If you are wondering whether you should get goats or sheep for a small homestead, I am sharing our experiences and the conclusion we came to on our micro-farm. We have just 1 acre total and can not use all of it for livestock, so we need to choose our animals wisely.

We have learned through trial and error. Learning and changing things as we go.

Goats or Sheep for a Small Homestead?

Perhaps the real question is whether you want to raise animals for meat or dairy. We started out thinking one thing and ended up thinking something completely different!

For meat:

We started with sheep, Katahdin hair sheep to be exact. We had those for 3 years. We had them as a meat source, although, we milked them for a while, and you can read about that adventure HERE.

Conclusion: for meat, Katahdin sheep are a good choice for a small homestead. They do not need to be sheared. They are more like goats than other sheep breeds in that they are less picky about what they eat, but are less stubborn and agile than goats. They have mild-flavored meat at any age, including older ewes and rams. If you want a great source of lamb or mutton, I recommend these.

For dairy:

If you want sheep for dairy you will want to get a dairy breed, which means they will be wool sheep that need to be sheared. The Katahdin hair sheep are similar to dwarf or miniature goat breeds when hand-milking, but produce even less milk on average.

Conclusion: for dairy, you will need to choose a dairy breed – whether sheep or goats. Goats do not need to be sheared, so we switched to Nigerian Dwarf goats for dairy. We decided that having a source of raw dairy was more important than a source of lamb/mutton meat and since we cannot have both, we chose dairy goats for our small homestead. We can source grass-fed local beef from our neighbor for an affordable price, but we can’t source local, raw dairy for a decent price. So, for us, Nigerian Dwarf goats are the best choice.

In the End

It is important to say that we did not switch from Katahdin sheep to Nigerian Dwarf goats because we disliked our sheep. We loved them, and it was a wonderful experience!

We switched because our priorities changed over time as homesteaders. We are learning what our limits are, both in terms of energy and land.

We are honing in on what is the best ROI for our micro-farm.
We are learning and adjusting as we go, to make the most of our 1 acre.

This will be true for anyone weighing the pros and cons of Goats or Sheep for a Small Homestead. I hope this article was helpful as you embark on the homesteading journey!