The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: daveh on December 18, 2012, 05:19:04 pm
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In my first venture into sheepkeeping, today I bought 4 Castlemilk Moorits ewes from Cotswold Farm Park. I paid a deposit some weeks ago but the ewes stayed at CFP to run with the ram. So I'm hoping for 4 happy events towards the end of April.
The sheep are being kept on a friend's farm where he runs about 500 ewes, mainly commercial cross breeds . He looks at sheep with very different eyes to me. I like coloured, pretty sheep; he likes fat lambs on the trailer on Mondays (market day). Though to be fair to him he did have around 30 greyfaced dartmoors earlier this year but he has not kept them as he didn't like the size of the lambs. And the GFD ram vaulted a fence and serviced a few ewes he shouldn't have. My pal also has a few Dorsets , about 30 Jacob ewes and a solitary Zwartble.
No doubt I will be on here in the future with a few questions and comments as I attempt to become a shepherd.
Regards, David
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Looking forward to seeing lamb pictures in the Spring.
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An exciting time ahead. Will be watching to ooooh over piccies as I cannot help with any other aspect of shepherding ;D
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It is against forum policy to mention Castlemilk Moorits and NOT include a photo :innocent: ;D
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Hi Dave - hope you love. your Castlemilks as much as I love mine. They are a great. hardy breed - and as CW says pics please
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Congratulations on picking such a lovely breed ;D And good tactic, too, to get them tupped for you.
Colliewoman is correct, pictures are required :D Now and of course of the lambies when they come :love: :sheep:
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Thanks for all the good wishes. A picture of the girls at the moment could be problematic as they are very shy. I have just returned from my first foray into getting them bucket trained. The Other Half and I were spotted when we were 200 yards away and watched intently as we approached. The sheep scarpered as we got closer to them so I rattled my bucket of pellets and dumped a few in a small trough. We then retreated and when we got back to the farm buildings and retrieved a pair of binoculars from the car were able to see them approach the trough with suspicion. We think they were eating but will know for sure tomorrow when we go through the same procedure.
Regards, David
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Hi David
Two of our soays were the same when we got them, they'd be in the opposite corner of the field....within a week we were within a few feet. Now they are the first to come running and regularly eat out of our hands.
Keep persevering and they'll come good.
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Second that kumquat. When our Soay arrived we did worry for the first week that we'd never get near them but they were coming running to the sound of our voices within a few weeks and now a couple of them jump up and are real pests ;D .
Have fun with them.
Oh Kumquat, this Soay tup is just like a wee lamb. ;) :roflanim:
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One of ours could be due an ASBO anytime soon....little so and so
Glad tup is a little lamb (hopefully with a libido of a porn star ) :roflanim: :roflanim:
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The girls aren't so timid today. They actually came towards a rattling bucket before remembering they are shy and making a bolt for it. But they only went 20 yards away and then waited until we were 30 yards away before tucking in. So it seems a picture of them may be possible in a few days without having to use a massive telephoto lens.
Regards, David
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:trophy: piccies by the new year then :fc:
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Good luck with them daveh. We have 2 in our grouping with soays and n. ronaldsays (the ronnies are by far the friendliest). The moorits are the most beautiful but still the most jumpy in our group. They are particularly lovely when you shear them, you can see the proportions - like roe deer, very nice. The shepherd who came to shear our girls last year was really impressed with them - just a bit too jumpy for showing unfortunately! Good luck with them, you picked a lovely breed.
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:wave: Look forward to seeing photos and hearing all about them!
I have x3 Castlemilk Moorit ewe lambs. I have had them a few months and they were very wary at first and can run sooooooo fast!!
They are waiting for me at the fence every morning now and 'baaa' at me!
It made my day when I got my first 'baaaaaaaaa' from them! :excited:
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While we're waiting for the pics of David's newcomers, here's a one of my two young ladies. Yup, wild as cats ::)
:love: :sheep:
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(http://s658.beta.photobucket.com/user/janemac001/media/IMAG0222_zps08d658fa.jpg.html)
...and here are my girls! Hope the link works!
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(http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/7455/imag0222af.jpg)
Try again! ::)
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They look lovely :thumbsup:
Sally
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Beautiful !
I love their lambs, so looking forward to more photo's once they arrive :thumbsup:
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:love: :love: :love: :love: :love:
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Lovely girls :thumbsup:
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Beautiful :thumbsup: :love: :sheep:
And looking very relaxed in their new home now :)
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No pics of mine yet but I do have an excuse. Yesterday I went to my pals farm to continue bucket training but there were only three sheep in the field. It was chucking it down so returned home and made a lunchtime visit with the OH to try and see where there had been an escape into the adjoining field. On arrival found that now there was only one sheep in the field who was bleating for her mates the other side of the fence. Again chucking it down but did detect a suspect place in a gateway about two feet wide where a rail was missing. I arranged with my pal to go and fix the rail today and retrieve the sheep. Needless to say it was bucketing down again. Fixed the suspect place, only a small gap and had kept commercial sheep in for years. Also blocked another place, a gap above a trough set between two fields.
Then the fun started. My pal doesn't use a dog but herds them with his mule and his sheep respond to this without any problem. The idea was to merge the CMs with the rest of the sheep in the field, about 100, and then herd them all together back to the CMs field, then separate his sheep and drive them back to their own field. The CMs took one look at approaching mule and set off like racehorses to the far end of the field some 600 yards away. And I mean racehorses. Man, they were fast. To cut a long story short, we eventually completed our plan but my pal, an extremely mild mannered man, was heard to be shouting something to the CMs which I don't think was entirely complimentary.
I had taken my training bucket with me with a few ounces of pellets. My pal remarked that he didn't think the sheep would be interested after getting so wound up. I chucked the pellets in anyway. Immediately the CMs looked interested and not appearing to be at all out of breath after their half marathon, waited until I was at a safe distance and tucked in.
I have a lot to learn about sheep.
Regards, David
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;D ;D ;D Happy Christmas daveh!
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I love that story, daveh ;D
One of the many things I love about CMs is that they aren't like commercial sheep and you can't manage them the same way. But you can manage them - you just have to do it in a way that suits them. It drives conventional farmers mad and makes me smile to myself. ;)
Yours sound just right - intelligent, agile, very very fit and very sensible :thumbsup: They're going to get right under your skin :D
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More adventures today. The CMs are being kept in a field with two exmoor ponies. I went up to the farm this morning for todays bucket training. The ponies are being kept away from one corner of the field by an electric tape and this also runs for quite a distance alongside a post and sheep netting fence about three feet away from it. This is useful for me in that the sheep can tuck into their grub without the ponies muscling in on the action.
One of the ponies had managed to get the wrong side of the electric fence and then had kept going into the gap between the fences. Having got as far as it could there was no way it could turn round or even move much without getting a belt from the fence. God knows how long it had been there, it looked very bedraggled. I took down the electric fence but the pony was petrified and wouldn't step over it. So I spent twenty minutes or so trying to persuade the pony to walk backwards to where the gap was wide enough to turn round. Even a very small pony is on the heavy side and it felt like I was having to bodily lift the pony to shift it. Eventually I got the pony turned round and it shot off straight into the narrow gap on the other side of the corner. Fortunately there is a thorn hedge on this side so I managed to get the pony turned round again without too much trouble. Eventually the penny seemed to drop and the pony stepped across the tape. It then rushed off down the field kicking its heels in the air, obviously delighted to be released from the trap. It then stopped and had an enormous pee, saving it up until it was freed.
The CMs had been watching all these capers with ill concealed impatience as they waited for their Christmas treats and they didn't seem too impressed with galloping ponies and general kerfuffle. When I finally managed to tip their grub into to the trough they didn't approach it until I had retreated a good distance so I hope todays goings on hasn't put back their training too much.
Regards, David
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My morning feed is so boring compared to yours, open gate ram into his pen with his feed walk up field a bit followed by girls to their trough where they jostle for position as I scoop feed into trough - job done. I then watch and inspect from a few feet till they're finished, flip the trough to keep dry and walk back via shetands same technique - everyone knows the score, it only doesn't work when you really really want it to!!