Goats or sheep - which is more profitable for a home farm

To each according to their nutritional needs, this is what you should base your reasoning on when considering buying pets for a mini-farm

Small horned farm animals such as sheep and goats are a great choice for beginning farmers to turn a hobby into something that brings in some money. But how to choose one of the two options? Let's figure it out

Both goats and sheep can be bred for MEAT, MILK , skins. At first glance, it may seem to an inexperienced person that there is no particular difference between keeping goats or sheep. The truth is that there is a difference and it is quite significant, especially when it comes to your wallet.

The biggest expense in your livestock budget is feed. Nothing will affect your wallet more than buying food. This is where you need to start to understand the choice.

Sheep are more profitable than goats when there is plenty of grass available to feed the flock. Goats will be more profitable if roughage (not grass) is available.

The difference in feeding and maintenance

Sheep graze, meaning they eat grass, and can get their entire diet (daily food requirements) from grass, a SALT or salt-mineral block, and water.

Having a grassy pasture for sheep is the best way to raise healthy animals and at the same time save a lot of money.

When it comes to store-bought hay, sheep digest it more efficiently than goats. After all, hay is just dried grass.

Goats, although grabbing grass, actually look for the ends of the stems, as they are oriented towards shrubs. Thus, when there is a bushy farm nearby or a pasture where you need to control the wild rose bushes, goats are an ideal option. For sending a horned team of weeders to order, you may well get extra money.

The conclusion is simple. If the location matches the nutritional needs of the goat, the goats will make more money on that land than the sheep. And vice versa.

When it comes to buying goat hay, there is a catch. When you advertise "I'm looking for hay for my goats," people understand it as a call to sell you the cheapest and poorest quality hay.

Unfortunately, there is still a stereotype that a goat can eat any garbage. Not really. Goats have a fast digestive system. They need to quickly assimilate nutrients, so you need to purchase high-quality hay, without mold and mycotoxins.

Now briefly about care - it is generally similar (hoof trimming depending on the ground), veterinary control, deworming, but in the case of woolen sheep, shearing will be added.

An essential difference, which should also be remembered, is the nature of the animals. It is not for nothing that sheep have a reputation for being sweet and meek creatures (with the exception of rams), which are pleasant to look after. In the presence of food, water and a pleasant company, a sheep will not climb over the fence to check how the neighbor’s cabbage is doing.

But the goats are masters of acrobatics. Any goat pen should have high sides, but even this does not limit escape. Everything that is in the paddock, for example, a bale of straw, an overturned bucket, a woodpile, is used by horned dodgers as a stool for jumping to the other side. So an electric shepherd is simply necessary.