They eat all of the trees that we have in our pastures, and prefer those to the dry pasture grass during the summer. We have redwoods, pines, cedars, and a variety of shrubs, and they will happily eat leaves, needles and bark. The only thing they can't bother much are the eucalyptus (we are in N California), once the branches are out of reach--and that happens fast.
David Sussman On Mon, Jun 30, 2014 at 12:15 AM, Rick Krach <rickkr...@hotmail.com> wrote: > Carol, that is great news for you to share! I had a friend with a mutton > recipe he wanted to try on an older sheep of mine so I'll share this with > him. > > I have a general question for everyone. Do any of you grow any trees or > bushes inside your pastures which the sheep will not and do not like to eat? > > I have put a set of solar panels inside the pasture about 4' off the > ground and so far they've not bothered them. I know if I had goats they'd > be jumping all over them! But for the sheep, so far, they simply enjoy the > added place of shade. > > Rick Krach > in Auburn, CA > > > > > 1. Results of my old sheep experiment (Carol Elkins) > > > I decided to butcher my old ewe Troublesome as soon as she weaned the > > one triplet that she was able to nurse. After two years of bottle > > lambs, her half udder was no longer something I was willing to deal > > with. Troublesome was 11 years old. As an experiment, I decided to > > have all of her meat turned into ground mutton. I figured worse case, > > if it tasted bad, I could give it to the dogs. > > > > Troublesome weighed about 100 lb. (I didn't get a live weight on her > > because with her udder I couldn't get her into the weighing sling.) I > > got 25 lb of ground mutton off her carcass, which is 25% yield. One > > can expect a 50% yield when bones are left in the cuts, and I wasn't > > sure what to expect with all ground. The butcher told me that > > although she was very lean (as all BB sheep are), there was enough > > fat on her so that he didn't need to add any pork or beef fat to make > > a good ground meat. > > > > Her meat is just marvelous. I would never know that I was eating > > 11-year-old mutton. Being ground eliminated any possibility of toughness. > > > > So now I know that I can slaughter for table any BB sheep, regardless > > of age. Thought this information might be useful to the rest of you. > > > > Carol > > > > Carol Elkins > > Critterhaven--Registered Barbados Blackbelly Hair Sheep > > (no shear, no dock, no fuss) > > Pueblo, Colorado > > http://www.critterhaven.biz > > > > > _______________________________________________ > This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list > Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info > _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
