The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Fleecewife on May 28, 2011, 06:13:19 pm

Title: Hebrideans doing what Hebrideans do.
Post by: Fleecewife on May 28, 2011, 06:13:19 pm

I have mentioned before that Hebridean sheep like to browse as well as graze.  After the storm we had some willows down and this is some of our ewes and lambs getting stuck into the branches. Click to see it bigger.  Sorry it's all bums but they were concentrating  :D :sheep:

Title: Re: Hebrideans doing what Hebrideans do.
Post by: jaykay on May 28, 2011, 06:47:36 pm

They look like they're enjoying themselves  ;D

Title: Re: Hebrideans doing what Hebrideans do.
Post by: little blue on May 28, 2011, 08:08:48 pm

lovely!

Title: Re: Hebrideans doing what Hebrideans do.
Post by: cairnhill on May 28, 2011, 08:22:36 pm

My hebs would rather eat trees than grass which is rather unfortunate for the trees.

Title: Re: Hebrideans doing what Hebrideans do.
Post by: andywalt on May 28, 2011, 09:59:37 pm

I have a mixture of sheep from suffolks to texals to some jacob crosses, I noticed them today jumping up to get there necks over a low branch, when one succeeds they all rush over and eat the leaves off of it !!

Title: Re: Hebrideans doing what Hebrideans do.
Post by: trefnantbach on May 29, 2011, 01:20:10 pm

all our sheep, both soays and commercial crosses love willow. After hedge trimming, I intentionally leave the cut branches in the field for them to browse and only remove them after they have stripped the branches of all the folliage. Ivy is anoather hot favouraite. After all both plants have medicinal qualities - the sheep know what they are doing. It is from willow that salicylic acid, the active ingredient of asprin came from - they're not daft as people think!

Title: Re: Hebrideans doing what Hebrideans do.
Post by: goosepimple on May 29, 2011, 01:49:13 pm

What a great pic  ;D, it is all bums, love it  ;D ;D

Title: Re: Hebrideans doing what Hebrideans do.
Post by: robate55 on May 29, 2011, 01:54:48 pm

Lovely picture - ours also stripped a tree branch that fell in the back field
Rose

Title: Re: Hebrideans doing what Hebrideans do.
Post by: bigchicken on May 30, 2011, 04:52:52 pm

My Shetlands devourer any leafs and sometimes the bark of any fallen branches and the beach hedge gets well trimmed up to the hight of a Shetland standing on there back legs. They have been well seen to after the winds of last week.

Title: Re: Hebrideans doing what Hebrideans do.
Post by: Fleecewife on May 31, 2011, 12:40:35 am

It's amazing just how long a sheep's neck becomes when she's after the hedge  :D :D  We have just found that they love ground elder too, which is great because we don't  ;D

The morning after I took the photo, the branches (there were lots more) had been completely stripped down to white wood, all the bark gone.  We let them dry for a while then use them as kindling or bean sticks.

Title: Re: Hebrideans doing what Hebrideans do.
Post by: SallyintNorth on May 31, 2011, 12:45:13 am

A smallholder I know gives branches to his goats to strip and then makes furniture and art with them.  (The stripped branches, not the goats.  ;D)