We raise barbadoe sheep on our place, we are hoping to cross them with a Freisan sheep breed ram to get milk from the daughters someday. They are Pastured raised on alfalfa, coastal field with mixture of clover and they love being under our pecan trees and eat the half eaten pecans that the squirrels leave.

 

Our two main boys picture down below are half Desert and half Freisan sheep we went all the way to Odessa Texas to pick these up to mate for our ewes. We were going to get full breed Freisan but thought we would skip one generation to climatize it, we were lucky.

 

We currently have 28 ewes, we started with 8 and that first year we lost 3 of the older and through time the weaker ones died. I have to say we now have 4 generation of surperb barbadoe ewes now that have had no trouble with breeding this spring we have had 16 lambs born with no trouble at all.

 

With crossing our ewes with our new boys we hope to get two things out of it, more meat cause the Freisan though not bred for the heat are bigger and have more meat. We are hoping the udders on the ewes will become larger to produce more milk. If your thinking of just more meat and not milk, I would suggest crossing the barbadoe with the Dorper sheeps, these are also new and hard to find but coming more in demand these last few years if your in Texas these ranches with Dorpers can be found out in the hill country. Its going to cost you more then the barbadoe I can assure you.

 

Barbadoe sheep were bred for the warmer climates.These sheep are not the fluffy sheep that most people think of when they think of sheep.  They do especially well here in the South Texas heat, the cold rain dosent seem to affect them either as it just drips off of them with such oily hair.

 

These sheep also twin a lot twin a lot picture below and are more disease tolerant. The meat taste just as any other lamb, We have had no problem at all selling lamb when it comes down to processing them, but of course we have found that market for it. We dont shear them like the other sheep, though I imagine you could but they wouldnt give that much.

 

They are very skittish even if you raise them from a baby. The rams are very well popular with hunting ranches. A full grown ram with good horns can run $800.00 to a hunter from what I heard but you have to find the market we have never found that market, most ranches will raise their own. We have more luck selling the lamb meat. You can buy them at auction at young age for around $40.00 We sold a nice ram with nice horns at auction for only $120 but that price rises and falls we can sell a good size ram for about $91 off the meat especially during Easter.

 

Our dream is to have a small artisan sheep dairy . It will not be cheap but we are on our way to that dream with our genics to our sheep and no debt. It will cost $20,000 for the building itself not even counting the equipment you will need in it plus septic. Raw milk can be sold in Texas but you need a license for it which means weekly inspections and they have to help make the design for it. If your just making the cheese it falls under another catogory for Health Department

 

 

 

1. Even though they tolerate heat well make sure to give them some kind of shelter and plenty of water.

 

2. Because of regulations we don't process our own sheep instead we take it into town where a license butcher will do it for us. Our customers will pay for the sheep from us (mostly paypal) when we find the hang weight, then they will pay for the Kill fee and the actual processing/cutting up they will package it and label it and our customers will pick it up. This works out great for us, saves us time. The Butcher will also let us save the hide and horns which we give to a friend of ours that makes knifes.

 

3. Yes Barbadoe sheep taste like the fluffy sheep I have never noticed any difference only in the age of the sheep. The older they are (mutton) the more of a stronger taste it has to it where most either like or dislike. When looking for meat check for the age they were butchered.

 

4. Breed them especially so you can have some good meat for Easter season.

 

5. If your looking for the milking breed in the Texas area good luck to you. It took me 4 months to locate a local breeder and at the time she was thinking of moving out of state. Your next bet would to grab one up in Wisconsin. Either you can go up and grab one or they will deliver but it will be a lot of money for delivery. Your looking at around $350 for a ram plus the cost of delivery. Sorry we are not currently looking to sell ours.

 

6. Sheep won't give as much milk as a goat but its a lot creamer for the cheese. To look at the different cheeses try Sheep, Goat and Cow Cheeses

 

7. Comparing the Barbadoe sheep to others. They are actually smaller then the fluffy sheep out there in Wisconsin. Have you ever seen a Texas deer compared to a NW mule deer? That is the difference with the sheep hahaha. I would have liked to get started with the Dorper sheep instead of barbadoe back when we got them but like I said above the Dorper are very hard to find and though they are climatized for the heat we were not sure on the twining rate and the disease tolerance to our area like the barbadoe are a lot better. Right now for the Dorper if you got in early enough you have the market for the breed.

 

7. Get the magazines for Sheep? If your thinking of a breed and see it advertised so much in Sheep or other homesteading magazines its too late to get into it. The only one you are helping are the Breeders who started out early to sell to you. If you think you have a market for meat then go for it, if you have the market for the wool go for it, but do your research first, if you dont see it a lot then you got a winner.