The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Sunny south devon on February 07, 2016, 07:03:35 am
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Looking to get myself some sheep in particular store lambs I imagine , this will be a new flock for us and never had sheep before. Can anybody help with recommending ' good beginner' sheep which are pretty easy to keep and fatten well on grass/ hay? Any tips on keeping sheep will be great to help me learn before I buy
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Have you done a search on here .... loads of threads on this topic .... and we all have different 'best' breeds :)
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Ryelands are good in that they are very confident friendly sheep which are calm and easy to handle. Not as big as commercials so easy to turn and foot trim etc. They don't head butt their keepers or jump fences. They do well on little grazing and will follow you anywhere if you have a bucket in your hand. Mine have chunky multiple lambs that grow well. They don't suffer from foot problems and they mature well on pasture alone and the meat tastes great as a result.
They will cost more than a few commercial cade lambs though but are great for beginners.
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Great thankyou
I love the look of the Ryeland , not seen one in person but looked many times online.... They appear to be a nice solid animal with a lovely look. I suppose il have to keep my eyes on the local sales and grab them when they come available
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Great thankyou
I love the look of the Ryeland , not seen one in person but looked many times online.... They appear to be a nice solid animal with a lovely look. I suppose il have to keep my eyes on the local sales and grab them when they come available
You could try Devon smallholders group on Facebook, see if anyone on there has any.
http://www.devonsmallholders.co.uk/members.html (http://www.devonsmallholders.co.uk/members.html)
Here are some people who keep rare breed sheep, you would of course have to ask them if they have any ryelands.
http://www.preloved.co.uk/adverts/show/111711831/ryeland-sheep.html?link=%2Fadverts%2Flist%3Fkeyword%3Dryeland%2Bsheep%26page%3D2 (http://www.preloved.co.uk/adverts/show/111711831/ryeland-sheep.html?link=%2Fadverts%2Flist%3Fkeyword%3Dryeland%2Bsheep%26page%3D2)
These ones are in surrey, so about 2 hrs away
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Thanks buffalo.... Surrey is a pretty long way from me especially to transport stock. I'm not on Facebook but can get my partner to look for me thanks.
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You could go to a couple of shows - the Devon and the Royal Cornwall for instance, and take a look at almost all the native breeds and some foreign ones in one place. You'll also have lots of keepers very willing to talk to you (often at considerable length) about their breed.
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Tbh Devon county is too far in the future for me.... I need to start building the flock ASAP
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They come in two types. Smaller, shorter legged ( traditional ) types and larger show / meat types. Try Preloved for some in your area. The lambs wont be coming through till March time and after. Non registered are cheaper than registered and if they are just for meat then non registered is fine.
If you want to breed to sell then registered stock gives you the option of both and you can make sure that you have good bloodlines by checking out the registration certificate.
I would recommend buying off farm and visiting a couple of breeders before you decide on stock. They should come wormed and vaccinated. Prices will vary but you get what you pay for with pedigree sheep.
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You could get some of last years castrated lambs from a primative breed like Hebrideans, Shetland, Manx etc which you would fatten up over the summer and you would eat them as hogget in late summer / autumn. This would allow you a little to learn about sheep and if you thought you were ready then buy ewes / tups towards the end of the year to lamb in 2017
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For me this year is purely an ' exercise ' so to speak to see how we get on with sheep on our holding. I'm not planning on having lambs from my first bunch so to fatten this years stock was my original plan then maybe look into tup next year when I've got a little bit of experience behind me
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I'm not sure this is the easiest way to 'learn' about keeping sheep .... even Ryland weaned lambs will be flighty without a steadying older sheep to show them the way. .... much easier to have bottle fed lambs or old tame ewes to practice on .... I know from experience as we like most people bought ewe lambs to start with ... Llanwenogs which are lovely and as easy to handle as Ryelands (NOW) ... were flighty and could jump to my shoulder in the first year we had them.
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I agree. We always keep back an old ewe to act as a Nanny sheep. She'll automatically become head of the flock of newly-weaned lambs and they'll follow her lead in coming to the bucket. With just lambs, particularly of the hill and mountain breeds, you could find yourself getting a lot [/i]]lot (http://[i)of exercise chasing them around the field when you need to gather them. The more you have to chase them the harder they'll be to gather the next time.
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With 10 you can afford to give them a little cake. It'll tame them coming to you for feed, and they'll follow you with a bucket or sack ;)
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You could of course buy in Lleyn's, a very manageable sheep ( providing the breeder is good) and the lamb/mutton is exquisite. There are also a few breeders with the Lleyn sheep society which are based in Devon, so that could be something to look into for the future. I myself bought in a few sheep to start with and haven't looked back, they're easy to handle, very tame and quiet sheep and follow you around like a bad smell after the bucket ( plus they're good milky mothers and easy lamber's producing twins and sometimes triplets, depends if you flush em or not). The market also likes Lleyn for the length of the carcass and the confirmation. If you do buy any in for breeding make sure you buy good quality stock and from a reputable breeder, remember good ewes from good flocks live for a long time. I would advise buying from people who use a full pasture based system and ones which lamb outdoors, as those will be the better of the lot.
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Thankyou all for the help and advice on this ..... Given me food for thought and a few more things to think about before I actually buy them
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The market also likes Lleyn for the length of the carcass and the flavor.
I wish 'the market' did buy on flavour, but in my experience it is of no interest whatsoever! In fact, the last I heard, the proposed new grading scheme (to replace and improve on the EUROP 1-5 system currently used) has something like 77 different measures, of which only 1 is to do with taste!
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We had 11 texel lambs as our first sheep last year and they have been great ! Very friendly, easy to manage, hardy, do well on anything and the meat has been the best we've tasted - we've even kept 6 ewe lamb to put to the tup as they were too nice for meat.
Hope this helps