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Top Quality, Low-Input, Forage-Bred Hair Sheep Ewe Lambs - $375 (Lebanon, MO)
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We will have around 200 ewe lambs ready to go at weaning in mid August. PLEASE NOTE: These are not mature older ewes, they are 3 month old weaned breeding stock lambs of approx. 35-40 lbs and will be sent to their buyers as soon as they are weaned in August. They will normally be bred at 7 months old in December for their first lamb crop at 1 year old in May.
About our operation:
We demand our sheep to stay healthy and make money without EVER trimming hooves, docking tails, shearing, worming, jugging newborn lambs, or battling footrot. All this eliminates the huge amount of labor that often causes people to think sheep are difficult or require more work than cattle. They simply don’t. Our entire operation is 100% footrot free and always has been. Any ewe that requires worming at any point is culled. Our replacement ewes are selected by this as well. We manage our flocks in large groups at high density, even during lambing, which means that only highly maternal mothers can keep track of their lambs, resulting over the years in ewes that just don’t miss a beat. We move every 24-48hrs in a strip grazing system that controls post-grazing residual, length of pasture rest, eliminates overgrazing and takes control over parasites. They have to maintain optimal body condition on stockpiled pasture all winter, every single winter, without supplementation or flushing at any time ever. We use very simple, easy to build 3-wire high tensile electric fence, and our entire flock is broke to a single polywire strip fence, making them ridiculously easy to control.
3 compelling thoughts on why sheep, and why our sheep in particular:
1. We are all battling rising land and input costs. If you are a cattleman looking to increase profit, it is very difficult to build OUTWARD - it is time to build UPWARD. Years ago we made the decision to add sheep to our cattle operation, and now we can confidently share the same solution with others. Consider adding an animal that can use your same valuable ground, the same fence you have paid to build, and the same water you’ve developed, BUT will happily harvest for free the “weeds” you know you grow, your cows don’t want, and co-ops want you to pay to kill. They can wean 100% of their own bodyweight doing it, and then sell that lamb crop for more than calves have ever been worth until this crazy year. As sheep producers these are not record prices, they are normal.
2. Because of our management, our sheep save a great deal of money for their buyers, in many ways:
-you only need low-cost, easy to build 3-wire high tensile electric fence. No need for expensive woven-wire “sheep fence”.
-because of the way we graze, our sheep are broke to strip-graze with a single polywire, which is rare.
-no need for barns/shelter facilities. We do not even have a stock barn and never have.
-because of their small, manageable size there is no need for expensive cattle-style handling systems.
-avoid the high culling losses of trying to get rid of footrot and wormy genetics by starting with quality parasite-resistant, 100% footrot-free stock from the beginning. Years of heavy culling is very, very expensive.
3. By going to the effort to produce animals with this level of management in the Ozarks of Missouri, with thin acid soils, all unimproved endophyte fescue and hot humid summers, we have the big advantage of an excellent selection environment. It is the environment that we believe a true breeding stock producer must have in order to identify truly superior animals. Average doesn’t work in our system. If they thrive under our management, they can go anywhere and do even more.
These sheep and their ancestors have been bred and managed this way for a very long time. They are not average backyard pasture sheep. They are commercial grass converters that offer the cattleman a wonderful option for diversification, or a way to start a flock without inviting the host of problems that can come from putting one together at the sale barn. That is why they are the only sheep we will ever graze.
We will have around 200 ewe lambs ready to go mid-August. The price is $375 per head. We sell by reservation only, and require a deposit to hold lambs until sale time. Please call/text for current availability - I don't check email very often. We can deliver anywhere.
Please call/text and feel free to come see in person (serious inquiries only please).
Will Dormans
Drynob Ranch
Lebanon, MO