The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: ho !sheep! on April 09, 2020, 12:35:11 pm
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:sheep: out of session lambing breeds ???
Apart from the very expensive Dorset downs what could you lamb late November Spring is just massively bussy for us with the horses (our main business) by late November we are twiddling our thumbs. So I'm looking at out of session lambing to balance our the work and hopefully get good prices for our lambs. in the long run sell for breeding stock. We have not had any sheep since November. Had 40 mixed breed for 2 years got them sas ewe lambs and used a very old ram we got for free we managed OK lost the ram he was, 9 had 60 live lambs we raised till 4mths. Numbers wise it wasn't enough though as the horses where still getting to fat. We have 100 - 150 acers we can graze and the same again on an arable contract?
We can grown beet and kale in the solar panel feild. We have had success on our sanfion alfaf haylage so we know we can home grow a winter feed crop. And we have a yard and barn we can use.
We are in North Wiltshire very few sheep farms about.
Is ideas please should we we jump in to the Dorset downs and are there others we could use to bulck out numbers pole Dorset?
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Poll Dorset are a popular choice for lambing September onwards. You’d want to be looking for stock now to get them quarantined and ready for the rams to go in in June. Breeding sheep sales have been cancelled due to Covid-19 but you should be able to buy privately if you follow social distancing measures.
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I started with Dorset Downs by accident in 2003 and for several years kept them pure. However, over time the lovely ladies got heavier and less reluctant to sit on their bottoms for feet. They were calm and quiet enough though for me to roll them onto their sides when they were lying down and clip their toes that way!
After seeing a flock of 42 shetlands for sale , I bought them in to put to the DD tup. The carcasses were leaner and went to Hogg size, killing out a lot better than pure Dorset. Dorsets are the prime for Spring lamb, take them heavier and you are going to have fat.
My tiddlly flock now consists of Dorset X for the lambers and the X is mainly Shetland. I also lamb in December! The Dorset gene is strong so should come through for the early lambing ability.
I've had a 1/2 bleu du maine, 1/4 manx X, 1/4 Dorset Down lamb in January and over the years managed to get that from end of January to beginning of january.
I've lambed over the years, november - April and parted with all sheep unable to lamb December time. It comes down to what you prefer and I prefer December lambing.
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That's very helpful information spring is just chaos with foaling injerd race horses needing nursing and young horses in for prep. But the sheep are much cheaper than man on the mower.
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To get exactly what you want you may have to breed them Dorsets will lamb at any time Suffolks both pure and crossed can lamb dec/ jan Finish Landrace can lamb all year , so you could buy and cross
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Portlands lamb out of season and they are a rare breed, however, they are horned and most have only a single lamb at a time so that is a consideration to keep in mind! They are gorgeous sheep though, not too big and also docile :)
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Horns are a risk/issue with some of our fencing and the 3 we had learnt very quickly to use them on the injured race horses to steal their feed. Now it might be just the mule mix we had but less inclined to risk it. Crossing them with with the suggest is grate info I have found 28 poll Dorsets to go see there are quite few rams available. So a mixed breed November lambing group looks like it should be possible practical this year probably not but we will see what we can get.
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Berrichons will also lamb out of season. You could just buy a couple of hundred store lambs though to run on rather than lambing if it's mainly grass management you want rather than extra work?
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Charollais breed much earlier than Texels, but I don't know if they are possibly year-round breeders too.
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We might have to go with store lambs this year but it's fitting the sheep into the calendar we work on that's the goal
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Could you lamb at Christmas ? That would broaden the list of sheep that can breed at that time of year, especially if you sponge/cidr and pmsg them.
Don’t forget the rams- they need to be able to breed out of season too.
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Mares and foal sales are December so while we could we also have less staff as the stud grooms take their month brake last week November coming back between Christmas week and Jan 2nd as foaling starts from the 1st of January. The only outher quiet spell is in August and that's a very impractical time to lamb I would have thought.