How long is the gestation of both sheep & goats? Are they close enough that they could be bred at the same time, so they might kid/lamb at almost the same time?

This is what I've got in mind. There are three sheep breeds (Finnsheep, Milking Freisan, & Romanov's) that are known for multiple births (4/6 lambs per birth is an average, with high servival rate), & because of this they also are heavy milkers (well known breeds for making sheep cheese). I know they don't have the teats to handle that many lambs, but as I stated before, they make-up for it with heavy milk production. I was wanting to have a few milk goats on hand (having them kid when the sheep lamb) in case I have a few lambs that need to be bottle fed. That way I don't have to buy milk replacer for any lambs, & besides I plan to give the extra milk to a couple of feeder pigs. Buy having some of these multi-birth breeds enables me to have less ewes for more lambs (smaller feed bill too).

I just basicly (sp) want to know if I can breed both sheep & goats at the same time & still have them birth close together (within a few days of each other hopefully).

Thanks

animalfarms

-- animalfarms (jawjlewis@netzero.net), August 16, 2001

Answers

Goats are 150 days. 145 days for LaManchas, Nubians go the whole 150 days unless they are carrying heavy triplets or quads then they may go early. Sounds like a very good plan to me, though I would breed the goats first so that they are just weaning their kids as the lambs are being born. It is sooo! much eaiser to milk a goat, unless you have a milking machine. I have good friends in Canada who milk sheep. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), August 16, 2001.

Yep, as vicki said its about 150 days. i might offer this suggestion to bring them into heat at the same time. Try giving a shot of lutlayse, brings heat on. i forgot the dose and waiting period for them to, can't recall off top of head.

I think milking sheep is interesting. if I knew more about them i might want to get one simply because roqueout (sp) blue cheese is made from sheep milk.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), August 16, 2001.

I'm more interested in the multi-births (like for some milk goats, some are bred to meat goats for heavier kids, I planed on breeding to a meat breed so I get heavier lambs without interfearing with the multi-births). I have no plans to milk the sheep (only the goats) unless it would help feed the lambs. What about sheep gestation?

Thanks

animalfarms

-- animalfarms (jawjlewis@netzero.net), August 16, 2001.

Sheep gestation= 150-155 days.

-- Judy V. (whileaway3@cs.com), August 17, 2001.

On sheep you might consider the Romanoff breed. It is not unusual for them to have 3-4 at a time, they can raise them themselves and are reported to be a very hardy breed. There is an old saying sheep are born looking for a place to die. A Romanoff breeder in a Countryside article a while back noted the only way to kill a Romanoff was with a crowbar.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), August 17, 2001.

My figures say anywhere from 140 to 160 days for sheep, but with a median around 147 or 148 days. As said above, the trick would be to be getting toward weaning the kids when the ewes drop their lambs - that way the timing wouldn't be critical.

You might check those lambing figures again. I know Romanovs can go that high, but I think Finns don't, and I'm sure Friesians don't. They'll go higher than average - say twins or triplets, but they won't have litters the way the Romanovs do.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), August 17, 2001.

I talked to my sheep friend and he said your chances of having more than 3, is a bloodline thing like in our goats. 99% of our older does will triplet, every time they kid, even a doe who had just had triplets in December, just had triplets again 2 weeks ago. Younger does have less kids. But to get quads and up, they must have this in their bloodline within the breed, no amount of extra nutrition is going to give a doe/ewe who doesn't have this quirk of the bloodline to quad, but excellent nutrition will give a doe/ewe who came from quads have quads for you as an older 3+ doe/ewe. I actually wouldn't even want to see more than quads born, the kids/lambs would be so tiny, you would end up with a pen full of bottle kids/lambs. As it is some of our quads come out in the 3 to 4 pound range, and though they are active and robust, I wouldn't be comfortable them being out forageing with mom. Course we manage the infants totally different anyway. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), August 17, 2001.

I used to work at a petting farm where we had many different breeds of both sheep and goats, and the goal was to have one or two of each species give birth each month. I would try to get them to breed in pairs, pen breeding a ewe and a doe at the same time. Usually they would come into heat within a few days, and would give birth within a few days of each other regardless of breed.

Around here, Freisans are gold-plated and may spell trouble with scrapie testing and mad cow disease testing. Hopefully that's not a problem where you are. Also, pure milking freisans are rather anti- social and don't flock well. When crossed with other breeds they flock better and still produce a lot of milk, but I'm not sure what that does to their ability to produce multiple lambs.

-- sheryl in Me (radams@sacoriver.net), August 20, 2001.