The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Blackbird on August 28, 2012, 11:17:23 am
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The Sheep for Smallholders course I was enrolled on at Moulton College, Northampton, has been cancelled as I was the only person on it. I was counting on this to help me learn the right way to approach to drenching, injections and foot trimming. Does anyone know of any other courses available? I've Googled the academic providers and found some being held next year, but wondered if there are informal courses others are aware of? Grateful for any thoughts on this as I really need to know how to do this stuff properly. Thanks all.
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I bet if you told a local farmer your needs and offered him a days free graft in return he would be happy to help. Most of my injecting etc techniques have been shown and watched over as I have had a go by farmers. So far, all my sheep have lambed on their own without a hint of bother, but one day I guess I really need to offer help in return for experience at one of our big commercial sheep farmers so I know what to do hands-on rather than just read about in books in case of difficulty!
Good luck with your learning. p.s learned my hoof trimming technique off of a youtube video. There are some brilliant ones on there :) :wave: :wave: :wave:
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That's a real shame blackbird. Free graft for experience does sound a good way to go especially if you find somebody local. They will then be at hand when you need a bit of advice too.
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Thanks folks. Good idea to "shadow" our local farmer, I will try and catch up with him (he is very elusive!). I've also found someone offering learning for smallholders. They are prepared to do a one-to-one day tailored just for me. I will be learning hands-on with their flock of GFDs - great and couldn't be more relevant! :excited:
They are here:
http://www.oakberrow.co.uk/grey-faced-dartmoors/ (http://www.oakberrow.co.uk/grey-faced-dartmoors/)
I will post some feedback after the course in case it's relevant to anyone else.
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Thanks folks. Good idea to "shadow" our local farmer, I will try and catch up with him (he is very elusive!). I've also found someone offering learning for smallholders. They are prepared to do a one-to-one day tailored just for me. I will be learning hands-on with their flock of GFDs - great and couldn't be more relevant! :excited:
They are here:
http://www.oakberrow.co.uk/grey-faced-dartmoors/ (http://www.oakberrow.co.uk/grey-faced-dartmoors/)
I will post some feedback after the course in case it's relevant to anyone else.
You should be well looked after there. ;D
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If you are interested in learning the lambing bit, we run a "rolls royce" lambing course every spring, usually in mid March. Our course has been running since 2006 and has proved extremely popular and the reveiws have been excellent.
Run over 4 1/2 days you will get plenty of hands on experience and a true idea of what lambing a flock is really like.
PM if you are interested.
Shamless plug - sorry. :innocent:
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I'm hopefully going to oak berrow for an advice, practical session on showing my Ryelands. Just trying to sort out a day :excited:
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If you are interested in learning the lambing bit, we run a "rolls royce" lambing course every spring, usually in mid March. Our course has been running since 2006 and has proved extremely popular and the reveiws have been excellent.
Run over 4 1/2 days you will get plenty of hands on experience and a true idea of what lambing a flock is really like.
PM if you are interested.
Shamless plug - sorry. :innocent:
Can recommend the organisers of this course.
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Hi Blackbird!
Like you I've been looking for a sheep husbandry course in my local area - North Notts/ Syorks but without any luck! Wondered where the place was that was going to do a tailor made course for you? Maybe if it was suitable I could join you on it - just a thought?
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Why not ask one of the city farms if you can go and learn. Whirlow Hall Farm in Sheffield is all about education, google them.
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Thanks for the information about your course VSS, but mine is a non-breeding flock (we'll look after them for life and add to the flock as we go) so we won't be doing the pre-tup/tupping/lambing side of things. Moprabbit - the course is taking place near Malvern - if you click on the link on my post you can find out more about them and make contact if you'd like? The things I want to cover are nutrition, foot trimming, handling/turning,drenching and injections.
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Thanks for the info Omnipeasant - I'll give them a try!
Hi Blackbird! I've looked at the link, it looks a great place but a bit too far for me, which is a shame. It's interesting to note that your sheep are a non breeding flock - so are mine! Just 4 pet sheep, so just like you I'm not particularly interested in the lambing side for my sheep, although I would like to be more knowlegdeable so that I can help my friend when his are lambing!
How many sheep have you got? Are yours just pets? Most of my friends think I'm silly having sheep and not breeding from them, but I know I'm too soft and couldn't bear to let the lambs go - so the easiest solution is not to have lambs!
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Kate Humble's new rural skills school in Monmouthshire (www.humblebynature.com (http://www.humblebynature.com)) has sheep husbandry/lambing courses planned. You can also request bespoke courses, tailored to suit your needs. Accommodation available on the farm, too. Best of luck x
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We went on a course near Bristol some years ago run by a lady who still runs courses. It was very expensive: in retrospect not good value. Buying half a dozen sheep from a nearby farmer was much more use, gave us support and a lot of useful introductions.
What worried OH was the day course she offered in bee keeping. OH reckoned that was long enough to get you into trouble without the support needed to solve the problems
Hope this helps
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Most of my friends think I'm silly having sheep and not breeding from them, but I know I'm too soft and couldn't bear to let the lambs go - so the easiest solution is not to have lambs!
Very wise approach in your circumstances :thumbsup:; don't ever feel the need to apologise for it.
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I value your comment Sally - thanks very much!
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Yes mop - agree with Sally. Well done for your foresight.
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There are farm experience and livestock training courses advertised in our local paper this week, including sheep management. I have no personal knowledge of them but the website is: www.beechhayesfarmtraining.co.uk (http://www.beechhayesfarmtraining.co.uk). They are based at Churchinford near Taunton, Somerset. :thumbsup:
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7 years ago I did a 2-day course, "Ruminant Health for Smallholders", with Kingfisher Vets, Crewkerne. Their aim was to give smallholders a good understanding of how to know your sheep (or cow) is healthy, and keep her that way, and when to call the vet and with what information.
It was one day classroom and one day on farm, the latter giving practical hands-on training in handling sheep (and cattle), trimming feet, inspecting teeth, etc. It might be worth contacting Kingfisher to see if they are doing any courses now; I think I was on their first one. There was a grant, I think, for people who had a holding number.
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Also try the Magdalen Project at Chard, Somerset. I did a one day there - very useful. Their contact was a bit erratic but the course tutor was good.
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Thanks Suziequeue for your comment - its really nice to have knowledgeable 'sheepie' people giving me positive feedback about the way I deal with my sheep; so many of my sheep friends just can't see why I have them as pets and keep trying to persuade me to have them tupped. My only fear is that if for any reason in the future (and it would need to be serious!!), I unable to keep them, maybe no- one will want 4 ewes that have never had lambs, but at the moment I'm sticking to my guns!
Most of the husbandry courses I've come across seem to be down south, Wales or Scotland (probably due to higher numbers of sheep in those areas) very few around Notts./SYorks, area
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It may be "odd" where you are but theres quite a few pet lawn mowers around here. Our next door neighbour had two enormous cows for 12 years who had no conventional function whatsoever. Mind you his wife was a bit special :innocent:
I love the lambing myself but I perfectly understand where you're coming from, so relax.
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Hi moprabbit, I have 5 sheep - an elderly GFD ewe and her wether lamb, another GFD wether lamb, a Shetland ewe lamb and Hebridean/Lincoln Longwool cross wether lamb. They are just pets/lawnmowers really. They are real characters, and much more interactive than I thought sheep would be (mostly food-driven I realise!). They're also companions for the ponies and we plan to rotate the land between them as they are impervious to each others' parasites and will "clean up" the pasture after each other. Will feed back after my course in case it is of use to others.
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Hope you enjoy the course and that its useful!
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Really enjoyed my course yesterday and found it really useful - many thanks to Doreen and Steve at Oakberrow. We spent the day preparing some ewes and lambs for tupping. We dagged the GFD ewes and I trimmed their feet with Steve's supervision - really reassuring to know how far it is safe to go without injury. I also dagged and wormed 3 of the rams - the biggest sheep I've ever seen! We went through nutrition and administering injections, as well as general sheep care and health issues. Result is I feel much more confident having practised with someone watching who knows what they're doing.
Steve and I concluded GFDs are not perhaps the best choice for beginners - we had a good moan about squitty bums, terrible feet, how heavy and strong they are to turn and how heavy the fleece is. However, we love them for their docile and curious personalities. The rest of their flock are Texels who Steve described as "Marmite sheep" (you either love or hate them!) and Ryelands. The Ryelands are lovely and I may not be able to resist getting some at some point..... :sheep: :sheep: :sheep:
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oh I'm so excited :excited: my OH and I are booked on to a course with Doreen & Steve this month. They're going to help us with selecting and improving our Ryeland flock so we can think about doing a little bit of showing next year. I've also asked for some advice on choosing which lambs to retain etc. Doreen sounded lovely on the phone, I love chatting/learning about sheep so hopefully it will be a really good day ;D
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Doreen sounded lovely on the phone
She is :sunshine:
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Hello blackbird, I'm new here and have just read your post - I too was hoping for a sheep husbandry course at Moulton college but there's nothing available. Did you sort something out for yourself in this area (northampton). If so, do you want to join resources? anne
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Hi Anne, I ended up going to Herefordshire for my course - couldn't find anything nearer after Moulton cancelled. They don't seem to have the Sheep for Smallholders course on the Moulton website any more - or the Sheep Shearing courses they used to run. I'm gutted, as I was planning to shear mine myself next time, after they came back from our local sheep farmer with several nasty gashes and too traumatized to eat for a day.
Whereabouts are you? I've spotted an animal handling and management course running at Bedford College (3 Saturday mornings in October) which I'm thinking about - the link is here, see page 14:
www.bedford.ac.uk/pdf/PT%202012-13.pdf (http://www.bedford.ac.uk/pdf/PT%202012-13.pdf)
What do you think? It's not specific to sheep though.