A Vision Meeting

These are katahdin sheep... not our's. We're thinking though. Yesterday I was looking out at the pasture, the partition fence holding the goats back for a week now. And its green. But mostly of polk and other weeds the goats won't eat. So last night, while snuggled into bed a bit on the early side and reading a Mother Earth News (a publication I don't recommend if you're easily offended by liberal propoganda), we mused over expanding our homestead into another enterprise.

So out came the books- Backyard Livestock and Pasture Perfect. Nothing was answering our questions. This is our dream for sheep:

1) That they will eat the stuff the goats won't and thus have a very low additional impact on the land and require little extra feed, particularly once the pasture is in full production, and even improve it some by giving the goat forage less competition.

2) that they will give a pint at least of milk that is not naturally homogenized. This means the cream will separate on its own and we can easily make our own butter.

3) They will be better lawn mowers than the goats- in fact the reason we have to mow our lawn at all is because the English nobles had sheep and thus the grass in front of their homes was always nicely mowed... and of course we have to follow after the rich and famous, even if it makes no sense whatsoever.

4) They would be an easier source of meat. Chuck is a good goat, but honestly, a decent sized sheep seems easier to handle.

Now, the info we're finding is limited. Few raise sheep in Florida. Sounds like this katahdin is the only breed. And what are they good for??? If they're good for meat, well, how much milk will they give? If they're good for milk, well, how much meat will they provide? We're not out to produce for the masses so we can get away with "less than optimum" of a single product. Can we use one breed to fulfill all our dreams for them? And maybe, just maybe, could we get a wool sheep that can do all of the afore mentioned things AND handle our summers so I could support my knitting obsession with homegrown, homespun wool??? I know. Big dreams for one little animal. But that's what animal breeders dreamed like. Maybe I should start studying genetics. Thirty years from now I'll have the perfect breed to do everything... or maybe not.