The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: wayfarer on May 07, 2016, 11:14:17 am
-
I am looking for a couple of lambs to raise for meat this year and have seen some herdwicks available near me in Oxfordshire. In the past I have had texel/shetland crosses which were easy to manage and grew well, Zwartbles which were easy and friendly and Shetlands which escaped and needed extra feed to get to a reasonable weight by November. What are Herdwicks like - will they reach slaughter weight on grass alone in a season and will they be happy in a relatively small area - I have half an acre but will only get a couple of lambs and the grass is growing well.
-
Herdwicks provide fantastic meat but mature slowly and I have heard they are pretty wild, like most hill breeds. No first hand experience though I have considered them as fairly low maintenance.
-
They are indeed about the most flavourful of sheep breeds. I know everyone says that about their favourite breed - but try Herdwick meat for yourself and then tell me you've tasted better!
They are also slow growing, and that maybe accounts for the superior flavour. So, unless you can keep them on best grass all year, they might not be ready till next spring. You will struggle on just half an acre.
They will try and escape because they have a strong homing instinct, and also because it is a breed that likes to roam. Some years ago I sold a couple of Herdwick crosses to a lady about 20 miles from us and people along the route back were forever ringing her up to say that they had been seen making their way "home".
-
We had Herdwicks before, plus texels and other funky things.
The Herdwicks are beautiful, but weight like corks! They're so so light.
Additionally, it's not a great idea to breed with yearlings when it comes to Herdwicks. They need longer to mature, and are better off starting to breed at 30 months.
Also... We found that texel rams could cause issues on herwick ewes esp if they had singles... They just seems genetically of a different scale. Older more experienced ewes might be able to cope better though. That's just our small amount of experience though. YMMV.
Adam
-
Our neighbour bought a few Herdwicks. They never settled with his main flock, hated being in a small area and were always escaping. When he let them roam free on a 20 acre rough hill they were fine.
-
My herdwick lambs born this March/April won't go to slaughter until January next year and I'll be keeping them on good grass to get them done for then.
We've never had a herdwick escape, but they can be damn nuisances to bring in and there's always a few that bounce up and down like pogo sticks when you go in the pen to vac/shear etc! ;D That said - they keep themselves healthy with little/no interference
-
I've had a couple of Herdwicks, one sadly died but the other one is still with us. She's a real character, didn't want anyone near her and once jumped over the top of my friend's head when he was trying to corner her ::) . I have totally stock fenced fields and we found the Herdwick wandering down the track next to the house ??? . She had managed to find the only tiny gap between a post and a hedge. We feed the sheep from a ring feeder over winter and once came down to find the Herdwick inside the ring, all the other sheep were outside.
Never a dull moment with her, she's been one of the hardiest of my ewes. Has bred with a mixture of different rams and is an excellent mum, I'm rather fond of the old girl :sheep: