About Sheep & Goats
Sheep and goats are well suited to take advantage of the forages that grow in New York state. The abundant grass for hay and pastures, along with existing farm buildings that can be adapted for use by sheep and goats makes them an appealing farm operation for many families.
Sheep and goats are very versatile, producing meat, milk, and fiber. Many people are not aware that sheep milk is used to make cheese and yogurt and goat fiber is used to make cashmere and angora textiles.
Getting started in sheep and goats is less expensive than larger livestock and they are nice size animals for a family project. On a larger scale, they can be an efficient commercial operation and even take advantage of grazing solar arrays. The northeast has a big market for lamb and goat meat which is quite different from the markets in other parts of the country.
While sheep and goats are decreasing nationally they are increasing in New York State (As of Jan 2022 18,000 meat goats, 11,700 milk goats, and 80,000 sheep in NYS - according to USDA-NASS data).
Sheep are used to graze solar arrays, ski slopes, and parks to save on mowing.
Sheep tails go down and goat tails go up.
Some sheep have wool and are sheared once or twice a year and some have hair that doesn’t require shearing.
Goats are thought of as dairy animals but cashmere is the soft undercoat from cashmere goats and angora is the long curly locks from angora goats.
Goats and sheep have singles, twins, triplets, and even quadruplet babies.
