Sheep or Goats We Raised Both Here s the Truth

If you've ever wondered which is better, the goat or the sheep, today's video is gonna be one that you wanna watch. I am the Rational Rancher. We live here in the beautiful Ozarks in Northern Arkansas. And for 15 years now, I've been a full-time rancher and I've had the privilege and honor of running 200 Kiko goats for over nine years. And then the past four years, we have run 100 Katahdin ewes. Each one is so different and so unique. So I thought I'd make a video because we'd be getting some questions about why we don't currently have goats and if we really like our sheep. So if that kind of stuff interests you, stick around because we're gonna answer all those questions. And the biggest burning question, which one makes more money? That's probably the most important question. So if that sounds interesting to you, stay tuned, here we go. Probably the biggest question or concern you should have with whether you should have goats or sheep, in my experience, is your land. What does your land support better? Goats and sheep are both small ruminants. They both eat a variety of weeds and grasses, but they do it differently. We had about 500 acres in Central Kentucky and the land there had a lot of brush. We had a lot of young honeysuckle coming up, a lot of raspberry bushes, and had some woods that we wanted cleared. And that's why we chose the goats in Kentucky. They absolutely thrive on weeds. They devoured the honeysuckle shoots coming up. They devoured every raspberry bush they could find. And when you walked into our woods in Kentucky, I'm six foot one and I could walk, there wasn't a branch, there wasn't a leaf, anything. The goats will stand on their hind legs and just eat anything they want. They are amazing at clearing land and getting rid of invasive woody species of plants. If that's what you're after, goats are amazing at it and they'll do well for you. Here in Arkansas, as you can see, that's our front pasture. We don't have a lot of woods. It's pretty open here and the grasses don't grow real tall. So we thought we'd try hair sheep. And the Catahdinus we have, they do a great job of kind of manicuring the pasture. They like to eat the grasses down. They will not eat anything above their head. They won't stand on their back legs. They don't even like to stretch their neck up to eat. They'll always have their face down. So it really, consideration, if you have open pastures, you can feed goats on it, they'll be fine. And sheep will thrive in the woods as well. But it's more of your land. What does your land tend towards? If you're really wanting to clear, goats. If you're wanting to just keep your pastures mowed, sheep are probably the better option. If your land is suitable for either one and you're asking, well, which one costs more? That is another great question. And from our experience, the realistically the sheep and the goats cost about the same. Around here in Arkansas, you can get a bred ewe, young ewe, beautiful, healthy, $250 to $300. And the same goes for a good Keiko or boar goat. If you're just looking for a nice commercial doe goat, it's gonna be $200 to $300. So the price range for the goats and the sheep are about equal. So there's really not much difference in how much they cost. Production, on the other hand, does vary in my experience. In Kentucky, running our does, our Keiko does, the best year we ever had, we got 1.85 kids at weaning per ewe, or per doe, sorry. That's really good. That's almost two animals for every doe we had. And we've made really good money that year. So far, the four years with our sheep, our average is probably 1.2, 1.3 lambs per ewe. The sheep just don't have as many multiples as the goats did. Triplets were the normal for our Keiko goats and twins always. We hardly ever had a single unless it was a really young doe. With the sheep, twins are pretty normal, but we have a lot of singles and a triplet is really rare. So if you're in it just for the production, goats will probably produce more offspring in the long run than your sheep. I'm sure you've heard it said that in order to keep a goat in a pen, it has to be airtight or hold water or the goats are gonna escape. That is just an old wives' tale and it's simply not true. We've had at one point over 400 goats running around our farm and not a single one ever got out. I think it's more of a management issue if your goats or sheep are escaping. Do you have to have a decent fence for both? Absolutely. You have to have some type of secure fencing. But in our experience for both the goat and the sheep, if you have good food in front of them and you're moving them around your pastures, they don't wanna get out. They would rather just eat what's in front of them. So I think it's more of a management issue if you're not keeping them happy, then they are gonna try to escape. And I would say the goats are more limber and more athletic than the sheep. So they can escape in more different ways. But the truth is we probably had the sheep get out more than we ever had our goats get out. And the type of fencing is important. In Kentucky on our farm, we had five strands of barbed wire. And then about knee high, I put a hot wire all around the perimeter. And that worked great. The goats figured out real fast that they don't wanna rub on the fence. They get shocked and they pretty much stayed away from our perimeter fence. Here in Arkansas, we put up woven wire and we don't have a hot wire offsetting. The sheep do great with woven wire. I don't recommend woven wire for goats unless you're gonna have a hot wire offsetting it because without a doubt, the goat is gonna stick his head through just woven wire and get it stuck on his horns. And if you don't catch it soon enough, you'll have a bunch of dead goats. So fencing requirements, it's about the same for both of them and don't believe everything you hear about how goats just keep escaping. Now, the most important question y'all been waiting for, which one makes the ranch the most money? I'm gonna be political here and say it depends because it does. We have used goats and sheep to pay our bills. We're full-time ranchers and without our goats in Kentucky, we wouldn't have made it. And so far without our sheep here in Arkansas, they have been a blessing and have paid our bills. So both of them, I would highly recommend to get if you have a ranch or a farm or a homestead. They're simpler to take care of than cattle, a lower initial investment. And if you keep them alive, there's no way you can't make money with your sheep and goats. The truth is goats are always, in my 15 years, you get more money per pound for a goat. If sheep are selling for $3 a pound market weight, a goat will be selling for 350. It's always more money per pound. The caveat is that sheep get heavier than a goat faster. An ideal market weight for a goat is 65 to 80 pounds. That's where you're gonna make the most money for your goat. An ideal market weight for a sheep is 70 pounds to 100. That's where you're gonna make the most per pound. So in the end, it kinda averages out the same net dollar amount you get for each one when you go to sell them. It looks better with a goat because I am getting $4 a pound, sounds really good. But when you add in how heavy your sheep will get, you actually make about the same. The biggest thing is the production. Goats are more productive than sheep in my experience, hands down. They might be slightly harder to get them not to commit suicide and kill themselves, but if you can keep them alive, goats will have more offspring to sell than your sheep. Some other items we didn't really cover because they're the same for both of them would be issues like predators, parasites. No matter what anybody says, there's no magic breed of sheep or goat that is immune to predators or immune to internal parasites. They're all gonna get them and you're gonna have to deal with it. And it's about equal for sheep and goats in our experience. So that's why we didn't spend a lot of time on that. I thought it'd be fun to ask the whole family which they prefer, sheep or goats, because they've been along for the ride ever since I started ranching. So they have the experience that I have with them. So let's find out what the family thinks. Okay, beautiful ranching wife. Goats or sheep, which was your favorite? I'm gonna go with sheep because they had less tragic deaths. I've seen a goat about kill my husband, headbutting him in the face. I really like baby goats, watching them. They're funny and they sound hilarious. But as far as ease of raising them, I'm gonna say sheep. They don't try to get out. They don't try to kill themselves. There you have it. Sheep one, goats none. So oldest ranch son. The question is goats or sheep? Sheep, definitely sheep. That's it? Yep, sheep, straight down the line, definitely. Okay, good to know, thank you. Yeah. Okay, middle ranch son. The question is goats or sheep. You can only choose one. I'd probably do sheep, honestly, because they don't struggle as much. They don't try to get out and they don't hang themselves like goats. Okay. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Now for the youngest member of the family. Which one, goats? You only have one, goats or sheep? Well, obviously goats. They're so much better than sheep. What? Yeah. You really think so? Yes. Okay, why do you like goats so much? Because I have them. Oh, you're biased. Yeah. Okay, so you would choose goats. Thank you for your time. So now you've heard everybody's perspective. I'm gonna say the sheep are the winners. We love our sheep. Right here, coming up is Minnie. The sheep just have kinder, calmer personalities than the goats did. And they follow me around really well. And, you know, even God kind of chose the sheep in the end, right? Sheep and goats, he took the sheep. So for what it's worth, those are our thoughts on sheep versus goats. Honestly, you can't go wrong with either one. If you've been thinking about it, take a plunge into the deep end, get you some sheep, get you some goats, and just try for yourself. See which one fits your life, fits your farm, fits your homestead, fits your ranch better. Because as long as you keep them alive, they're gonna make you money. They definitely help pay the bills here on the ranch. Thank you for taking your time and watching this video. Stay tuned for some more. Bye.