In order to be successful in the livestock business, raising sheep is a good opportunity. This type of pet has its own important characteristics. They have excellent health and are very hardy. Their productivity is high even if the feeding is poor. They are animals of a universal direction. When raising sheep, you can get wool, meat and milk. The article will explain in detail how to work with these pets.

Sheep breeding goals

When starting this activity, you need to think over the questions:

  • purchasing the required number of animals;
  • construction of a sheepfold;
  • getting the opportunity to regularly take sheep to pasture.

During the winter period they need to be kept in a sheepfold. To keep a dozen females with lambs, it is enough to build a farm with an area of ​​forty square meters.

Sheep should be regularly taken to pasture. Its value depends on how large the flock is. For one adult animal, at least a hectare is required per year. Such an area will provide comfortable grazing for sheep.

All about rams

When looking for land for pasture, you need to take into account the need to regularly water the animals. During the day, each of them needs to drink at least 10 liters of water. Therefore, for proper care, it is important that the pasture is close to a reservoir.

If the rams in some situations show disobedience, you should not beat them or pull them by the wool. In most cases this will not have the desired effect on them, but it will be stressful.

When breeding rams, you can set different goals. One of the options is cutting and obtaining meat. Usually young lambs are most suitable for this. One or two of the most active rams are selected and kept as producers. The rest are grown during the spring, summer and fall, and then slaughtered. That's how long the rams live, which are bred for meat. In order for them to grow up the required weight, during this period they produce effective fattening.

If you have chosen to engage in the meat business, combined feeds are a good choice for a domestic sheep. They contain all the ingredients you need to gain weight at the fastest rate. The average weight of a ram is from 25 to 180 kg.

There is information that if the sheep are sheared, then their appetite will increase significantly. This will help them gain extra weight during the spring, summer and fall.

When growing, the choice of breed plays an important role. The result will be better if varieties of meat and greasy direction are used. Such breeds can sometimes be called fat-tailed. One example is the Edilbaevskaya breed of sheep.

These animals can be used not only for lamb, but also for obtaining wool or milk. Then a ram clipper will be needed.

Sheep are highly fertile. Some of them can produce up to five lambs at a time.

Although sheep lambing usually occurs without any complications, it will not be superfluous to invite a veterinarian to monitor. Human involvement can be beneficial in terms of removing the amniotic fluid and the need to process to remove mucus trapped in the baby's airways.

Flock of sheep

In the event that the female is too weak, it will be necessary to milk her and independently feed the milk of newborn lambs. It is vital for them to drink milk for the next three hours.

It is important to note! During the period when the lambs are fed, the sheep excrete milk. During this period, its total volume is approximately 150 liters. This volume may differ for different types of rams.

Raising and keeping sheep

Sheep breeds

Caring for these animals requires a lot of work, but it can be described as uncomplicated.

When they start their own flock, it is important to vaccinate the animals from the very beginning. In order to achieve reliable results, the vaccination procedure will have to be repeated every six months.

In order to better control the health of animals, not only vaccination is needed, but also a regular examination of the sheep by a veterinarian.

Unfortunately, most dangerous ram diseases are difficult to detect at an early stage. This is due to the fact that at the onset of such diseases, the symptoms are either absent or very weak.

Sheep and rams can easily tolerate low temperatures. However, they have a weak point. If the hooves freeze, they can get sick. In order to avoid this, you need to make the floor wooden and sprinkle with a thick layer of straw.

Raising and keeping sheep

In addition to this warmth, the hooves need special care. In particular, they should be cleaned and trimmed if necessary.

It makes sense to pay attention to the following things:

  1. It is recommended not to locate pastures near motorways or railways. This is due to the fact that rams are cowardly animals. And vehicles that travel close to them can cause a strong ram's fear.
  2. It will be helpful to install a fence around the pasture.
  3. In order to be able to easily manage the herd, it is necessary that a leader is defined in it, followed by all the rams. But it is not always available. If this is the case, trained dogs can be used to guide the herd.

What to feed

If we talk about the period of time from early spring to late autumn, then at this time the male and female rams will be fed on the pasture, where they will be throughout this time.

When thinking about how to feed the rams at home, it makes sense to pay attention to the combined feed, such nutrition will help the rams gain more weight.

It is recommended to add a little salt to food. Tree twigs are useful as a source of vitamins, depending on what the sheep eat.

The design principle of the feeder is as follows. A box for hay is made, from which a ram can stick its head through the edges (usually there are rare vertical slats) to take food. The box is raised so that the hay is at a height that is comfortable for the animals.

How to shear rams

Shearing sheep is a rather time-consuming undertaking. It is recommended to perform this procedure twice a year. If you buy a special ram machine instead of scissors, the procedure will become much less time consuming. In this case, you will need to use special nozzles.

How to cut a ram

In order to trim them, it is recommended to leave the animals without food and food for some time. This usually takes 14 hours. After that, you can plan how to shear the rams.

How to skin

Usually rams are not kept for skinning. This is not due to its low value, but to the fact that they often do not know how to make it.

In order to do this correctly, you must do the following:

  1. After removing the skin, you need to scrape off the remnants on the inside of it with a knife.
  2. Then they put it in a cool place for at least two hours.
  3. A saline solution is being prepared. It consists of acetic acid (5 g), furacilin (2 tab.), Salt (40 g) per liter of water.
  4. The whole lamb skin is placed in a saline solution for 12 hours. Its amount should be appropriate.
  5. Stretch on the machine, remove the remnants from the inside with a blunt knife.
  6. Make a cleaning solution: 3 g of washing powder, 20 g of salt per liter of water.
  7. Place in it for five minutes and wring out.
  8. You need 50 g of salt, 15 g of acetic acid for every liter of water.Keep the skin on for 12 hours.
  9. When tanning, preparing a solution: 50 g of salt and 6 g of chrome tanning agent for each liter of water. The skin is kept in it for a day.
  10. For fatliquoring, a mixture is made: 100 g of salt, 25 g of glycerin, 20 g of ammonia, 70 g of egg yolk per 1 liter of water. It is applied to the skin.
  11. Further drying is performed.

Diseases of rams

Sheep by nature are healthy and hardy animals. However, they can become seriously ill. One of the signs that make it possible to speak confidently about the disease is the following behavior. The animal moves away from the herd and just lies on the ground. This is what a ram looks like if it is sick.

Among the diseases to which rams are susceptible, one of the first places is occupied by pneumonia. It is usually the result of draft and dampness. Another reason that can lead to this is the accumulation of hydrogen sulfide and ammonia gases, which often accumulate in the sheepfold.

Sheep diseases - pneumonia

You can identify a sick ram by the following signs:

  1. You can often hear the animal coughing.
  2. One of the characteristic signs is persistent loss of appetite.
  3. With pneumonia, the ram's temperature rises.
  4. Not in all cases, but a sick animal may have a purulent rhinitis.

Prevention for this condition includes regular airing of the sheepfold. In addition, it is recommended to maintain a certain microclimate in the room. It is desirable that when keeping rams, it is dry and warm.

When treating sick rams, antibiotics can be used:

  • benzylpenicillin;
  • streptomycin;
  • biovit-80.

Some of their other types can also be used.

A sick ram at any age usually receives medications along with food or water. If an animal is sick, it is customary to keep it separate from the herd until complete recovery.

Sometimes a disease can occur with other diseases:

  1. Scar flatulence can be the result of how you can keep rams without following the rules.
  2. During a bezoar disease, one of the symptoms may be eating one's own wool. Hunger may be the cause. As a result, the gastrointestinal tract becomes clogged with hairballs.

Raising sheep is profitable in many ways, although this requires investing not only a lot of money, but also labor.