tommy, sheep do make great lawn mowers, i haven't had to mow my back yard in years! lol they are very simple to take care of.
keep this in mind...
1) how much acreage do you have? you don't want to place too many animals on your grass or you'll just have mud. i'd start out with just a couple 2-3 and the add slowly.
2) do you want to harvest wool? if not look into hair sheep
3) can you take care of these guys through the winter?
4) if you want meat buy lambs then harvest them in fall.
5) look into old world breeds for lawn mowing, every breed has its pros and cons about pasture feeding some do great on it, others no way.
6) sheep will need to be wormed every month with some sort of wormer, their yearly cd/t shots, and a occassional foot trimming.
7) a good tight pasture fence to keep out preditors and the nieghbors dog.
8) they make great pets!
9) unless your breeding NO RAMS! they can be very dangerous, get ewes or wethers. i'd stick with ewes.
ive now rambled lol if there was anything you need to know feel free to ask... i can talk all day bout sheep ;)
~ valary @
Hot Rod Ewe
registered Cotswold sheep

Hello, I have only a few sheep that are kept in my barn for our son's 4h projects. I feed them only hay, and wondered if they need to be wormed every month since they do not go outside? Also, do you know of a good source book for sheep health (online, or book I can buy).

Thanks

I have raised sheep for about 40 years, started out with wool sheep, but as I got older (I'm 74), I started looking for a way to get out of that back-breaking job, and switched to Katahdins. They are hair sheep and don't require shearing. If you have less than 100 sheep, it is very difficult to find someone to shear them, and it will probably cost you more to pay a shearer than you will get out of the wool. We use the FAMACHA method of worming in which the color of the eyelid is checked for anemia. A good red color means no worming is needed. We also use pasture rotation at least once every 2 weeks to break up the worms life cycle of 3 weeks, and very seldom need to worm any of our sheep. If the sheep are kept on the same ground all the time, it will probably require more worming. One of the best all-round books is published by the americansheepindustry.org, about $50. ph 800-867-5692 if you want to talk to me.

We have sheep as a 4-H project as well. The lambs that we show are wormed once a month and they are kept off the pasture as well. We rotate wormers because the worms become immune. We worm monthly because we don't want the worms competing for nutrients and the lambs won't be big enough for show purposes. Ohio has a wonderful set of Resource Handbooks for each species. You should be able to access them on the web at http:www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~buckpubs/. That is the website listed in the resource handbook that I have. These manuals are used by kids as well as adults. My girls show pigs as well and they have a Swine resource book that they use to prepare for skill-a-thons at national shows. I'm not sure how expensive they are. We also have a book that we purchased at the North American International Livestock Show in Louisville, KY from infovets.com. This book has lots of information and can answer every question that you can ever think of. Also, with the purchase of the book, you have a subscription to their website and access to their vets. You can ask them all kinds of questions.