The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Glentarki on April 21, 2011, 09:16:13 pm
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Hi Folks………Well at last Ive made up me mind and decided to go for Shetland Sheep. Can anyone recommend a breeder who has mixed coloured Shetlands?. Never had sheep before so hopefully a breeder that I can nip their head a bit for advice and visit beforehand I'm located Perth/Fife borders in Scotland.
Thanks in advance ;)
Dave
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The Shetland sheep society web page has a list of breeders and there are a few near you. We have a small flock of 1 Tup, 1 wether, 4 ewes and 6 lambs of mixed colours and you are more than welcome to come see them. We are about 12 miles north of Glasgow
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Hi there. Rena Douglas is in Ceres, the Arbuckles are in Bathgate - I can give you their contact details if you wish. Both breed beautiful coloured Shetlands and are helpful and pleasant.
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so much choice. get a shetland sheep colour guide there are loads of diffrent ones all diffrent. we have spotty coloured shetlands. our ram that ran off last year was a mix of 4 or more colours. he was extremly colourful. excellent for spinning as you can get multi coloured wool.
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Thanks very much for your reply’s. Andrew you’re little set up sounds similar to what I would like here ground permitting….. thanks for the invite to pop over and see them I may just drop you a pm when were next over your way, cheers for that.
Funny you should mention the different colours S/Paul I found a sheet on the Shetland sheep society page that Andrew mentioned, didn’t realize the choice :)!….Your Ram sounds very striking………My main goal is Lamb for the freezer but without sounding too twee a hardy breed with colour variation so also pleasing to look at.
Fleecewife the contact details would be great I really appreciate that ,were less than 30 Min's from Ceres and have family in Bathgate.. So I'm def spoilt for choice ::)
Thanks you three ;)
Dave
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in that case maybe a cross or something if your mainly after meat. they have lovely meat but not a lot.
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Yeah I thought about that S/paul have a few neighbours around here with a variety of tups so may just experiment with pure and crossing.................Having said that as long as we have enough lamb for our own needs thats fine too :)
Cheers
Dave
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have coloured ewes and then throw anything in.
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Dave, we are between Newburgh and Cupar and have shetlands, just had 9 lambs so prob will have some for sale if you are interested?
Also have pals nearby in same situation.
and we originally got ours from Rena Douglas - not far from us.
pm me if you want to come and see them.
laura
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I wouldn't breed shetland gimmers to a larger tup for their first time lambing, but after that they are usually fine. Just don't choose a really broad shouldered texel.... I use some shetland txl cross ewes for breeding, and they are great. Good size, good temperament (not highly strung like my sff/txl X!) and easy lambers.
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Laura.........Thanks for that Ive sent you a pm :)...........Anke thanks for your post and I can see where your coming from. I think until we are experienced enough at this end we will keep to the pure breeding of the Shetlands, we have a lot to learn...... However its informative to know just how the breed has been versatile in your breeding program and certainly in the future we will experiment, thanks for sharing that
Cheers Dave
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9 lambs (5 tups and 4 ewe lambs)
2 last years ewe lambs (to goto the tup this year)
5 ewes
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it does make sense to breed from a smaller breed the first year as they tend to have singletons. then try a cheviot/suffolk cross. we are down to 5 ewes so will be keeping the only ewe lamb the caddy wether and the 3 boys are going to be chopped in time. we will then need to find a tup for next autumn. may just borrow one.
the shetlands have not had a problem lambing. the cheviots have.
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Interesting thread folks. Pauls comments are true, second year for cross due to size. Ever tried a Jacob / Shetland? An accident happened on our patch a while ago the lambs were a treat though! Well muscled and some lovely meat. The shetland keeper has not spoken to the Jacobs owner for six years, some folk aint got a sense of humour............ :sheep:
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well it can have a massive dent in there income. we are waiting to see how many coloured lambs next door has. we promised to buy any that our tup fathered. i hope its not too many as prices are high.
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Thanks for all your replys and info its made interesting reading especially where runaway tups are concerned ;D ;D...Hope it doesn't break the bank S/ Paul ;D.
Can any of you experienced Shetland Sheep folk share your experience with producing Lamb for the freezer......Just a rough guide of how long you keep your pure bred Shetland lambs until slaughter and what you thought of the finished product
Cheers
Dave
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Dave, will share our story when we meet up rather than here...not a 'secret' just savesme typing it!!
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we lamb late april. lambs slaughtered late october/november. but if you wait until the year after you will get a bigger carcase but then you have to feed them over winter.
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I keep most of the (castrated) pure shtld males until their second autumn, but also sell the larger lambs at the "light lambs sale" in early December at my local market. It depends on how they go and how many there are. Prices for that are usually in line with the larger breeds, and at that sale you don't look too much out of place amongst all the sfflk/txl giant lambs.... Bigger crosses go as lamb to the sales in late Nov (if we are not snowed in...)
Will try and sell some female hoggs (last year's ewe lambs) at Carlisle this year, for breeding.
Our 18 month old pure shtld ones kill out at about 20kgs, with good sized joints. Has the advantage that we can butcher ourselves for our own consumption (saves money!), and they don't get worse if you leave them for a few months longer....
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Sorry late getting back to this post I was never a good tree surgeon and managed to take our BT phone line down >:( hence no internet until late this afternoon ………..Really appreciate the reply’s with your experiences and methods of producing and finishing Shetlands….I did read on the Shetland Sheep Society as you mentioned S/Paul that lambs make a acceptable carcass all be it smaller joints coming off grass in October…..I must say I like the sound of that :) and being for our own use happy for smaller joints.
Anke thanks for your very informative reply all taken on board ;)……You mentioned that you did your own butchering at home was that the slaughtering bit too, or have I got my wires crossed I often do ????…..The reason why I ask is we used to get a regular supply of Lamb from our last neighbour in return for his animals grazing our land….We witnessed from start to finish the entire process and always impressed at how stress free it was for the sheep………..I’m unsure about the law and home slaughter with sheep as this was a good few years ago, hence my questioning…..Sorry for the questions just curious and totally green to all this.
Laura I will give you a call tomorrow I didn’t note your number down before I destroyed the internet connection ???!!
Cheers
Dave
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I use a Suffolk on my coloured shetlands, I chose a long lean ram with a not too big head. It is a good idea to scan. This way you can make sure the singles dont get too big to be born and also give extra feed to the twin baring ewes so that the twin lambs are not born too small. The suffolk shetland lambs are quite a uniform product and a nice bunch of them can get a good price. As mentioned I always use a shetland ram on the gimmers. I keep most of the ewe lambs as replacements and grow the wethers on (with no concentrates)until they are 2or3 years old and eat them myself. The eating quality far exceeds what you can buy in the shops. I need to get a new shetland ram every 2 years but this is fun because I choose a different colour each time and wait and see what colour lambs I get.
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We use the local abattoir (20 mins down the road) for the sheep and any male/castrated goats. We then keep them in their coldstore for up to a week (usually works out at 5 days and is free), then bring the carcass home (another advantage of Shetlands not being too large) in the back of the Skoda estate, and cut up on the dining table. We do not sell any of our mutton/goat meat. We normally leave the legs on the bone, take chops (sometimes), and cut shoulders and anything else up into cubes/chunks (for stews, curries) and mince any leftovers (shep's pie - my children's favourite dinner). I also always (because I can an dits mine!), go back for the pluck on the day of slaughter, the liver and heart get eaten by us the lungs and kidneys by the dog.
If you want to sell meat it would have to be taken from abattoir in refrigerated van to a licensed butcher, who then cuts up and in theory your customers would have to collect from him directly (so as to make sure it stays refrigerated until the point your customers pick it up. When we used to do that we always collected form butcher, then took straight to customer in cool bags. But we have decided that it is too difficult and expensive to do it that way, now I sell the occasional live lamb, deliver to abattoir and customer arranges with his/her own butcher to transport/cut up etc. I would charge for the live lamb and transport to abattoir.
I think that I would like to do it all at home, however the abattoir charges 17.50 per sheep/goat, and that seems to me good value in terms of my time/mess/need for gun/what to do with head/spinal cord etc. But it only works as long as we have abttoir at Galashiels. Problem is they don't like to "sell" you back your skins.
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if your thinking of doing home kill then don't post about it. your asking for stick from animal health ect.
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We normally keep our shetlands until we are hungry! normally 15-18 months. But some went at 9 months in January and were fine, just a bit less meat but then less feed too! None of the 18 month old ones were in any way tough and the ram lamb at 9 months wasnt ram-y tasting. We lamb mid April outdoors in exposed hill in Aberdeenshire. Normally we castrate the boys.
We dont sell any, we use it for christmas presents for friends and family and eat the rest ourselves. The taste is amazing. Not strong, but tastes of lamb lamb lamb, unlike supermarket tasteless stuff.
Butchery at home is worthwhile for money saving but the kill process, provided it is a good abbatoir, is for me best left to a professional and isnt expensive. Im not confident enough to do it myself.
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Thanks all for your responses so interesting to here how you go about the butchery bit and when you do it…….. I must say its great to hear the versatility of slaughtering Shetlands at varied ages and still getting a quality tasting meat. Were really looking forward to getting our sheep shortly but don’t worry I wont be running around the paddocks with a gun ;D ;D…The home slaughtering bit was me just being curious could never entertain doing the deed too much of I wimp ::)
Big Thanks you lot ;)
Dave
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Just a wee update...........We have managed to find a good Shetland breeder thanks to contacts here on Tas........... Next month our 4 girls arrive all last years lambs and a mixture of colours were dead excited :) and sooo looking forward to having them here.
Just wanted to say to everyone that posted advice, big thanks ;)
Dave
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Hope you enjoy them and look forward to hearing how you get on with them.
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Cheers Andrew..... no doubt once the girls arrive I will be back asking all sorts :)
Dave
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when you are ready for the tup, remember we have some real cuties this year :) LOL
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;D How exciting for you.......let's see how long it is before you're totally hooked and your flock is expanding faster than you dare imagine
Good Luck :D
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Tee Hee egglady ;D you know I wont too ;). Padge we cant wait for the girls next month haven't got them yet and already planning expanding future flock size ;D ;D
Dave