Keeping a small flock of sheep has it’s own set of challenges and advantages. A few years ago, I wrote a blog post on the challenges small flock owners face. Today, I will focus on three advantages of keeping a small flock.
The farmer with the biggest tractor wins.
We’ve all heard sayings like this before right? Sometimes in circles of shepherds I wonder if they are all thinking, “the one with the most sheep wins.” Shepherds take pride in recounting how large their flocks are as if it comes with a status symbol. Today, I was asked how many sheep I have. My response was, “it varies greatly from season to season.” Basically, I’m a small flock owner. My flock is very small, as flock sizes go. I think I have 13 sheep out there right now and 3 are rams. By spring we will be at 30 with lambs. I would LOVE to have more sheep, but my property comfortably carries a small flock without having to lot feed year round with hay. Don’t get me wrong, running a small flock also has it’s own set of advantages which all shepherds raising small flocks of sheep need to remember.
Three Advantages of Keeping A Small Flock
Shepherds of small flocks have a more intimate relationship with their sheep. This relates to three key advantages to raising a small flock.
Flock Health
By having a small flock, I know each of my sheep as individuals. I am with them daily with literally hands on each one of them. When I talk about the flock, I call them by name rather than refering to them as a group. Because I have my hands on each one every day, I know each one intimately: their body condition, personality, wool quality and temperament. I have the advantage of closely monitoring flock health for each individual.
Parasite Management
With a small flock I am able to monitor parasites through our grazing season on each individual sheep. Large flock owners will often send a collective fecal sample for testing, one that represents a cross section of the entire flock. I send individual fecal samples for testing. This gives me a picture of how each sheep is handling parasites and allows me to easily treat individuals rather than the group. It does not take me long to gather my small flock and check each one for eye color, body condition, and to collect a fecal sample.
Pasture Managment
Through the years, I have learned how many sheep my pastures can hold and keep everyone well fed and healthy. On any given day in the summer, someone may come to our farm and wonder why we don’t think we can handle more sheep. They will see lush pastures with no sheep on them. What they don’t see is that we methodically rotate our sheep through our fields. I will need that empty field in the coming days or weeks to provide clean forage for my sheep to eat. If I stocked my fields to their maximum, by summer’s end, I would run out of grass to feed. I would have to force my sheep to graze too closely, ruining forage growth and increasing the risk of higher parasite contamination. By keeping a small flock of sheep, I can better manage my fields and grazing program without having to give supplemental feed or compromising our pastures or the health of our flock.
What About Large Flocks
Shepherds of large flocks of sheep can and certainly do have healthy flocks as well as proper parasite and pasture management. Their systems for doing so will just look very different from the system of a small farm. It is not to say one is better than the other, they are just different ways of shepherding.
I need to remember this the next time I am in a group of shepherds talking about their flock size. It is ok to raise a small flock of sheep and it is not the flock size that determines who “wins”.
