The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: jaykay on March 29, 2012, 08:58:50 pm
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(http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k70/jaykayg/2af238b7.jpg)
In which I learn that Shetlands tend to go only 146 days, so my neat 5th Nov, 1st April-start-of-the-Easter-holidays failed a bit and she lambed at first light this morning. Despite being mad (flighty) she likes him very much and they talk lots to each other ;D I haven't seen him drink, mainly cos she's so edgy when I'm around I think. I've picked him up a couple of times though and he has a fat little belly ;D
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Oh super, Jaykay you beat me to it - think my first Shetland lamb/s is/are imminent - but of course could be another day or so - she has an udder for the 5000 so can't be long off
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Lovely lamb :) :) :) :) :)
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Well done he looks lovely, I got rid of my shetlands last year and really miss them they are such nice little sheep
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Well done Jaykay.. :thumbsup:
Aawww! So cute.... What flavour Shetland is it ? :)
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Oh he's lovely!!!! A what a good mum!
If his tummy is full and hes warm and if you pick him up when he's lying down and pop him down and he does a biiiig stretch then he's fine.
Congrats to you! Ive missed out on the lambing this year due to an imminent operation, so have 24 bored looking empty Shetland ewes in the field :-((( roll on next year!
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Oh, brilliant! :thumbsup: So glad you are off to such a good start - albeit a little earlier than expected ::)
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Thanks all :)
What flavour Shetland is it
The ewe is a grey katmoget, the tup is black.
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We wont start lambing till late April/ May up here.Congratulations.
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My lambs are due in the next week. Lovely, isn't it :) I only have five ewes and borrowed a black tup so am hoping for a nice black ewe lamb.
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Lovely , nice lamb and super picture , well done you. ;D
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:thumbsup:
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He's got away with not bring ringed today, nothing has dropped - I can feel balls but they are not properly in his scrotum. I left my Roughs entire as they went to the butchers by Oct so I'm not sure if I'm trying to do him too early? Or is it another Shetland thing? :D
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Sometimes takes a day or two for them to drop properly in my experience. also sometimes a ewe can be very protective of there lambs but some come round after a day or two a bit of hard feed does wonders in my experience.
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He's got away with not bring ringed today, nothing has dropped - I can feel balls but they are not properly in his scrotum. I left my Roughs entire as they went to the butchers by Oct so I'm not sure if I'm trying to do him too early? Or is it another Shetland thing? :D
I've had a few of ours (commercial sheep) where I've had to wait an extra day or two this year, not sure why. Usually we get no more than a handful in about 400-ish lambs, this year it's been a much more noticeable number where I haven't been able to ring them on the second day. 36 - 48 hours is my preferred timing - usually they've dropped, the lamb is fed and strong, but it's still early enough that there's only a very short period of discomfort. A day or two later, they always seem to feel it a bit more, and for a few minutes more. :o
I think I've heard a few on here talking about being a struggle to ring some of the smaller primitives within the statutory week, as their little testicles are too small and slip through the ring!
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It's Soays which have a real problem, to the extent that it could be a welfare issue to ring them in that first week. Shetlands and others can be a bit difficult too, so we try to leave them a bit longer, maybe to day 5. There could be an added problem with the primitives being a bit more stressed by handling which causes the testicles to be sucked back up, but that little chap looks so confident he could rule the world :D :D
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Well, I just went to do it and the ring rolled straight off. I guess i'll be leaving him to grow a bit!
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If he is going to the butchers as lamb then dont bother castrating, we dont . Some folk keep them on as hogs so they need to castrate but the hog meat we have been given is too fatty when you are used to Shetland lamb.
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Ok, do you send them as lambs then, around 6 months? That's what I used to do with my Rough Fells and I left them entire. I'd certainly rather do that.
I assumed I was going to have to keep these little guys to hoggs cos they wouldn't be big enough to butcher as lambs?
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Hi, yes six months is right. We are only a couple and a Shetland lamb suits us fine, no chops as they are too small but we do fillets. A shetland lamb can be as big as a ewe at six months depending on the quality of stock. I dont do coloureds though as they are too pretty and would get individualised. ::)
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Castrate as late as possible and eat as a hog.....much better carcase! Also shear first as wool worth a bit if coloured to hand spinners, £7-8 plus coloured skin which is worth over £50 and carcase should be about 20kg and can be sold as a speciality meat as virtually fat free! (£70 +) Its all in the marketing! ;) ;)
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Today's twins :love:
(http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k70/jaykayg/3789b52a.jpg)
All the lambs have had a black base so far, which might suggest the tup is homozygous black, I was hoping he might be heterozygous and pass a moorit gene to a few. Maybe too early to tell....
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Well done.
I like the little coloured one :thumbsup:
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Yes, I was pleased - and a gimmer too ;D She's a grey katmoget :) I've been telling her mum all along, that pretty gimmers was her job - so she listened after all ;)
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They are looking cute :love:
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:love: :love: :love:
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Very very cute :thumbsup:
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(http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k70/jaykayg/fae7a915.jpg)
This bucket is fun to play with.
(http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k70/jaykayg/1cb8bc41.jpg)
Oops, didn't know we were being watched.
(http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k70/jaykayg/70422297.jpg)
What's that she's got in her hand?
(http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k70/jaykayg/056ff067.jpg)
After all that playing I need a snooze.
(http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k70/jaykayg/7db1ed72.jpg)
I love my mummy.
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Oh super - love the last pic Jaykay - a whole year to wait till sheltand lambs - not a bas thing maybe I'll be organised by then - but I doubt it!!
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They are very sweet - so tiny! It's like having a whole load of kittens not lambs :D And no still photos can convey the pinginess :love:
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Well done jaykay, :thumbsup:
great pics, I agree, our new lambs keep us smiling and laughing. :)
Ping - the true sign of Spring ;D
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That playing on mum's back seems to be a typical Shetland thing? My other cross lambs don't do it at all....
I would agree that Shetland is best eaten as hogget (or even older), if they are mainly on grass they put on weight in their second summer rather than their first, and the legs make just the best roast ever (on the bone and whole that is). So yes, wait and castrate when they are ready... just make sure you keep an "accurate" date of their births... It is just a bother that they take up space in the lambing pens...
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They are so cute when little :thumbsup:
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we crossed our shetland ewes with a suffolk boy this year (who did the deed before he went off to the freeezer) as we wanted to see if we could get some bigger joints but low fat (thanks shetlands) result we have eight coloured suffolks!!! 2 blondes 4 spotted and two that can only be described as fresians!!! (came out of a black ewe) and the first thing they do every morning is bounce out of the sheds like a group of bunnies and chase the geese much to the dismay of their mummies.