Storey's Guide to Raising Sheep is considered by many to be the bible of sheep raising. It is an invaluable and comprehensive guide to breeds, feeding, housing, breeding and lambing, pasture management, diseases and health care, showing, and marketing. As Dave Thompson, editor of sheep! magazine says, it is "a welcome and much needed addition to sheep literature in North America. Beginners and experienced shepherds alike will discover valuable, practical information in every chapter. The book is a joy to read..."
SNEAK PREVIEW: CHAPTER 1
Starting With Sheep
"Sheep are the dumbest animals on God's green earth," our neighbor avowed with a vigorus shake of his head when he saw the newest additions to our farmstead. His belief is not uncommon. In fact, sheep are a love-hate animal--people either really love them or really hate them. And the people who really hate them, love nothing more than to malign them.
But sheep don't deserve the bad rap they've received. They fill a niche that needs filling: They provide economically efficient food and fiber, they eat many kinds of weeds that other livestock species won't touch, they're relatively inexpensive to begin raising, and they reproduce quickly so that a minimal capital outlay can become a respectable flock in short order.
Plus, sheep are simply nice, gentle animals. Watching a group of young lambs charging wildly around the pasture or playing king of the hill on any mound of dirt, downed tree, or other object that happens to occupy space in their world has to be one of life's greatest joys.
Anatomy of a sheep by artist Elayne Sears