My plan is to raise sheep with as little inputs as possible. By “inputs” I mean things I buy at the store and feed or give to the animals. My thinking is as follows.
- If a sheep is healthy, leave it alone!
- If a sheep gets sick, it may recover on its own. If it does, then I may keep it. Maybe I’ll breed it, but probably not.
- If a sheep gets sick and doesn’t recover on its own, I don’t want to sell it to anyone else. It should never be bred.
- If a sheep gets sick and I treat it and it gets better, I don’t want to sell it to anyone and I will never breed it.
- If a sheep gets sick and I treat it and it doesn’t get better, it’s the same situation. I don’t want to sell it to anyone else and I will never breed it.
In short:
- Healthy sheep stay and are bred.
- Sick sheep need to go.
That’s about it.
Treating sick sheep doesn’t make much sense to me, especially if I am just doctoring it to sell it to someone else.
The idea of chasing sheep around just to catch one sick one is also absurd. Sheep do not like being stressed or chased. If I had a pen system I could deploy anywhere anytime, it still wouldn’t make sense. It’s just not worth it to stress all of the sheep just to try and isolate one or two sick ones.