91

Sheep / Re: Soay with chronic scours

« Last post by SallyintNorth on May 22, 2025, 10:27:34 pm »

Things you can try :

- worm him, might also need to give him a flukicide
- stop the feed, wethers won't need feed as well as grass or hay especially at this time of year and especially primitives
- have himalyan rock salt always available, and give them a drench of a good chelated mineral drench once or twice a year
- reduce the amount and/or richness of the grass.  Soay are more used to "severely disadvantaged" type ground, rushes and heather with poor moor and marsh grasses.
- put them on bare ground and feed very poor hay, and not much of it

92

Sheep / Re: No shedding when Charolais ram brought in to a flock of Wiltshire Horn

« Last post by Deacon Folly on May 22, 2025, 06:44:46 pm »

We have WH x Shetlands this year.
First crop from WH ewes x Shetland ram
The lams are a cracking size already (6-7 weeks)
They will go off end October
Hopefully 🤞

93

Sheep / Soay with chronic scours

« Last post by Ottospig on May 22, 2025, 05:12:16 pm »

Hi, I'm new to the forum and looking for some advice. We have 2 Soay Wethers one was hand reared. We took him on when he was about 2. He often has scours and I'm finding it difficult to keep him clean. I have treated him with Clik but I'm still seeing flies around his bum. He lives purely on grass in a one acre paddock, The grass is really long currently and looks good. Every few days I give them a small amount of sheep mix. He is good in himself and in good condition other than the constant dirty bum! The other Soay has no problems at all. Just wondering if anyone has any advice? I'm wondering if he did not receive enough colostrum as a newborn but not much we can do about that now. Thanks in advance!

94

Sheep / Re: No shedding when Charolais ram brought in to a flock of Wiltshire Horn

« Last post by PipKelpy on May 22, 2025, 01:32:41 pm »

After breeding Wilshire horn for six years, we decided to introduce a Charolais Ram to our flock to bulk up the lambs. This was a big success, although we found that the new lambs were less resistant to winter weather on account of their bare head and ears.
We had been told that the lambs would be self shedding due to a dominant gene, but they did not shed a single hair. They all had to be dagged the following year, and we had to spend a fortune on a shearer in May (when we finally managed to get one).
We have decided against keeping any of the ewe lambs for breeding. But at least the lambs do reach finishing weight in 18 months instead of three years!

18 months over 3 years?

I'm assuming you eat the adult animals!

I bought in my first WH with WH lambs in 2021 and did notice that the lambs took 2 months longer to get to kill weight than when the WH lambed to Dorset Down the following year. I didn't lamb last year but anyone who could HAS this year, WH to WH (bought a tup in hoping to get ewe lambs! (Got 3 out of 15)) and the Shetlands have lambed to Dorset Down because I know the DD gene will give me a good carcase.

Shedding? My Dorset Downs off WH can only be described as unbelievable!!

Unbelievably WOOLY!! It was an absolute shocker! WH mum, DD dad and each blasted female that I kept had a longer coat than what the dad had. It reminded me of the offspring off my GreyFaced Dartmoors!

So, in my head next year will be an experiment, I've a nice WH tup lamb I've kept entire (when he was born, I said to mum, that's Isaac) I'm eying him up for the Shetlands for later this year and if I have trouble getting in a tup, he'll go On the bulk of the Ewes as he's only related to 2 of them (his mum and aunt).

Surely the offspring WH x Shetland can't be that wooly?

95

Coffee Lounge / Re: Scottish Land Commission: Scotland Futures

« Last post by Rosemary on May 21, 2025, 08:18:24 am »

I'm just giving this a shameless bump to get it back in the Unread posts.
The Scottish Government doesn't think land and land reform issues are important to the people of Scotland; this is our chance to prove them wrong. If you haven't already responded, please do so. You don't need to. be an expert, you just need to care about Scotland's land.

96

Sheep / Re: No shedding when Charolais ram brought in to a flock of Wiltshire Horn

« Last post by Richmond on May 20, 2025, 06:08:26 pm »

All our sheep are horned, yes. But you might be asking the OP?

97

Sheep / Re: No shedding when Charolais ram brought in to a flock of Wiltshire Horn

« Last post by Bywaters on May 19, 2025, 11:01:20 am »

Were the progeny horned, out of interest?

98

Sheep / Re: No shedding when Charolais ram brought in to a flock of Wiltshire Horn

« Last post by Richmond on May 19, 2025, 08:27:21 am »

There's no guarantee that putting a non shedder with a shedder will produce shedding offspring. We currently have a non shedding ram with our Wiltshire Horn ewes. Results so far are mixed, shedding wise. Based on last year's lambs some of which we've kept, we have one who partly sheds, one who doesn't and one who does. This year's lambs are still quite young (born in March) so it's hard to know what they will turn out like. It's all a bit of a lottery. I think you can only guarantee shedding offspring if you put a shedder to a shedder.

99

Introduce yourself / free pest control by shooting in the south east

« Last post by bottletopbill on May 19, 2025, 07:45:59 am »

Hi I am retired who now loves to shoot pest  for free and to donate the meat to other's.
I have all the qualification's to supply game and deer  meat to any one.
many areas considered,
I am also a freemason so i am trustworthy

100

Coffee Lounge / Re: Well what can I say.

« Last post by Rosemary on May 19, 2025, 06:58:26 am »

Welcome back, kaz. Glad life is looking after you on your new smallholding.

We've also retired - all sheep and cattle gone. We have six hens, plus two dogs, two ponies and four cats. And we graze some BFL for a friend, which is nice. If any are sick or lame, I just phone him 
The garden's been benefitting from the "spare" time though and is starting to look like, well, a garden