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Author Topic: getting Castlemilk Moorfits at the weekend!  (Read 4941 times)

Graemscifi

  • Joined Nov 2013
getting Castlemilk Moorfits at the weekend!
« on: October 01, 2014, 05:06:37 pm »
i am so exited its sad. after coming across this breed at the Rare Breeds tent at the Highland Show a couple of years ago i have lusted after a wee hobby flock to run with my big comercial Cheviots. and totaly out of the blue, after a fruitless couple of years of sort of looking, someone advertised localy some ewe lambs. Long story short i saw them last night and agreed to take all the ewes for sale. they are coming at the weekend!!!!

They are so cute its silly. Big for so called primitives. i think they will settle in with my ewe lambs very well, and all the nehbours will rubberneck at them in the park wondering why "deer" are running with me sheepies

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: getting Castlemilk Moorfits at the weekend!
« Reply #1 on: October 01, 2014, 05:31:06 pm »
Congratulations  :thumbsup:

I love my Castlemilks.  :hugsheep:   So elegant. :love: :sheep:

Be on the alert for shenanigans with horns, though, especially if you feed 'em cake ;)  They'll push Cheviots out the way no bother with the superior headgear!   :D

We shall, of course, expect pictures and stories  ;D
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Bramblecot

  • Joined Jul 2008
Re: getting Castlemilk Moorfits at the weekend!
« Reply #2 on: October 01, 2014, 05:38:02 pm »
That's great.  I fully understand your :excited: :excited: .  Very pretty little sheep and it is good to have something beautiful as well as your practical Chevvies. ;D

Brucklay

  • Joined Apr 2010
  • Perthshire
    • Brucklay Pygmy Goats
    • Facebook
Re: getting Castlemilk Moorfits at the weekend!
« Reply #3 on: October 01, 2014, 08:59:44 pm »
 :thumbsup: :thumbsup:  from me too - love mine
Pygmy Goats, Shetland Sheep, Zip & Indie the Border Collies, BeeBee the cat and a wreak of a building to renovate!!

Dans

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • Spalding
    • Six Oaks
    • Facebook
Re: getting Castlemilk Moorfits at the weekend!
« Reply #4 on: October 01, 2014, 10:39:52 pm »
Yay, excited for you!  :excited:

I've fallen a bit in love with this breed, though the OH wonders how practical they are as smallholder sheep. Any have any winning arguments I can send his way?

Is the fleece really as good as advertised for spinning? And is the meat really as tasty?

Thanks

Dans
9 sheep, 24 chickens, 3 cats, a toddler and a baby on the way

www.sixoaks.co.uk

www.facebook.com/pg/sixoakssmallholding

www.goodlife.sixoaks.co.uk

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: getting Castlemilk Moorfits at the weekend!
« Reply #5 on: October 02, 2014, 01:19:36 am »
The meat is awesome.  Not like any other lamb or hogget; almost like venison.  Lean and very very tasty.  :yum:

Several family members who "don't like lamb" polish off any amount of Castlemilk Moorit. ;)

The fleece is a tricky one.  Like Manx, it can be very short, and like many primitives it can be a bit scurfy.  But if you get some clean fleece with a reasonable staple length, it's very fine and very lovely.  IMO ;).  Deb Robson showed us how to spin it directly from the comb (I have the little Louet ones) and it's a doddle and very pleasant to spin that way.

So far I have found the Castlemilks to be less flighty than Manxes or Shetlands. All my sheep are pretty tame, but some of the Shetlands, Shetland crosses and Manxes use stone walls like vertical roads  ::), and no fence will really hold them if they have a reason for being somewhere else. So far, none of the Castlemilks has jumped or climbed.  ( :fc:  I haven't jinxed that now...)

I can't yet talk about how they are for breeding.  I tupped both my gimmers last year; one was geld and the other had a dead lamb. She was proper poorly so I didn't set another lamb onto her.

They'll both go to the tup again this year.  Something tells me that Goldie isn't a breeder and will be geld again, but hopefully Whirly will manage to have a live lamb and rear it this time.

I think they are lovely, elegant sheep.  They are bigger many of the other primitives, certainly than Shetlands, Manxes, etc.  I am hoping that once I get them breeding they will be as capable of lambing and rearing a commercial cross lamb as a Shetland or Manx.

Pure bred offspring would need to be sold as breeders if good enough, or as meat; wethers won't fetch much at all in the ring.  I got about 55kgs usable meat in total off four 30-month old wethers, which is about 2/3 the amount you'd get off a small commercial fat lamb.

Good fleece will sell, but as it can be short and they are not huge sheep, it won't make you rich!   However, being primitives they don't need a lot of feeding, so if you have the ground and like the look of them grazing on it...
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

nimbusllama

  • Joined Nov 2010
  • Near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire
Re: getting Castlemilk Moorfits at the weekend!
« Reply #6 on: October 02, 2014, 08:08:43 am »
I started with mine in July and I love them!  I have seven now and thankfully they are not as wild as I thought, and are very beautiful.  Good luck with yours.

Bionic

  • Joined Dec 2010
  • Talley, Carmarthenshire
Re: getting Castlemilk Moorfits at the weekend!
« Reply #7 on: October 02, 2014, 08:14:37 am »
Happy sheeping  :sheep: :sheep: :sheep:
Dans I had some CMM fleece and didn't like it. I found it very difficult to spin as it was so short but I am sure someone who is a better spinner than I am could have polished it off with no problem.
Life is like a bowl of cherries, mostly yummy but some dodgy bits

marka

  • Joined Dec 2012
  • Moray, NE Scotland
  • www.facebook.com/WellsideCroft
    • Facebook
Re: getting Castlemilk Moorfits at the weekend!
« Reply #8 on: October 02, 2014, 09:27:53 am »

Congrats on the Castlemilks.

We love our Castlemilks - very well behaved and friendly and very low maintenance so far.

Castlemilk Moorit sheep and Belted Galloway cattle, plus other hangers on.

devonlady

  • Joined Aug 2014
Re: getting Castlemilk Moorfits at the weekend!
« Reply #9 on: October 02, 2014, 10:10:46 am »
I have been looking for ages for a couple of CM ewes in Devon with no success. Anyone have any for sale?

mowhaugh

  • Joined Jul 2013
  • Scottish Borders
    • Facebook
Re: getting Castlemilk Moorfits at the weekend!
« Reply #10 on: October 02, 2014, 10:37:17 am »
Congratulations, I totally understand the feeling of being stupidly excited despite and abundance of 'normal' sheep, when my boys got their shetlands, I spent hours just sitting looking at them.

Rosemary

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Barry, Angus, Scotland
    • The Accidental Smallholder
Re: getting Castlemilk Moorfits at the weekend!
« Reply #11 on: October 02, 2014, 12:59:41 pm »
I have to say they would be my choice of primitives.


Dans

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • Spalding
    • Six Oaks
    • Facebook
Re: getting Castlemilk Moorfits at the weekend!
« Reply #12 on: October 02, 2014, 02:38:42 pm »
Thank you guys. I've directed him here, he is a member but is very quiet!

I happened to be at the Bristol Wool Fair and picked up a small amount of CMM fleece that I was going to have a go at, but damned thesis just keeps getting in my way  :innocent:

So it sounds like their fleece isn't a big selling point with them, but the meat, the hardiness and beauty are all plus points. Might have to run them alongside something more practical. Though now I'm thinking what kind of crosses would work.

Gah. Thesis and find a smallholding first, then think about breeds!

Thanks again

Wish you all the best with yours Graemscifi! Think pictures are a definite must!
9 sheep, 24 chickens, 3 cats, a toddler and a baby on the way

www.sixoaks.co.uk

www.facebook.com/pg/sixoakssmallholding

www.goodlife.sixoaks.co.uk

goosepimple

  • Joined May 2010
  • nr Lauder, Scottish Borders
Re: getting Castlemilk Moorfits at the weekend!
« Reply #13 on: October 02, 2014, 08:47:15 pm »
we have some too, very beautiful, partic when just sheared.  ours are good mums too.  they shouldn't be on the rare breeds register really, they're meaty and lovely compared to our soays and north ronaldsays and their fleece is dense.  have often thought about keeping them and nothing else but they are leggy and jumpy. ours were quite nervous for a long time I almost gave up on them at one point but they are friendly now.  ours had x north ronaldsay lambs this year so we have some shaggier looking ones which have the super friendly NR gene, very nice, I'll try and put up some photos.
 
Photos when you get them please.  Good luck with them.  :excited:
registered soay, castlemilk moorit  and north ronaldsay sheep, pygmy goats, steinbacher geese, muscovy ducks, various hens, lots of visiting mallards, a naughty border collie, a puss and a couple of guinea pigs

nimbusllama

  • Joined Nov 2010
  • Near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire
Re: getting Castlemilk Moorfits at the weekend!
« Reply #14 on: October 06, 2014, 07:51:48 pm »
Have they arrived?  :excited:

 

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