My friend Lynn has Jacob sheep. They are a “primitive” middle-Eastern breed known for their hardiness and self-sufficiency. Due to some recent changes in her lifestyle, she has less time for sheep now than she once did. So she gave us (for free!) four bred ewes to thin down her herd.
We waffled a little bit on whether to take on a different breed, and one that needs shearing. But, I do love their markings, and combined with their independent traits, they may be a nice addition to the genetics in our flock. I imagine we’ll probably breed them back to Katahdins to “breed the wool off” in a few generations, and register the 50% lambs next year. But, who knows, maybe we’ll find we like the wool and its market and will end up keeping two separate flocks.
The ewes are calm, and despite me tagging them and trimming their hooves before I turned them loose, and a little bit of dominant chasing by our ram, they settled in and grazed in under an hour. The one on the far left is a “lilac” or dilute color, the other three are black and white.
HI Michelle, These are neat looking sheep… I really like their markings and colors. How many sheep do you plan to have in your herd? Sue
P.S. I just did a posting on Miles and his health issues..
I don’t know how many we’ll end up with- I suppose we could probably go up to 50 on our acreage, with a lot of supplemental feeding during the winter. But we may want to balance the sheep with other livestock, like hogs and cattle. So, we’ll probably grow the flock slowly and see how it feels, and how well the grass supports them during the growing season.
Michelle