Sheep, ever try it?

[Buffalo Barbarian]

I am considering acquiring sheep, as they eat a lot of weeds, have many uses and most importantly you can eat them.

 

They're usually for cultured folks who eat fancy and I've never ate sheep/lamb. I know very little about them and what you can harvest so I would consult the geniuses of OTW.

 

Does anyone here eat it? How often? What do you think?

 

meat and milk are bitter, no thanks

[boyst]

Then who is going to eat the weeds?

sheep. Donkeys. And cattle

 

As long as it is growing or directly baled as hay or what qualifies as due to the low moisture count than it may maintain its Grassfed only since the grass is the main source of food as is

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

My Golden Retriever eats weeds. Not grass, just weeds. Then she barfs, never on the easy to clean wood floors. Just on the newest, most expensive area rug in the house. It's uncanny! How does she know?

 

 

That could have gone in the pet peeve thread...

whenever any of my dogs ate grass they would get sick. I knew to get ready for messy clean ups when they did that. Doggie Imodium time

[thebandit27]

The mutton chop at Keen's steakhouse in NYC is one of the finest cuts of meat I've ever tasted.

[Johnny Hammersticks]

Thanks for mutton!

[Beef Jerky]

They taste so good!

[Nanker]

Then who is going to eat the weeds?

The goats.

 

Dogs eat grass sometimes when they have worms. Of course, eating grass could give them worms too. Nematodes.

[The Poojer]

[Marv's Neighbor]

This may be a better story told than written but I will try anyway.

 

In the late 70's I was working at an IBM plant in France. They had a huge cafeteria which had one or two features of the day plus some other things you could order. I typically ordered steak every day. There were some people from our French division also working with me starting up the machine I was working on and I would sit with them. One of them was a big guy who would have qualified as a biker.

So one day I walk into the cafeteria and there was a really nice smell. I could see that they were serving some meat on a stick, with some vegetables. So I passed on the steak and went with whatever it was on the stick. When I got to the table the big guy was sitting across from me and as I was preparing to eat I noticed he seemed to be watching me. Now I am not a very adventurous eater, so I cut off a piece of meat about the size of a pea and stuck it in my mouth. As I looked up, with not the most pleasant facial expression, all the guy said in English

was "it's not young lamb". I guess he suspected I wasn't going to like it. I have never tasted anything so overpowering.

Years later I could still taste that pea sized bite whenever I got sick.

It was steak ever after.

No ketchup???

[dib]

mutton yesterday, mutton today, and blimey if it doesn't look like mutton again tomorrow.

[ExiledInIllinois]

C8qhLoIXcAAoCRM.jpg

LMAO! Good one pooj! The internet is pure gold. Demented gold, but still gold!

 

It is not what it appears. Boyst is only sleeping!

 

;-)

[boyst]

still looking in to this.

anyone have thoughts on llama meat?

(or thoughts on alpaca meat as some have mentioned already)

i've been looking at alpaca because of this and sheep around here are generally hair sheep not wool sheep due to heat.

[ExiledInIllinois]

still looking in to this.

 

anyone have thoughts on llama meat?

(or thoughts on alpaca meat as some have mentioned already)

i've been looking at alpaca because of this and sheep around here are generally hair sheep not wool sheep due to heat.

 

Wouldn't the wool bring more money? Who eats llama meat and then you have raise more llamas?

 

Anyway, years ago when my sister moved back to Vermont, the previous owner of the house had a llama. Part of the agreement was that my sister and brother-n-law would care for the llama until the previous owner could come back for it... Get it settled @ their new place. But, make a long story short, llamas can be nasty and hard to deal with. Stick with sheep and cows if you want an easier time.

 

Only in hippy VT!

[Buffaloed in Pa]

No..I have a good looking wife. Pass,

[Bills4everNY]

I'd bet it tastes really baaaaaad.

[Saxum]

You probably know this but it is harder to sell Alpaca meat for USDA does not recognize it as a meat animal and does not give inspection stickers making it hard to cross state lines commercially except to states with reciprocal FDA agreements. It is treated like a game meat. Personally I think it just a way for USDA to limit number of inspectors or something. I'd be interested but I am hardly the high end customer you would be looking for.

[SoTier]

still looking in to this.

 

anyone have thoughts on llama meat?

(or thoughts on alpaca meat as some have mentioned already)

i've been looking at alpaca because of this and sheep around here are generally hair sheep not wool sheep due to heat.

 

I would think that wool would make up a significant part of the income stream if you were to raise sheep with any intent to at least make some money on them, so hair sheep are probably not commercially viable in the US. I would bet that it's the humidity rather than the heat in NC that's the real culprit because Australia raises a lot of sheep for wool, and it's god awful hot in most of that country.

 

Around here, alpacas have largely replaced llamas but most of the farms are small-scale hobby farms. I think alpacas are better tempered and their wool is more valuable, so people prefer them. Since they're also more expensive than llamas IIRC, people can't afford as many.

 

For a while, a few farmers in the area tried raising ostriches for meat and then buffalo became the fad. The Amish have started to seriously raise sheep commercially in this area. It's not unusual to drive through Amish country and see pastures full of ewes and lambs when even five years ago, seeing a single sheep was a surprise.

[Jauronimo]

 

I would think that wool would make up a significant part of the income stream if you were to raise sheep with any intent to at least make some money on them, so hair sheep are probably not commercially viable in the US. I would bet that it's the humidity rather than the heat in NC that's the real culprit because Australia raises a lot of sheep for wool, and it's god awful hot in most of that country.

 

Around here, alpacas have largely replaced llamas but most of the farms are small-scale hobby farms. I think alpacas are better tempered and their wool is more valuable, so people prefer them. Since they're also more expensive than llamas IIRC, people can't afford as many.

 

For a while, a few farmers in the area tried raising ostriches for meat and then buffalo became the fad. The Amish have started to seriously raise sheep commercially in this area. It's not unusual to drive through Amish country and see pastures full of ewes and lambs when even five years ago, seeing a single sheep was a surprise.

Pennsylvania eHarmony.

[SoTier]

Pennsylvania eHarmony.

 

Actually, that might be Southern Tier eHarmony. There are a lot of Amish in Chautauqua and Cattaraugus Counties as well as across the state line in Erie and Warren Counties in PA.