Happy to say I got a starter flock from Greg in Summer of 2021, brought them back to TN, and they have done wonderful. 1st time shepherd and I rotate them every 5-6 days - no shots, no worming, no trimming, no feed - just grass and brush and a little mineral and salt. Got a couple good LGDs to keep them safe. They will have their second lambs in the spring. So far just as advertised and couldn’t be happier.

Thanks for the video! I don’t know how I miss this video. It’s amazing how people don’t want to find parasite resistant sheep. I was selling my ram lambs as grass fed parasite resistant rams. They never been given grain, wormed, or anything to help them along. No one would buy any of them so I sold them at a local sale barn and I got pretty good money for them. They were broke to a single poly braid too. I raise my sheep just like you for the most part. I just don’t have enough fenced in land yet to pasture them all year round so I feed hay. I do put them in a section of pasture I think that needs help so there will be lots of extra poop, urine, and left over hay. I do move them a few times in the winter to a new section. So far the sections that I have been doing this looks great. This one area where I’ll be this winter is the worst part of the pasture. I’m going to feed them lots of hay there. My sheep are with my 5 head of cattle too. I bet by next fall it will look totally different and the following spring it will be amazing.

I can second Greg this one. I got a few sheep from a friend that never did anything to his. I built my flock up to 30 now with no maintenance at all. They stay in hot wire, drop lambs April 1 in South Carolina, live off ground that cattle would starve on and drink almost no water all winter. No worming, no vaccines and no grain.

This is excellent! Thank you! I raised dairy goats on my 10 East Texas acres until about 2-3 years ago. Been researching hair sheep. This is incredibly valuable information. Thanks so much!

Thanks Greg, really helpful guidance. My son, who you met at Groundswell UK, has just bought a nice group of easycare sheep. Have you heard of them? They were originally bred and developed on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales. They are self shedding sheep with natural resistance to worms and foot problems. Thanks again for your guidance and taking the time to share your experiences.

The best advice/comment I got from a local farmer was "we are reasonably organic "

Got my 7 Ewes and finally added a Ram put with them first of November he has blue eyes we have them broken to one wire finally figured out to lower wire they will go under before over I had one girl was not cooperating but now I got the wire lower she stays in place now. I move them about every 6 days. Finally got some cows too just last week so now I am moving sheep behind the cows. But cattle will probably be 6-8 moves in front of sheep as move them once or sometimes twice a day. Thanks for all your education Greg

This video cemented the decision for us to start with sheep. There is a local shepard that I know who has them available not too far away and I know they are very well cared for and trained to electric fence. Thank you. Looking forward to getting my books!

I have a flock of wool sheep that are not parasite resistant at all. I keep them moved no more than 5 days and don't graze the same place more than once a year and have fecal egg counts of zero.

Dios mio, que buen video y sus consejos valen oro, usted hace todo lo contrario que la industria enseña, nos dicen que los animales se deben tener en establos, alimentarlos con grano, despatasitarlos cada dos o tres meses y cortarles los cascos cada mes en cambio usted aconseja un manejo natural, sus consejos tienen sentido, muchas gracias y que Dios lo bendiga !!!

Great info Greg! Thx for sharing.

i was given a flock of hair sheep year before last. these people were given this flock a few years prior. started off HEALTHY. they had plenty of grazing on this new new spread even though they shared it with two donkeys and a horse and several chickens. that first spring they had lambs all over the place. they were so excited (and i was covetous! because I was just getting started, only had one ewe just as a test to see if she could make it on my farm. if she did i would invest in more.) i had lamb fever looking at their FB page. and since my ewe proved to be a thriver, not just a survivor. never had to worm her, good feet and body condition... i was ready to invest BUT, by the summer time the majority of those lambs were dead or dying. When I would go over to feed their livestock while they were out of town there would either be a dead lamb or a dying lamb. Then the adults started dying off. By this point I'd bought myself a Barbados ram for my ewe. I knew he had a limited time going for him. He was ANCIENT, arthritic (his name was Arthur ...for Arthritis) but he managed to get my ewe pregnant before he died (which was just a few months after i got him..... i knew what i was doing....wasn't really heartbroken about it because he was the breed i wanted and within my budget.) She had two lambs, boy and girl. I kept the girl and traded the boy to the friends with the big flock. It was at this stage that I found out about their lamb die-off... instant regret. Because my ram lamb was sick before he was six months old. Pink Eye. They called the vet who actually overdosed him on antibiotics. And he died. I advised they worm their sheep real good and move them to a clean pasture. "It's not worms." ...K... So, as time wore on, more dead lambs (mine little sheep family was still thriving but i still needed a ram) they gave me one of their ram lambs... and he died. He was wormy and weak from the start. i tried nursing him back to health but it was no beuno. i saw tapeworms in his diarrhea. he just randomly shed a huge piece of one on the way home when i got him. in spite of treatment he didn't last long. They gave me another lamb shortly after that but I suspect he was sick too in spite of appearing healthy. he actually fell into a water trough and got sick. i don't know if he fell into it because he was sick or if he just got sicker because he caught a chill... he didn't last 24hrs... It wasn't long after that the friends gave up on their sheep entirely. They'd asked a bunch of sheep people in a sheep group WTH because "IT'S NOT WORMS!!!" these people told them to test their water. and according to water tests they had a lot of sulfur because of all the agriculture in the area. They asked if I wanted the sheep. All their rams were dead, several ewes were weak, and only one lamb was left from that spring's lambing. I think it was seven or eight in total. I knew what i was getting into but they were free..... (no animal is free if you're getting culls btw... i knew that much.) but again... i knew what i was doing. The trick to controlling worms is not waiting for the animal to go down. you notice the signs and you treat them. and even though the people were in denial.... i knew these sheep were full of worms. some were worse than others. Basically if they were easy to catch .... that sheep was sick. And i lost every single one that was easy to catch - including the lamb. I did my best to get them healthy because it was worth the investment if they could get over the illness. but i didn't get my hopes up. Out of the whole flock only three remained. Plus my two and a different ram I bought from a different friend .... everyone is doing fantastic. I got four lambs in the spring, only one stillborn - from the new flock. and my first ewe's lamb is doing great. of the three survivors one is a ram which i will keep as a backup. the sheep i was given were on overgrazed grass, being fed a daily portion of allstock pellets and i think corn plus a bale of peanut hay. now they are fed exclusively grass hay and peanut hay. they're also in a smaller pen (doing farm repairs because a storm wrecked my fences) so the hay is given off the ground so they can't crap all over it. Once the fences are back up they will go back to grazing. i don't want a huge operation but i do want lamb in my freezer. and i want them to be eating what grows in nature.... i never had to spend a dime on them when they were in the field. The only thing I do different is I do bottle feed the lambs. They stay with the ewe for three or four days then i bring them in. and the reason i do this is because i do NOT like chasing sheep. if i can't get my hands on it i don't want it on my farm. Once they're weaned they're fed grass hay and peanut hay and grazing/browsing. I also have a dairy goat who is happy to assist in providing milk. again...i don't want to spend a dime on them. When these ewes have their own lambs i will probably bottle feed them too until i get generation of sheep that don't go airborne when you get close to them. it just makes it easier to handle them if you need to move them or treat injuries. i also have a couple of sheep dogs that assist in moving them around but to be honest, sheep are smarter than we give them credit for. sometimes i don't even have the dog with me. but if i need them to get in their pen so we can drop a bale of hay all i have to do is say "GET'EM UP!!" which is the command for the dog to get to work. the sheep have learned what that phrase means and they haul ass to their pen. they don't even have to see the dog.

Great lesson…still considering sheep as my livestock starting next year. Looking forward to more lessons

This may not be practical for a large flock. However lactation is a large energy demand and after lambing the ewes have some internal healing to do. When lambing is popping there is nothing wrong with giving your ewes a handful of feed, be it a mixed bag of sheep feed, a handful of dried distillers grains or soymeal. For a week or ten days. A 'vitamin pill' handful of protein concentrate will aid healing and support life functions. The ewes can really use this extra protein for one week and is not going to cause a lot of hoof growth. Moving a flock of 30 just lambed ewes and having a bucket of grain to give them a friendly taste during paddock moves may not be noticeable. However I think it puts ewes in good health a day or two early.

Thank you so much for this video!! I am just now finding ya’ll and my interest is high in learning how to make the St. Croix a part of our little homestead.

Great info. Ranchers/Farmers can be a very hardheaded group.

Thank you Greg for the info! Thoughts on keeping a ram separate from your ewes if your on 5 acres?

Those of us practicing these management techniques need to start a group so we can trade around out rams from greg judy to keep our genetics fresh!

Great video! Greg I live in Alberta Canada, our winters are tough. Lots of snow and many days of-20--30 for weeks. What's your thoughts on your method for sheep in this type of climate. Looking for suggestions. We have been raising cattle with your method for about 7-8 months of the year. We Bale graze in the winter months. Watch all your videos. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. 👍

Interesting chat mate! Keep up the good work!

Getting sheep from similar environment makes sense. The constant pushing of parasite “resistant” sheep that don’t have a lot of testing done is a stretch. These are moved so often they will rarely have the opportunity to be exposed to large parasite loads.

Great advise.

Greg, I have been raising St. Croix sheep on pasture for four and a half years now using rotational grazing that I learned mostly from your videos. I feed them no grain, or any type of purchased food. They live totally on pasture and I move them every day. I don't have to deworm them at all. They are very healthy. However, I do have to trim their hooves, and I think the reason you don't have to is due to the fact that you move them quite regularly on gravel surfaces. Mine never get on any type of hard surface, and therefore their hooves don't get worn down at all, so I have to trim them at least every six months.

Great information yet again Greg! Well, I found some Katahdin and Polled Wiltshire sheep in the Canadian maritimes not more than 4 hours from my land. Being raised like I plan to for the most part. So, I’m getting excited to start mapping out my 130 acres. It’s raw land so I’m a couple years away from bringing the animals on. I’ve got to get a house built first. We’ve started drawing the house plans at least!

Thank you, this definitely answered a question I posted recently. Do you have any videos covering health issues and what to do? I looked around the internet for fly strike, as an example, and I get a lot of videos by people that don't even look like sheep farmers. It is hard to find good content. Thanks for all you do, and all the best.

Not sure if you've made a video about this but could you make a video on how to adapt sheep from the same area but they've been fed grain and have been dewormed. I'd assume you wouldn't be able to do much with the first generation but maybe the second or third.

Tetanus is in the soil. I agree with Gregg.

I apprecate the video!

Great video. Thank you

God bless you, thaks for your advise !!

do you have problems with ticks? I'm an hour south of you and the ticks are thick here.

Thank you for the great information. Katahdins in Madison, WI.

Works of art. Such a talented couple.

thank you Greg

I am looking forward to starting my own set of hair sheep! Does anyone know of flocks in central Oklahoma?

We are now waiting to get sheep till next year.

How do St. Croit sheep do on corn stalks? I'm just curious. @Greg Judy. Live in Nebraska.

Have you sold any of your stock to folks in North Texas? Curious on how they adapt to our environment here.

Thank you

Excellent video I run sheep and goats together Maybe you have some experience you can share Much appreciated

Hi Greg, do you have access to some research showing how parasites survive on pasture? In Poland they say larvae disappear after 15 months, i would love to have some research to show otherwise...

Would I be mistaken to run one steer a year for meat with my sheep?

Thanks Greg, I live in bay area, Napa, Sonoma. Where do you think the best place to get some starters? Locally? Thanks

You said, "You want a steer. Get a steer, but let sheep. Lear the brush for the steer." So, first year sheep only?, then I cattle unit and 5 Sheep per cattle unit the second year? Thanks Greg

Getting ready to convert some of my herd from goats to sheep. Coyotes are a problem now. Planning on getting some livestock guardian dogs before I add more sheep. Any recommendations

Hoof rot is terrible, but you’re not done by any stretch of the imagination. You don’t have to sell out and don’t have to keep the farm empty for a year.

if i have sheep that have been vaccinated. how would i go about transitioning the herd to not need vaccinations? would i just stop the vaccines and then accept whatever loses i have with the sheep?

What's the problem with animals that have been wormed?

Will the sheep eat Callery Pear?

How much distance do you need to keep the ram farm from the ewes during period of separation? Worried about the rams smelling the ewes and breaking out to chase the ladies down and mess up the lambing season plans.

You have to give the blackleg and tetanus on sheep and cattle here on my farm in NW Missouri.

anyone have a farm near nashville TN that needs help with the farm? a work from home programmer here that wants to help for free and learn.

Thank you