I'm open to consider each dog on an individual basis.  If you want to bring your dog, please let me know their age, breed, and experience around livestock.  It is easier for me to welcome an elderly dog, a dog from a low prey drive breed, such as a King Charles Spaniel, or an experienced stock dog with a seasoned handler.  In contrast, a young dog - still learning manners, a high prey drive breed, such as a husky or belgian malinois,  or a dog and owner with no farm experience is not a good match for homestead life here. 

Additionally the farm has dangers to dogs. High voltage electric fences charged enough to keep a woolly sheep from passing are extremely painful to a curious and much more conductive wet dog nose.  I've seen a dog get a shock, loose bladder and bowel, then tremble and for the rest of the day.  A dog who is let wander could go to the neighbors cattle, where, the dog can be legally killed.  

The ewes see unfamiliar dogs as "Scary Wolf!"  Even if the dog never touches them, his simple presence slowes their growth because the sheep are on alert, not grazing.  I can give a clear NO to any  wolf hybrid coming to the farm.  

Sheep milk is higher in solids, compared to goat milk and cow milk:  protein, sugar, and fat are roughly double for sheep.  The high solids leads to nearly double the  yield of cheese from the same number of gallons of liquid milk.  Safety is another reason I choose Sheep.  When working with livestock, occasionally an animal bumps or steps on a person.  When a 150 pound ewe steps on my foot it might cause a small bruise, a dairy cow can weigh over 1,000 pounds and a person getting stepped on is far more likely to suffer a serious injury.  The risk of loosing your milk supply is spread out with several ewes compared to one cow.  A family might want 4 to 6 ewes to keep them in milk and dairy products, or one cow for a similar milk yield.  If something goes wrone, such as an animal dostn't take at breeding, or she miscarreis, or she get sick and requires antibiotics, with one cow, you loos all your milk for a time.  with several ewes if the same bad thing happens to one of your several ewes, you only loose a fraction of your milk. Transportation of smaller animals is easier.  I frequently move lambs in a dog crate in a car and I can fit several adult sheep in the bed of a small pickup truck.  In contrast even a very young calf is too big for a dog crate and to move adult cattle a stock trailer and larger truck are needed.   After rain sheep can graze on soft, wet ground when heavier cattle would damage the pasture.  Goats are more mischievous escape artists that challenge fences far more than sheep.  In my region the cost of buying 1 cow is about the same as buying 4 ewes.  If an animal dies, gets mastitis, or for any other reason stops making milk, you only loose 25% of your milk vs 100% of your milk and investment if the cow dies.  Sheep are much quicker about breeding and gestation.  I can breed a ewe at 8 months old, she lambs at 13 months old after a 5 month gestation.  To bring a heifer calf from birth to first freshening is far slower.  This means that I can keep breeding and selecting to develop the qulaities I want in my flock much faster.  One agrument in favor of a cow is that the milk separates quickly and nearly completley into heavy cream and skim milk.  To do the same with sheep milk that is naturally partly homogonized you need a cream separator tool that costs around $300 new.  Even so, I milk sheep butter with the cream that separates and the milk below is still rich, not skim, so its not a bother to me.  

     After working with the East Friesian and Lacaune sheep for a few years I saw a few qualities in these breeds I did not like.  Like most other sheep breeds, the ewe's fertility, breeding and birthing schedule is naturally limited to lambing in late winter and spring.  Cheese making and gardening are both time consuming activities and both have peak demand on my time in the spring.  Cheese making involves a lot of time by the stove, indoors, which is not where I want to be on beautiful days in April, May, and June.  Yet this is when my pure dairy sheep had their peek milk production.  I wanted to cross in another breed with the goal lambing in Autumn and a year round milk supply.

       I brought in the Finn and the Dorset because these two breeds have the somewhat rare characteristic of ewes who are fertile year round and will accept the ram in any month of the year.  (I've heard these breeds described as "Promiscuous" which I was delighted to hear this word that previously I only knew as a  pejorative on human women used as a desirable trait in this veterinary context.)    

     "Ash" was the Finn ram we brought in and crossed over several of our dairy ewes.  Ash's mother was pure dairy-line Finn with a lovely udder. She came from a farm that practiced accelerated breeding, with the ewes giving birth every 9 or 10 months, rather than every 12 months as is common with the dairy breeds I started with.  Ash's mom (dam) was a 4 year old ewe who had given birth 6 times.  In the year I bought Ash she gave birth to triplets in February and twins in September.  I picked up Ash in December and his mom had good body condition after raising 5 lambs that year.  I was super impressed.  Now I have several of Ash's daughters and grand daughters, Finn x Dairy cross breeds, in my flock.  These ewes have lambed in autumn for a winter milk supply.  I appreciate Finn not only for their promiscuous nature, they also have a high lamb percentage - my only ewes  to have quadruplet lambs  were Finn cross.  And the Finns x Dairy make a great dual purpose Milk - Fiber sheep as the Finn wool had longer staple, better crimp, and is softer than my pure dairy sheep.  

     We originally brought in the Dorset Poll for my daughter to show in 4-H.  She wanted production type Dorsests that would thrive on a pasture based diet, not the "Club Lamb" type Dorsets bred for lots of grain and most competitive in the show ring. We house her pure Dorset sheep with the Diary and Dairy x Finn flock so they all eat the same food.  The dairy ewes I milk get grain on the stanchion and the Dorset ewes don't get grain. I notice the Dorset ewes are all fat, they are getting more feed than they need, while my dairy ewes are thin.  I like the idea of reducing my need for purchased hay and grain so I crossed the Dorset and Dairy in 2025 for the first time and again for the 2026 lambs and up coming 2027 lambs.  I really like how this Dorset x Dairy cross makes a good dual purpose Milk - Meat sheep.  For other shepherds with a goal of self- suffeciency that want a milky sheep that holds body condition without grain, this cross is great choice.  Lambs available now (writing in September 2026).

Please send me your questions