The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: thenovice on October 03, 2012, 09:26:30 pm
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I never thought i would be saying this, but im considering getting a few soays! Due to work constraints and having a young family, sadly i have given up my grazing and sold my sheep. Now i am left with 1 field of about an acre, divided into 3 sections. Dont want to leavve it empty, wasted and overgrown,so i thought why not get 3 or 4 soay ewes to graze it. Low maintenance, no shearing, small and frugal grazers, and a bit of meat for the freezer. What are peoples opinions? Have you had experience with the breed, and is that enough room to keep them all year round? Thanks :thinking:
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Nice and you'd be doing your bit to save a rare breed :thumbsup:
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We have had our small flock for just over 2 years now and they are our first sheep ..... complete novices. They seem to have been relatively easy to keep and are bucket trained so come when called. They are feisty and fast moving when we try to catch them (in the penned area) but this would be solved I think by a better handling system .... next project ::) . I know they have a bit of a reputation for escape and keeping their distance from people but we have not found this to be the case. We have several who jump up you and one will have a cuddle and her ears rubbed ..... okay, her head is in the feed bucket. ::) ;D
No problems with strike, runny bums or feet ... so far :fc: No shearing needed yet.
We have 7 ewes on about 2 acres and there is always surplus grass .... so far ... even with their lambs this year. Lots of mature hedges though and they do seem to eat these as much as the grass.
All lambed unaided as shearlings and were excellent mums. Lambs all on their feet quickly and no problems. :relief:
:thumbsup: for the Soay ..... maybe biased though ;D
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Hi i agree with in the hills here as our 1st 2 sheep where soays and they have never escaped are a bit wary of people but where already 2 when we got them but getting friendlier by the day, also they love the odd slice of bread dont know if anyone elses do but they seem to get abit porky quite easy.cant wait till lambing in feb/march.
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I say, what a waste of an acre if it's not gonna have sheep on it :thumbsup: get Soays... or Shetlands - fabulous idea!
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Soays or shetlands :thumbsup: my shetlands are great. :sheep:
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DO IT!!!!!
Soays are adorable little things and IMO the only breed tastier than shetlands :yum:
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Colliewoman - you can't have tasted Hebrideans :hungry: :D
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I'd go for Castlemilk Moorits!....I've not tasted one yet, but one of ours has
got his 'market' passport stamped for november. :excited:
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I'd go for Castlemilk Moorits!....I've not tasted one yet, but one of ours has
got his 'market' passport stamped for november. :excited:
I'll be able to tell you what CM mutton tastes like next week... :'( I do miss them (the original 4 wethers) but am looking forward to tasting! :yum:
Of course I think CMs are the sweetest, prettiest little sheep you could get ... but if you want self-shearing, the you're probably right to pick Soay. And in truth, they do look rather like a smaller version of a Castlemilk Moorit... ;)
My tip to get tame ones is to try to get lambs from a Children's Farm. My latest two (ewe lambs this time) came from one, and my only problems have been getting them to stop following me about and to eat out of a trough instead of climbing into the (now empty) bucket! :D :roflanim: :love: :sheep:
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Thanks for your thoughts, and suggestions, i think you have helped make my mind up. I have kept hebs before, but not really for me. Must say i was very suprised at such a positive opinion of the soays, not what i usually hear. Would stock netting and 2 strands be high enough to keep them in? Thanks again :thumbsup:
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Must say i was very suprised at such a positive opinion of the soays, not what i usually hear.
Okay, if you want the negatives, here's one - killing and butchering costs are broadly the same for any ovine, whatever the size (at least they are around here), so your meat will cost more /kg to get from sheep to table than a more commercial type.
But you phrased your situation as though you were wanting small sheep that would be easy to look after - so that means primitives. And the only 100% self-shearing primitive, as far as I am aware, is Soay.
Have you thought about tupping and lambing? If you plan to breed, is there a Soay - or at least, primitive - tup nearby you could use?
Would stock netting and 2 strands be high enough to keep them in? Thanks again :thumbsup:
Only if they don't want to get out! :D Seriously, sheep that are content and have plenty of varied grazing to go at are less likely to feel the need to exit the field they're in. Your paddocks are pretty small, so you'll be moving them around fairly regularly anyway. (If it's all rather samey plain grass, you maybe would look to give them some branches and scrubby stuff to pick on at.) You probably do want to try to get pretty tame, biddable ones, though - more likely to be happy to stay where you've put them, nibbling away and looking forward to your next visit with treats. ;)
Note, I am a relatively new primitive-keeper - so others with more and longer experience than myself may come along and tell you different :D
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Thanks for your thoughts, and suggestions, i think you have helped make my mind up. I have kept hebs before, but not really for me. Must say i was very suprised at such a positive opinion of the soays, not what i usually hear. Would stock netting and 2 strands be high enough to keep them in? Thanks again :thumbsup:
If your Hebs didn't jump out then your Soay won't either. We have kept the two breeds, plus Shetlands, for a good number of years. The only Soay which ever jumped out was a tup in a paddock of his own coming up to tupping time - he sailed over the fence but under the top wire (not sure he even saw it) simply to get to his ewes. But our ewes have never tried to jump - much less so than the Hebs in fact. Soay are always curious and will come up for treats and to search your pockets well ahead of the Hebs.
You will be surprised how much you like them. But as Sally says, be careful of where you source them - if they come from somewhere they have been semi-feral then it will take a lot longer to tame them than if you get them from a breeder who keeps them tame.
Again as Sally says, if they have no reason to jump out then they won't. Keep them happy with good things to eat, such as varied grazing, willow branches and maybe hedges to browse and they will be yours :thumbsup:
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LOL.... I spent yesterday getting two wild castlemilk x Shetland rams out of the field my ewes are occupying. They are mad. the bucked, jumped, on threw itself at my stomach... I still think they are great little sheep!!!
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Very low maintance ( sounds like a car), they keep weight on well, the feet are very hardy and need very little work if any, mine have never tried to escape, we use stock fencing. I have found I can move the sheep fairly easy, involve shaking a bucket and baaing walking down the track :0), I have had funny looks from the farmer but it works, using the dog is pointless ( if you have a dog with sheep training).
I also feed mine in the shelter so if I need to catch I just close the gate, I would recommend ppl do the same as trying to round these fast lil monsters can be a task.
I'm not sure what meat side is like.. Yet.
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Our ewe lambs had not been handled much due to the owners circumstances and were to start with just brown blobs in whichever corner of the field was furthest away from any human they caught sight of. Did wonder how we could bucket train them as they had no idea that the bucket was anything to head for. However curiosity eventually got the better of them and within a few weeks they were coming when called. So even lambs that have had little contact with people, soon (in our experience) learn ..... may not be the case with older ewes.
Our local farmer said that it was best to get them used to taking food at a young age, not only for ease of handling, but so that they would readily take food as a matter of course during hard winters. He reckons they might otherwise behave like hill/mountain ewes who will starve rather than take hay etc. when brought down due to harsh weather. (Not sure how true this is ??? but he seems to know his stuff ;D ) In fact the breeder of my ewes said they refused to eat the hay that he struggled to get to them when the ground was covered in snow for weeks on end.
[size=78%]Our stock fencing is normal height .... no strands of wire. We do have thick hedges though. [/size]
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Yup, we keep soay (cutest), castlemilk moorits (most beautiful when shorn) and ronaldsays and I would never be without soay, most favourite and easy peasy.
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I'm sure your advisor is right, inthehills, in that they won't take food if they don't know what it is. Usually the dam teaches the young what is edible and they will stick with that initially. Soay are very curious though so would eventually try some. It is far better to have them so they will eat at least hay as soon as the bad weather starts.
Another point is that all sheep need to have the correct gut fauna to digest the food they are eating. I would think that the fauna for hay would be the same as for grass, but when concentrates are introduced it must be slowly over about three weeks to give the appropriate gut flora time to develop. So if you feed a tiny amount starting in the autumn then when deep snow arrives they will be ready to eat a bit more.
Then of course there's the bit about making them easier to handle if they are bucket trained (or pocket trained ;D ). The way to a Soay's heart is definitely via its stomach :sheep: :sheep: :sheep:
We have just restarted our flock of all-black Soays :love:
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That's interesting FW. We have an all black girl here but unfortunately she is slightly undershot so we won't keep any of her lambs for breeding as we wouldn't want to pass this on. Did read somewhere about the natural occurence of this on St Kilda. She seems to hold condition as much as the others and has produced a lovely black lamb - wethered.
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I will be looking for an unrelated black tup next year - but defo not from a ewe with an undershot jaw of course :sheep: I hadn't heard about it on the island - interesting. The only sheep we have had with that was a Heb tup, and he's just as tasty as normal ones :hungry: ;D
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Yes, I'm afraid her lambs will always be destined for the pot, too.
Are black Soay very unusual?
We have a real mix of colours here and used a coloured tup last year so the lambs are a colourful bunch as well.
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On St Kilda, solid black sheep make up about 5% of the population. I'm not sure if that also includes the solid brown variety. There are far fewer on the mainland because Prof Jewell who brought the first Soay over, only liked the mouflon colour and sheep with horns in both sexes - on St Kilda 40% of ewes are polled.
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40 per cent :o :o . I didn't know that. You are obviously keen on your Soay FW. I am going to be quiet now or I could steal this thread asking you questions about them. ::)