaughter until the lambs are nine months old.

Haircut is carried out up to two times a year. In spring, rams with uniform wool are predominantly sheared. If the animals have mixed wool, then the haircut is made in the autumn and spring periods.

When breeding sheep in the northern regions when keeping animals of coarse-haired breeds, their cut up to three times a year. If you miss the favorable period for trimming, then you can lose half of the wool as a result of the molting that has begun in the animal.

What breeds of sheep are suitable for keeping in the household

Sheep breeding has different directions. Its essential condition is not only the competent maintenance of animals in the household and care for them, but also the choice of breed associated with the direction of production.

Romanov breed of sheep considered universal in all directions. These sheep can be raised for meat, as they give a good offspring. Romanov sheep have high-quality wool and excellent milk yields.

Merino, sheep of the Altai, Stavropol and Caucasian breeds can be grown to obtain high-quality fine wool. Semi-fine wool can be obtained from meat-wool breeds. Sheep of these breeds can be divided into longhair and shorthair. The live weight of sheep is about 80 kilograms.

Breeds such as the Russian Longhair, Tien Shan, Kuibyshev, North Caucasian are semi-fine-haired. Estonian, Lithuanian and Latvian breeds of sheep are considered short-haired. Sheep with short hair there are undeniable advantages: quickly put on weight and give unusually tasty meat.

Romanov and Karakul breeds of sheep are indispensable in the production of fur coats. And the sheep of the Hissar breed belong to the fat-tailed breed and differ in their mass which can reach 200 kilograms. Mostly these sheep are grown for lard and meat, and felt is made from wool.

Breeding sheep at home for beginners, as well as their content, is not much different from a professional one. The only difference is in the number of animals.

How to care for sheep has been discussed above. These animals the least expensive to maintain, due to the fact that most of the time they spend in natural conditions on the pasture.

Sheep are able to feed themselves with pasture and do not show much selectivity when choosing food. When kept in a stall, the farmer needs to fill the feeders in time and keep the room clean.

The average life expectancy of sheep ranges between 20 and 25 years. But the manufacturer and queens are recommended to keep no more than seven years. After this age, it is better to replace them. This is due to a drop in overall productivity and tooth wear.

When keeping sheep, a beginner should take into account that these animals are caught exclusively by the legs with a special wooden stick with a hook. If caught by the wool, then a shred of it will certainly remain in the hands, and the animal will run away. If there is no certainty that the animal will remain in one place during the day, then you can walk on a leash moving the animal to a new location.

To answer this question, before buying animals, you need to draw up a business plan. If there is a desire to breed sheep not only for yourself, but also to turn this occupation into a source of income, then you should approach this occupation thoughtfully.

With proper maintenance and care, this business is very profitable. The Romanov breed shows the highest profit from keeping. Females of this breed are able to lamb twice a year and give birth to several lambs at a time.

When drawing up a plan, it should be taken into account that in order to keep one sheep with offspring, it is necessary about a hectare of land. These lands can be rented and sown with grass in the spring if natural vegetation does not grow for some reason.

About ten kilograms of feed required per animal per day. It is better to find a site with a fresh reservoir or make an artificial one yourself. For walking, animals need about 3 square meters per animal.

It is recommended to give to animals opportunity to run, outside the restricted enclosure. As the number of livestock increases, so will the profit from the sale of meat, milk and animal hair.

Attention, only TODAY!

It is always profitable, since meat is a delicacy product, and wool is used for yarn.

Growing such individuals is a rather complicated and long process, however, with an individual approach and good conditions, you can get a lot of money on this.

Profit will increase due to the right variety.

Popular breeds are meat and fat tail, and often their hybrids.

Breeding sheep as a business is currently in demand. The main thing is to choose the right breed, and they are as follows:

• Meat, which are used only as meat products. Such a ram is characterized by poor reproductive abilities, but has a fairly large mass. It can weigh about 200 kg. In addition, their structure implies the presence of fat tail - fat deposits. This type includes breeds: Kalmyk, Gissar and Edinbaev. The disadvantage is that they give only one lamb.
• Fur coats - breeding of such a plan is necessary both for obtaining meat and wool. The Romanov breed is one of the most sought after. Already in the month of life, a haircut can be carried out, about 2 kg of wool can be sheared from a sheep at a time. Sheepskin requires adults, they are sheared about 2-3 times every 12 months. But, even despite the quality wool, most sheep of this breed are left for meat. Karakulskaya is also a popular variety.

Semi-fine wool is possessed by meat-wool species, they are conditionally divided into sheep with long and short wool. Short-haired varieties mature quickly and have excellent taste factors.

Sheep - short fur coat

Hybrids are a combination species that have been scientifically bred.

One individual includes two breeds, which increases productivity.

As a maternal herd, they took the Romanov breed and the Edinbaev rams.

Before deciding on the breed, you need to know the purpose of the sheep.

In order for the business to be profitable, you need to observe the subtleties of keeping, feeding and breeding sheep.

Of course, before you breed sheep, you need to purchase them. They are sold mainly in the market or on farms. The last option is considered optimal, since there is a small probability of deception.

Conditions for growing and breeding

Sheep breeding as a business - where to start? For the business to be as successful as possible, you need a place for walking the flock. The area of ​​such an area depends directly on the number of individuals, but, as a rule, it is a couple of hectares.

For such a business, you can rent land in the villages, since it costs really little there. Abandoned collective farms or sheds are ideal for renting a building, where, after minor repairs, you can keep a flock. These animals are considered unpretentious.

The best option for such a business involves the following buildings:

• A corral in which there will be drinkers and feeders. You can build it yourself out of wood.
• Ideal for spending the night and young obei, the heating device in it is an optional item.
• Building for a shepherd - a shepherd of sheep.
• Additional buildings to make breeding comfortable require several sheds for storing equipment, straw and other items.

As for the land that is needed for walking the herd, grasslands and pastures, both natural and artificial, will also be required.

Approximately 2 hectares of territory are needed for 400 heads, one individual consumes about a couple of kg of hay and half a kg of grain per year.

So that the sheep do not stale, they must constantly be in the fresh air and eat green grass.

For such a business to flourish, well-chosen personnel who know all aspects of the reproduction and growth of these animals are needed. The staffing includes the following people:

• A shepherd is engaged in daily grazing. Many people think that such work is not difficult, but you should look after 400 snouts, be extremely serious.
• Staff is also important, as sheep need daily feeding, cleaning, washing. They need to regularly cut their hair, clean their homes. Their health directly depends on the conditions provided to them. If care is not right, they will be subject to many diseases, most of which will lead to their death.

Feeding must be supervised by staff as feed must be over 35 percent if pastures cannot be run due to unsuitable natural conditions.

On the day one individual can eat 7 kg of grass per day, as they are driven out for at least 3 hours. The withdrawal of offspring is also included in this procedure. When she is 1 year old, she begins to behave restlessly, her appetite increases.

How much can you spend on a business and how much can you get from it

Slaughtering and shearing wool is the result of keeping livestock.

A healing procedure for the flock is constant slaughter.

To do this, they always keep about 50 heads - uterus for about 5 years and some males.

From a hundred queens, about 60 young ones come out, in the cold period the figure drops significantly.

Breeding sheep as a business - profitable or not?

The process of giving away lamb gives a lot of profit. It can be donated to:

• Restaurant and hotel complexes, as well as lounges.
• The shops.
• Trade in the market or on the Internet.

The implementation of the sale of products implies the availability of certificates that will guarantee high quality. To establish supplies, you need to conclude a contract. The implementation of lamb can be carried out both in whole carcasses and in separate parts.

High quality lamb is a delicacy that many people love. In addition to your farm, you can also open a point for the sale of lamb. The key to prosperous and successful sales is a responsible and conscientious attitude towards our own customers. The marketing of wool also plays an important role. In this case, you can conclude a contract with factories.

As for the costs, then, firstly, it is the registration of the farm. Next, you need to take a lease or buy out the premises, buy fodder, equipment and units, then feed yourself. You also need to remember about the salary of your workers.

If there is no material opportunity, you can get a state. grant or take out a small loan.

From the purchase of a small animal to an older individual, a year should pass. During this period, you can collect additional capital thanks to wool. For one procedure, farmers receive about 5 kg of wool. You do not need to spend a lot of money on this process, except for special scissors. Business benefits account for 50%, but this is only under decent conditions.

Sheep are one of the most "anti-crisis" animals. In the 90s, where there were conditions for grazing, almost every family kept 20-30 animals. Then life somehow stabilized, and the lambs left the agricultural scene, giving way to birds, rabbits, and even pigs. Now sheep breeding is back in trend: people are starting to buy a few ewes and a ram for their company; whatever one may say, going through hard times with sheep is more fun. This article tells you how to breed sheep at home.

Lao Czy FORUMHOUSE user

Two or three queens and one ram are enough to feed an average family..

These animals have many advantages, the main thing is unpretentiousness. All they need is a modest sheepfold (in Siberia, where it is consistently -30 every winter, sheep can be kept in an uninsulated sheepfold made of planks), a place to graze, and clean water. In winter - hay and some grain, preferably oats ("sheep loves oats").

In happy places, where there is almost no snow and frost, it is possible to keep sheep on pastures all year round. There are places where sheep, on the contrary, it is customary to breed sheep in a closed stall mode. But in most cases, in winter, sheep are kept in sheepfolds, released for a short time in good weather, and in summer they graze. Breeding sheep for meat without grazing is impossible.

Lao Czy FORUMHOUSE user

In the absence of grazing, standing fattening meat becomes too fatty. As my father used to say, our sheep have no meat - they are full of fat.

Sheepfold

The requirements for a sheepfold are minimal: this outbuilding is probably the simplest of all existing ones. There is no need to allocate any separate boxes for each ram, the whole flock is kept together. The only thing is that separate nooks and crannies are shielded before lambing (sheep breeders use special shields made of boards) for the uterus and offspring. By the way, reproduction is a separate issue, the number of heads in the herd can increase much faster than the owner expected.

These animals do not need a large area, here are the standards determined by GOSTs in Soviet sheep breeding for their cultivation:

• ram - 1.5-1.7 sq.m.
• uterus with lambs - 1.8-2.0 sq.m.
• young growth - 0.8-4.0 sq.m.

But in amateur sheep breeding, these standards are rarely adhered to, for example, in a 6x6 room they can keep 25 heads each.

The sheepfold does not need much insulation, but make sure that it is ventilated and protects the animals from drafts and precipitation. Dampness and drafts are the main cause of pulmonary pneumonia in lambs.

Rekacs FORUMHOUSE user

For rams, the main thing is that there are no drafts. They withstand frost at 30 degrees without any problems.

A thick bedding in a sheepfold will work as a blotter: all the liquid will quickly be absorbed and go into the ground.

grazing

These animals make more stringent demands on pasture than on a sheepfold. Without good grazing, sheep breeding is impossible. They love to graze, and they graze thoroughly. In agricultural universities they explain: horses should graze first, which eat only the tops of plants, then cows; sheep leave nothing. Where there were pedigree sheep farms in the USSR, native vegetation has partially recovered only now. When there are endless expanses of the Altai or Astrakhan steppes around, no one thinks about grazing norms, but lambs are now grown even in the Moscow region .... Lack of pasture can be a problem.

According to the collective opinion of FORUMHOUSE sheep breeders, sheep breeding at home depends on the grass stand.

• Where the burning steppe sun burns all summer (in Kalmykia and the Astrakhan region), one ram needs 1 hectare of grazing.
• In the Volgograd region, pastures are already better, and 3 rams can be kept on one hectare.
• In the Central regions, you can increase the rate to 5 sheep).

Oleg121968 FORUMHOUSE user

If there is nowhere to graze for free, then it makes no sense to build a sheepfold, it is unprofitable.

In many towns and villages of our vast country, the owners of rams unite their wards in one big herd in the summer and hire shepherds in a pool. Animals spend all summer grazing, and return home in late autumn.

diet

The fattening diet must include:

• green fodder and hay, especially legumes (clover, alfalfa, sainfoin).
• Wheat and barley straw.
• Both in winter and summer, grain is added to the diet (about two faceted glasses per head).
• Root crops: potatoes, carrots and sugar beet. Concentrated feed: for pregnant ewes or ewes that feed lambs, for the lambs themselves and for sires.

More nutritious foods are best given during the day; in the morning and at night - less nutritious. Silage is fed before watering, concentrated feed after. It is important that there is always salt and chalk in the sheep feeder.

These animals are clean and picky about the quality of feed, they will “sort out grubs” and will not eat chalk if some kind of dirt gets on it, and this is almost inevitable. Therefore, you can simply mix the chalk with fodder: for 10 kilograms of crushed (preferably oatmeal) - 100 grams of chalk.

Even lambs with their characteristic fastidiousness will definitely leave the remnants of food in the feeder. What's good here is that chickens are willing to eat after them, so if you have lambs, get a few chickens too - you will like the results of this cooperation.

Sheep breeds

Successful breeding of sheep at home largely depends on the correct choice of breed. Among amateur sheep breeders, the following are popular:

• edilbaevskaya (fat-tailed) breed,
• Romanovskaya (meat breed, not too good for lovers),
• merino,
• fattails,
• Karachai breed.

If you check the stories about semi-annual giant rams weighing 150 kilograms, it turns out that these rams are two-year-old (and such mutton has a completely different cost), and moreover, selected ones. And the weight of six-month-old eggs will be 40-50 kilograms. So think for yourself and be careful.

Rekacs FORUMHOUSE user

Now I want to buy 100 heads of Edilbaev lambs, as for me, this is the best breed: they gain weight quickly, have a big tail, the meat is delicious.

Rekacs worked long enough. He believes that Romanov sheep are good at breeding (there is a high probability that there will be two lambs in one lambing), but they gain weight rather poorly, even in summer. The Edilbaevskys rarely bring more than one lamb in one litter, but they gain weight well: they add 7-8 kilograms over the summer. The fat content of meat depends on the method of keeping and diet, and the bonus is fat tail fat, indispensable for cooking real pilaf.

Wool

Demand for lamb is always high. Things are much worse with wool, sheep breeders often simply take fleece - wool, which is used only for the production of fabrics, to a landfill. Poyarkovy wool is in demand, "poyarok", or "poyarka" - from the first shearing of lambs. Pimokats willingly take it. There are breeds of sheep whose wool is used for domestic yarn. There is nothing particularly difficult in the production of homemade yarn, it is quite possible to master all the steps of this technology, from shearing to winding the finished yarn into a ball. Haircut here, by the way, is the easiest. Many are afraid to approach animals, hire shearers and pay them money - in vain. Even a schoolboy can easily cope with a haircut.