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Guardians

PureCountry

Well-known member
Question, for those who run sheep - we are planning on getting some sheep(maybe 5 to start) to add lamb to our growing list of direct marketed products. I'm wondering what your experiences are with guardian animals for a small sheep flock. The sheep would never be too far from the yard, always on the home quarter section at least. I'm not sure if we should get another dog, a donkey, or........I can't say it......AAHHH!! THE PAIN........a Llama.

I plan on rotating the sheep through the paddocks we have here at home, and have a portable shelter I can drag from pen to pen with the quad for them to go in at night. Maybe we could just tie our ol' Wolfhound to the door - sheep stay in, coyotes stay out. :lol:
 

HighDesert

Well-known member
Mrs. HD used to run around 40 Ewe's and we had a Llama that ran with them. We could hear Coyotes almost every night and would see them near our place all the time but, NEVER had any issue with them. He wasn't mean but, was not friendly to people either. And no he didn't go around spitting at you!

One other thing a lot of people told us was if you have a male dog around the place his urin odor will help keep them away. Not sure about this one.
 

PureCountry

Well-known member
I remember a ranch in South Dakota my Dad and I visited when I was a kid, an Angus outfit. They ran their Pyrenees dogs out with the sheep and cows, and hardly ever touched the dogs. They said they worked better that way.
 

MsSage

Well-known member
If you get an alpaca you can harvest the fur and sell it .....hand spinners and lots of knitters LOVE alpaca yarn and its not cheap LOL
 

gcreekrch

Well-known member
We have had between 25 and 40 ewes here since 1990. No guardian except the firearms. We haven't had much trouble with coyotes as the strange ones don't know what sheep are and the sighted ones are no longer with us. We lost some over the years to wolf and grizz but the total would be less than 15 in all that time.
That said, if we were to get one, the guardian would be a grass eater. A dog wouldn't last long against a pack of wolves and maybe the preds would be content with a free llama than a $200 lamb. :wink:
 

Northern Rancher

Well-known member
I'd just run them with your cows-they'll stick tight to them-we ran ours out in the bush like that. If your getting a guardian I liked our pyreness I saw them kill yotes right in front of me.
 

cowsense

Well-known member
Some swear that a billy goat works well while others chose to swear at the goat.........just remember if you do get a goat that it probably wouldn't be a good idea to brag it up on R. net :!: :wink: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 

Blkbuckaroo

Well-known member
Most around here run a Pyrenees with thier sheep, although i've known a few that run a donkey or two with them,and donkeys are usually priced right,cheap or free.I know a guy that does evasive weed eradication with goats and he uses Anatolian's for protection,he like's them pretty well.I agree, something that eats the same forage as your sheep would make alot of sense and coyotes tend to attack lone dogs,although most likely not either breed mentioned.I ran suffolk for quite awhile,and like you will probably add them back to my direct market plan some day soon,always kept them in close view,where our dogs could watch over them.It's a great complimentary venture with direct cattle meat sales,and for a conventional model when the cattle market is down.My rant for the day :wink: .
 

hillsdown

Well-known member
Get an intact male llama and only one, they work great . There are easy to train and people are practically giving them away, they eat little to nothing ,,,,far less than a dog,,,,,,, and can shred a coyote or cougar to bits and pieces. When you hear the cackle you will know that it is doing their job.

We had a few sheep to be lawn mowers in the old orchard and the llama kept everyone away , even people. :wink:
 

cowhunter

Well-known member
I hear the dogs can either work or not but I've seen a stud donkey lay to a pack of deer hounds and flat broke up a good deer race. I've heard its best to get a real young donkey, better a young stud, and he will bond better with them sheep. But gettin 2 won't work. They will pal up and say to hell with them sheep. A old cowboy from north dakota told me them sheep make good wifes.
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
A fella from Oregon brought some donkeys to our place in W. Montana for
a friend from Wyoming to pick up there. They call donkeys "Poor man's llamas"... :?
 

Blkbuckaroo

Well-known member
I just can't figure Llamas or Alpaca's :???: Unless you live in Peru :p Although having said that,thier manure is great for gardens :wink:
 

cowhunter

Well-known member
I never thought about it like that! If one of my curdogs could open a gate, I'd be happy. The goat market has got real good with all the latin and other foriener livein down south. They perfer to eat a young billy. I hear the eat mostly weeds and brouse like a deer? I wonder what kind of wifes thayed make? And coments from u dakota cowboys? I got a weed problem. Dog fennal mostley. Nothin will eat it but a bush hog. But there's plenty other stuff crowdin out grass. As bad as I hate to say it, I'm think about gettin a bull wagon load out of texas. Them boer goats. This is my idea, I'm buildin a new set of cowpens. I was thinkin about keepin them in there at night and haven it coyote proof. Turn them out in the mornin. I got a few horses runnin with my cattle. Would a donkey quit the goats for the horses? Then a stud lama would work? Would they take away from the cattle? Can they stand the rain? U have to worm every month here. Are they as good a wife as a sheep?
 

Kato

Well-known member
I'd go with a donkey any day. Mind you, I'm a bit biased because I raise them. :wink:

If you're running them with sheep that will be lambing though, I'd go with either a castrated jack, or a jenny. Intact jacks can get a bit pushy when it comes to newborns. :shock: My first jack was hard on newborn calves until I got him a couple of jennies, then he took out his frustrations on the jennies instead. If you have a big predator problem though, a jack is definitely the big gun. Mine have taken out a couple of bad neighbour dogs already.

Donkeys cost a lot less to feed than dogs, which is a consideration. They don't need any grain, but do need worming and a couple of foot trims a year. They live a very long time, too. I'm not so sure about a goat being a good defender, because the people here who raise them use the same kind of protection animals as the sheep people do.

As for rain, I don't see a donkey having a problem with it, but if they had their 'druthers, they'd rather it was dry. They'll put up with rain and mud, but it's not their favourite thing.

Apparently llamas work too, but I've had no experience with them. They are cheap too. Around this country you can get a llama for next to nothing. I think they go for about 75 dollars, which wouldn't buy you a donkey.
 

cowhunter

Well-known member
I'm not talkin about the rain hurtin the donkey. I ment the goats pened up at night. Would they need a shelter? We have a bad coyote problem. They rarely bother these little hook booger cattle. Some times they will pester a heifer till she stomps a newborn calf to death. Then,she leaves it to them. These cattle like to calf off a ways from the herd then bring the calf to the herd in a few days. They will even hide the calf and graze off a ways. But I aint lost but 1 cracker calf to coyotes sence I started changein over to them 3 years ago. I hear that some cattle people would not think of raisein goats. It would be below them. Is that true? Its a little like that hear. But I see things a little different. I'd be a possum fancher if it ment passin this land off to my youngins that love it like I do.and still have cattle. But its got to have some reward in it to keep them interested. I would sure be helpful if u dakota boys would step up and spill your guts about goats. I hear yall know everything there is about them.
 

Kato

Well-known member
A friend of ours bought a bunch of goats to clear brush, and the one of the things he told us was that they really hated rain. Other than that, I don't know a lot about them.
 

Big Muddy rancher

Well-known member
Kato said:
I'd go with a donkey any day. Mind you, I'm a bit biased because I raise them. :wink:

If you're running them with sheep that will be lambing though, I'd go with either a castrated jack, or a jenny. Intact jacks can get a bit pushy when it comes to newborns. :shock: My first jack was hard on newborn calves until I got him a couple of jennies, then he took out his frustrations on the jennies instead. If you have a big predator problem though, a jack is definitely the big gun. Mine have taken out a couple of bad neighbour dogs already.

Donkeys cost a lot less to feed than dogs, which is a consideration. They don't need any grain, but do need worming and a couple of foot trims a year. They live a very long time, too. I'm not so sure about a goat being a good defender, because the people here who raise them use the same kind of protection animals as the sheep people do.

As for rain, I don't see a donkey having a problem with it, but if they had their 'druthers, they'd rather it was dry. They'll put up with rain and mud, but it's not their favourite thing.

Apparently llamas work too, but I've had no experience with them. They are cheap too. Around this country you can get a llama for next to nothing. I think they go for about 75 dollars, which wouldn't buy you a donkey.

I just saw some Lama's advertised in the WP. $25 each. They had better sell a bunch cause those ads aren't cheap.
 

Northern Rancher

Well-known member
LLamas didn't work well here-they did provide a few impromptu bronc rides over the years-they are a bearcat to get a rope off when the kids roped one and tried to get a bull rope on it.
 
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