Monthly Farm Updates

Looking to purchase Dorper Sheep? Join my waitlist for lambs:

Hi Friends,

I don’t know where to start with this update… this month has been PACKED!! I’ll do my best to recap it below.

First off: I have extended applications for the Dorper Dream Flock Grant through June 15th. For those who are still working through Raising Sheep 101, you have some extra time to finish the material and submit your grant application!

This project has been on my bucket list for a long time: A COOKBOOK! I took 5 f America’s best-loved recipes and made them with LAMB. It was so much fun!! Best of all: I am letting you download the cookbook for FREE. (tap the photo to find the download)

The flock is growing by leaps and bounds! I am prepping for buyer pickups this month. Many of these sheep will be at their new homes come June… while they wait on their new owners they are eating through the massive amount of grass that’s growing right now.

Completion prizes for Homestead Business Bootcamp Students!!

Another massive project behind the scenes is the Shepherdess Homestead Business Bootcamp. This is a 6 month coaching program where I help beginners in business lay the foundation for a 6-figure home-based revenue stream. We start from ZERO and build out a business plan month by month (for 6 months). Enrollment is closed for 2025. I plan to host another group in 2026, so tap the button below to be added to the waitlist!

And just for fun: an up-close from one of my bottle lambs. Despite being weaned, these little guys are always the first to run up and say “hi!”

And as a reminder: my book the Basics of Raising sheep on Pasture covers all of the basics of pasture management and sheep husbandry (250+ FULL COLOR PAGES).

Thanks for reading!

-the Shepherdess

“And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.”
Psalm 90:17

Hi Friends!
​

This month is my 4th anniversary. 4 years ago I stepped on pasture with no previous experience in agriculture. I came from a background in Digital Marketing and product development in the retail apparel industry (yep, I went from fashion to farming).

Despite no background in farming, I had a deeply rooted drive to build out a food source for my family.

Over the past 4 years I have met thousands of others with the same drive (mostly through my Youtube channel).

There is so much happening right now that affirms our purpose.

Please keep at it. We may be on the brink of greater need than we could have ever imagined.

That was a more lengthy intro than normal, but I felt the need to encourage you forward. Now on to the farm update!

The flock is having a great summer. I made some adjustments to my breeding schedule and mineral regimen that have made a (huge) positive impact. The updates including increasing selenium and providing copper via a COWP Bolus. My spring lambs are all weaned and I have bred a few of my ewes for an October lambing!

I sent my 2nd round of grass-fed beeves off to the butcher! These guys
were about 27 months old. I’m excited to fill freezers with their
amazing meat. Here is a video that shares the whole process of raising grass fed beef on small acreage.

I always enjoy sharing paddock setup photos with you! If you click on the photo you’ll be taken to the complete supplies list with all the products I use for rotational grazing.

I sometimes perform fecal egg-counts at home check parasite loads. I talk about doing fecal egg counts from home in my book. I also talk about important parasites to watch for and how I treat them. Here is a sample page:

Sample page from The Basics of Raising Sheep on Pasture​

Last but not least, I updated the Shepherdess COMPLETE STARTER KIT for 2024 (now includes 32 products). This is a collection of the most important supplies I keep for my flock (including lambing supplies). Here is a video about the kit:

Thanks for reading! Keep up the great work,

the Shepherdess

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” 1 Cor. 15:58

Hello Friends,

This update covers November-January. I can’t believe I have not sent a regular farm update since October! I am continuing my social media break through February 7th, but here is a little look at what’s happened from November-January!

WARNING: I have some lamb processing photos at the bottom of the post, so stop short if you are not interested in seeing them :).

(2 week old orphan lambs)

In November one of my oldest ewes die shortly after giving birth to twins. I never had success raising lambs on powdered formula. For these lambs, I sourced raw goat milk and had a huge success!!

The ram lamb hit 40lb by 10wks!! To stay budget friendly, I switched to a lower cost formula once the lambs were around 7 weeks (still NOT powdered, but one of you left a comment on facebook telling me how to amend cow milk from the store… THANK YOU!). I plan to make a video with all 3 homemade formula recipes I tried.

The flock is 1/2 way through lambing! I scheduled a January/February lambing instead of March/April lambing this year. Parasite pressure is really hard on my March/April lambing group. This lambing is an experimenting to see if we can mitigate some of the struggle.

(click to buy the book!)

In 2020 we experienced what seemed like “food shortages”. In reality, there was a bottle neck in our meat processing system.

80% of our nations meat supply is controlled by 4 major meat processors.

​From 2020-2022, local slaughter houses were booked up to a year in advance as major meat packers recovered from lock-down-related closures.

Since observing this, it has been my goal to get in touch with how to process my own meat.

Butchering livestock is way outside of my comfort zone, but so far I have processed 3 sheep. It has been very rewarding to develop this skill set…

The first lamb had died of bloat (she gained access to a feed bag and over-indulged). I decided to make lemonade out of the situation and use her as my first practice! I was not able to eat this one, since I had just run a dewormer treatment the day before (withdraw period is about 14 days for the dewormer I use)

The second lamb was much smaller, but still some great practice.

The third was a mutton that I was able to breakdown and use for a dinner party! It tasted really incredible!

Thanks for reading this update!

-the Shepherdess

The lambs are for thy clothing, and the goats are the price of the field.
Proverbs 27:26