Justin SE IOWA
Member
As you may know Im wanting to get 3-6 sheep this summer. Im also wanting to get another calf to raise for the freezer. My wife want me to raise a couple pigs for the freezer also. Question is can they share the same pen?
- Thread starter Justin SE IOWA
- Start date
The pigs need to be in confinement not pasture. They will fatten up faster. Also the pigs will destroy your pasture. Plus your pigs will eat the calves manure. So you would indirectly be eating calf manure. Not my cup of tea. Also there are diseases and parasites that can get out of control in mixed pens faster. You would need to talk to your local veterinarian for the ones common in your area.
You will need to keep an eye on your grass. The sheep will eat it down so short that the calf will not be able to get any to eat. So you will need to balance them out.
Goats and cattle work better than sheep and cattle. Sheep and cattle both eat the same types of grass. Goats eat roughages that cattle do not commonly eat. Also you do not have the wool issue with goats. The wool is just about worthless now and shearing a sheep is a dirty job. Also any burrs will make the wool even harder to do anything with it.
You will need to keep an eye on your grass. The sheep will eat it down so short that the calf will not be able to get any to eat. So you will need to balance them out.
Goats and cattle work better than sheep and cattle. Sheep and cattle both eat the same types of grass. Goats eat roughages that cattle do not commonly eat. Also you do not have the wool issue with goats. The wool is just about worthless now and shearing a sheep is a dirty job. Also any burrs will make the wool even harder to do anything with it.
Grown animals can stay in the same pasture together or hogs and cattle are no problem but hogs will kill and eat baby lambs or baby goats, even 30 pound shoats are agressive enough to kill very young lambs and kids. If you have good pasture all will benefit but the hogs need additional concentrate feeding to fatten and the calf will need some additional protein to go along with pasture to make good growth before the fattening period where as mature sheep don't need any thing except salt and worming if they have good pasture. There is a lot less parasite trouble when several species are run together because what bothers cattle may not bother sheep or hogs and vice versa.
Cows fed corn will not digest all of the corn. It was common practice to run hogs in with corn fed cattle to utilize the lost protein. Before the weak stomached non farm raised people along with the need for the media having something to turn into a story, it was not a big deal.
I would not pen them together. How will you control the feed for each? Sheep cannot have some of the minerals that hogs need and so on.
Also what is the first thing a bovine does when it stands up? It deficates. And if it is fed corn the hogs will be after it. So a hog learns to agrivate a calf untill it gets up so it can have it's meal. So calf is always pestured and does not gain well.
Gary
Also what is the first thing a bovine does when it stands up? It deficates. And if it is fed corn the hogs will be after it. So a hog learns to agrivate a calf untill it gets up so it can have it's meal. So calf is always pestured and does not gain well.
Gary
Hogs and other livestock together don't seem to mix well. Following other stock with hogs is another matter and works very well, just don't watch all the stuff they eat if you're squeamish.
Cattle need taller pasture than sheep. Cattle do best with grasses long enough that they can wrap their tongue around it to eat. Sheep do better on shorter grasses under a foot tall, they can't/won't make use of tall grasses very well. Goats actually do better on somewhat taller grasses than sheep but prefer a weedier, brushier pasture. Get them into some wild grapes, brambles, young brush and thistles and they'll have a smorgasbord.
Cattle need taller pasture than sheep. Cattle do best with grasses long enough that they can wrap their tongue around it to eat. Sheep do better on shorter grasses under a foot tall, they can't/won't make use of tall grasses very well. Goats actually do better on somewhat taller grasses than sheep but prefer a weedier, brushier pasture. Get them into some wild grapes, brambles, young brush and thistles and they'll have a smorgasbord.
Anonymous-0
Well-known Member
Hogs are omnivores, like men. If the right circumstances occur,
they will eat an injured animal. We would raise cattle in a pen in
the winter, and turn hogs into it in the spring, to root up the
manure, while the cows were on pasture.
they will eat an injured animal. We would raise cattle in a pen in
the winter, and turn hogs into it in the spring, to root up the
manure, while the cows were on pasture.
Traditional Farmer
Well-known Member
- Location
- Virginia
Calves and sheep will be fine together depends on the type hogs and how big your 'pen' is.
I run American Guinea hogs in the Fall in a 35 acre field with goats and cattle with no problems as these hogs a very docile and not mean like some of the other breeds.The field has lots of Oaks and Permissions so they fatten up on Acorns and Persimmons and a lot better tasting than if they eat corn only.
I run American Guinea hogs in the Fall in a 35 acre field with goats and cattle with no problems as these hogs a very docile and not mean like some of the other breeds.The field has lots of Oaks and Permissions so they fatten up on Acorns and Persimmons and a lot better tasting than if they eat corn only.
Traditional Farmer
Well-known Member
- Location
- Virginia
If you eat steak you're probably eating chicken manure indirectly as chicken litter is fed to cattle in poultry growing areas,of course hogs will eat snakes and the list goes on and on.
Diary cattle are sustained on a mixture of essentially rotten corn stalks and grass, so every time you drink milk or eat ice cream you're eating rotten corn stalks and grass.
Commercially grown vegetables are fertilized using byproducts of crude oil, so every time you eat a vegetable, you're eating crude oil.
If you had the slightest idea of the foulness EVERY bit of your food is subjected to in its production, you'd die of starvation...
Do you think little green men take the poo from the stomach of the pig, wheelbarrow it up to the ham, and trowel it on?
Better just stick your fingers in your ears: Where does food come from? The grocery store! LA LA LA!
Commercially grown vegetables are fertilized using byproducts of crude oil, so every time you eat a vegetable, you're eating crude oil.
If you had the slightest idea of the foulness EVERY bit of your food is subjected to in its production, you'd die of starvation...
Do you think little green men take the poo from the stomach of the pig, wheelbarrow it up to the ham, and trowel it on?
Better just stick your fingers in your ears: Where does food come from? The grocery store! LA LA LA!
ChasK
Member
As Gary mentioned, you will need special mineral. DO NOT give sheep a beef mineral block. The copper will eventually kill them. They do make multi-species blocks that I've used with success. I don't have them penned together, but do not want the copper around in case things get mixed up. Your calves are also going to want grain to grow, where an adult sheep can maintain on good summer pasture. It's more work, but you'll be happier with the results if they are all separate.
formenwhogrow
Member
Just curious all, what is it then that you eat?
Pigs are caprophagists....ie they eat shxx. Reason is to gain access to B vitamins. When slat floors became popular, deficiencies were noted cuz the pigs were too clean and did not have access to enough fecal matter. Thus rations had to be adjusted for higher levels of B vitamins.
Traditional Farmer
Well-known Member
- Location
- Virginia
Its legal if the chickens aren't fed animal proteins so as they say in restaurants "ENJOY"
Ken Macfarlane
Well-known Member
We have a bunch of shetland sheep that follow the horses on pasture rotation. They prefer brush and leafy weeds to grass.
Justin SE IOWA
Member
I have the space to separate them all so I will. How much area is required per head of sheep?
It depends on the pasture and the sheep. In my area, on rotating pastures, you can put 50 head on 1/3 acre (about what a square of electronet covers), on 6-8" tall grass and they'll have it cropped down in a day, day and a half in spring. In high summer it might be done in 12 hours or less. For a half dozen lambs that you're growing you can pen them or tether them in a small area and see how they do. Rocky country takes more land as does swampy country and wooded. You're going to have to observe and see what happens.
The right way to do it is to move them around. Lowers your parasite level, improves the pasture, just better in general, but that goes for all livestock.
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