I Could Care Less About Sheep

Hi friends!

I have always had beef with sheep—or should I say mutton?

Either way, they have never captured my fancy.

Simply put: I. Don’t. Like. Sheep.

But in this post, I am going to share all the reasons why I should change my mind, and if you, too, are a sheep despiser, this post might just be for ewe.😏

But Briar! How on earth could you not like sheep? They are so cute! Look at them!

Yes, I will admit, sheep have a charm to them. The reason I don’t jive with the woolly creatures does not have to do with looks… but personality.

Sheep are so flighty! If there is one thing I do not like, it is a skittish animal.

I have always been more of a goat girl.

Goats have the spunk. The personality. They are like the most entertaining farm animals you could get.

Sheep are just… blaaaand.

(Okay, okay, I admit that was probably excessive.)

Recently, I have been pondering my aversion to sheep and wondering whether it is unwarranted.

If I truly want to have an efficient homestead someday, shouldn’t I be impartial and just get the best animals? (Just wait until I make a post about my guinea dilemma)

Why do some prefer sheep over goats? How do the two truly stack up?

There are two main differences between sheep and goats.

Sheep are grazers.

Goats are browsers.

Sheep are less likely to escape.

Goats are the greatest escape artists known to mankind.

Do you see where my mind is going with this?

What if sheep are truly the better animal to have on the homestead? What if my goat obsession is merely about how cute goats are and how much I prefer their extroverted dispositions?

Meet the Icelandic Sheep:

This breed is known as a truly triple-purpose animal. It puts the mostly dual-purpose goats to shame.

These guys offer fleece, meat, and high-quality milk.

Now, if I have to play devil’s advocate(let’s be honest, that’s why you came here to read this post), I would say:

“Alas! I do not need a triple-purpose animal because I do not have the desire to harvest wool on my farm. Ha! Take that sheep!”

But to play devil’s advocate to the devil’s advocate, I would say:

“But I am also oddly obsessed with the concept of wool insulation. How many sheep does one need to insulate a house?”

I am so glad that you asked.

I should probably write a more in-depth post on insulating your house using sheep, but for now, let’s look at some basics.

It takes 2 lbs of raw sheep wool per square ft of wall space to insulate a house.

In an ideal world, I would only be building a house if it were a tiny home (200 sq ft), thus bringing my wall space to approximately 450 sq ft. (I was figuring out these numbers with ChatGPT, not sure how realistic that is.)

2*450= 900 lbs of sheep wool

Our triple-threat friend will provide us with 5 lbs of wool per year.

900/5=180 sheep

Of course, I don’t really want 180 sheep. A more reasonable number is 20 sheep.

So it would take me about 9 years to insulate my tiny home with sheep.

No, thank you.

It is much more practical to purchase the sheep wool from someone else.

I hardly have a clue where my blog posts are going to end up when I start writing them, and now I have reached the point where I am not sure if I want sheep to win or lose.

I mean, what else would I use the wool for?

Could I sell it to other people? I suppose, but I’d need to find a buyer. It’s easier to find buyers for edible products than for those that require skill to turn into something useful.

So maybe this is the answer to my question? Maybe I can get goats after all?

We’re not done yet. Sheep still have a chance to catch up.

Browser vs Grazer

Escape vs Less Escape

I have wrangled many, many goats in my day. It is usually full of a sense of excitement, adrenaline, and complete dread. Do I really want to invest in really good fencing… or better yet ✨Nofence collars✨?

I personally am very intrigued by the Nofence collar idea. For the sake of this exercise, let’s say that if I got sheep, I would purchase your average polywire net fencing. If I had goats, I would buy Nofence collars.

Yes, I could technically use regular electric fencing for goats, too, but I would be risking getting a lot more workouts than initially anticipated.

For both systems, I would be doing managed rotational grazing and have about 20 animals.

How much does Nofence cost?

$269/collar and $45/collar/year

That is $5,380 for the collars with a yearly fee of $900 afterwards. Each product comes with a 5-year warranty(so no worries about malfunction costs right away)… but that is still a whole lotta money.

I have toured two different farms that use Nofence, and both seemed to love it. However, I think it seems more like the type of thing that would be best for a goat lawncare service, as opposed to just personal use.

I digress, let’s look at electric netting costs.

I am pleasantly surprised at these numbers. I mean, after looking at the Nofence prices, I suppose anything would look good.

If I wanted to graze my sheep in a 1/2 acre paddock and move them once a day, I would need enough fencing to cover 1 acre. That way, I can move them into their new paddock with more ease.

In order to do that I will need about 164 ft of electric netting which is about 8 rolls. AKA $1,800.

I also need a fence energizer(about $500), a ground rod kit($150), fence tester($50), gate handles + connections($100), step in posts($150), and a lightning diverter($175).

That equates to $2,925… but there is no yearly fee, only regular maintenance/replacement costs for if things break.

Sheep are starting to look mighty fine financial wise.

Now, what do I want the animals to be eating? Will I have more forested areas that need to be cleared, or will I have more open pasture?

That is yet to be determined as Briar does not own any land.

For the sake of this argument though I do think I would prefer an animal that is a browser and can clear land. I have always enjoyed the concept of hiring my goats out to clear people’s properties and I couldn’t do that with sheep.

Goats win that category.

I also have a deep desire for animal transportation. I don’t want a horse. I want to be able to hook up one or two of my smaller livestock animals to a one person cart and have them pull me into town.

Sheep really are not as great at being carting animals. They also cannot carry as much weight as a goat can.

Goats win again! (I will be digging into this topic of carting and packing with goats soon)

Now… I have one more angle that might lean in a sheep’s favor.

Taste.

If you have ever eaten goat meat/milk/cheese then you know what I’m talking about.

Goats have a very defining “goaty” taste to them. In fact I have a video of me gagging on goat’s milk from about a year ago(I edited out the gagging part. It wasn’t pretty):

I really love goat cheese/meat and although it has that distict taste I have never minded.

I have also had sheep cheese/meat and I must say, it fairs very well in the taste department. Mutton is actually very delicious.

So while I do like goat products and will happily eat them, I love the taste of sheep even more.

Okay, Briar, what is your consensus?

Well, as I have pondered and sorted through my thoughts on the subject I feel very confident that I will primarily have goats in the future.

Specifically, Nubian goats and Lamanchas.

However, this little exercise has shown me the benefits of sheep and I may get a couple in the future just for fun to see how I like them.

I will not be opposed entirely to the idea at least.

With that, I shall end this randomness.

Do you prefer goats or sheep?

-Briar Albaugh

I have a lot of great posts headed your way! If you wish to keep up on the adventure now is your chance!👇