Joined Apr 2009
1,485 Posts | 0+
Vaughn, MT 59487
Here is a little different breed to raise to help diversify the stock you sell.
I started raising hybrid sheep twenty five years ago. I was told sheep would kill my deer because they had MCF so never ran them together. In the last five years I started running deer and sheep in the same pen because we never had a problem with deer getting MCF. After all that time I felt my sheep didn't have the MCF problem. I run my rams with my whitetail bucks but have the ewes by themselves with their lambs. I have found a nice money niche with lambs and coming three year old rams on harvest facilities.
The reason I started to raise hybrid sheep is I wanted to get the immune system of domestic sheep as pure wild bighorns have little of a immune system. Also bighorns only have one lamb so wanted to introduce twinning genetics and most important was fast horn growth. These hybrids now have all these traits.
When Montana stopped all harvest ranches is 2000 I have tried to sell all young stock by the time they were a year old. I now will raise rams to hunting size which is three years old and mule deer bucks to hunting size. With that said if anyone is interested in a new breed that has a market value hybrid sheep are the way to go. No real special food, easy to handle and interesting to look at and sell well. I raise about 100 lambs a year and have about 12 left this year. Price is 1500 per hybrid lamb most left now are all white. Just email me for pictures. www.sunriverbighorns.com check out the web site. Thanks. Jack
I started raising hybrid sheep twenty five years ago. I was told sheep would kill my deer because they had MCF so never ran them together. In the last five years I started running deer and sheep in the same pen because we never had a problem with deer getting MCF. After all that time I felt my sheep didn't have the MCF problem. I run my rams with my whitetail bucks but have the ewes by themselves with their lambs. I have found a nice money niche with lambs and coming three year old rams on harvest facilities.
The reason I started to raise hybrid sheep is I wanted to get the immune system of domestic sheep as pure wild bighorns have little of a immune system. Also bighorns only have one lamb so wanted to introduce twinning genetics and most important was fast horn growth. These hybrids now have all these traits.
When Montana stopped all harvest ranches is 2000 I have tried to sell all young stock by the time they were a year old. I now will raise rams to hunting size which is three years old and mule deer bucks to hunting size. With that said if anyone is interested in a new breed that has a market value hybrid sheep are the way to go. No real special food, easy to handle and interesting to look at and sell well. I raise about 100 lambs a year and have about 12 left this year. Price is 1500 per hybrid lamb most left now are all white. Just email me for pictures. www.sunriverbighorns.com check out the web site. Thanks. Jack
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