The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Buffy the eggs layer on July 30, 2012, 03:53:58 pm
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Hi, :wave:
well the plan to buy some witshires ( cos they dont need shearing) seems to have been replaced with a plan to buy Ryelands ( possibly the wooliest sheep in the world) and a set of electric shears. ::)
OH prefers the Ryes and didnt think that "shearing a handful once a year would be a problem" :-\ Belive me I will hold him to that!
I must confess although the wiltshires are hansom the Ryes were my first choice too so Ryelands it is.
I cant go and see the breeder till next week as I am in bed ill so can any of you Ryeland fans tell me all about how great they are and post some pics to keep me going till then.
:sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep:
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Buffy,
I have 3 coloured Ryeland shearling ewes and am a complete newbie as they are my first sheep and I have only had them since 9th June. I love my girls and they are so well behaved.
I am hoping to get 2 Ryelands shearling ewes in the next couple of weeks also.
I can only find one pic at the moment and that isn't a good one. Oh well it gives me an excuse to go out and take some more ;D
Hope you are feeling better soon.
Sally
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They look like ewoks this is good!!!
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ewoks???
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from the star wars trilogy!!!
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Ow they are sweet looking little girls.
I was thinking of getting some white and some coloured but I think coloured covers a multitude of shades. Your girls look grey in the photo or are they brown?
Are they happy to be handled and hand fed?
Thanks for the photo, its really getting me excited.
;D
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When I got my girls they had just been sheared and were dark brown but their fleece is begining to grow through now and there is quite a lot of grey. I am currently spinning a Ryeland fleece like that, although not from my own girls, and it is looking nice.
I feed them by hand each morning, 2 sheep nuts each. I only give them that so that they come to me. Otherwise they are just on grass. The will let me touch their faces and look at their teeth but aren't keen on anything else. To look at their feet we need to get them into the hurdles. I have tried turning them over, as shown by Tim Tyne, but must admit, as a beginner, I didn't find it easy. I enlisted the help of OH and we got there between the two of us. Once they have been turned its easy to do most things to them.
Sally
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How about this for some hairy Ryelands
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Buffy, my girls came from Kaz so thats what I expect mine to look like too :thumbsup:
Sally
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Some of the Ryelands have more hair around their faces than others. These were due in for a hair cut so they could see where they were going.
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Wow they are wooly!
are they easy to shear? I plan to buy some electric shears from horner shearing and get some lessons from the shearer. I thought that I would use a halter or head stock to restrain them when I shear them. I think it will be more comfortable for them and me. I suppose doing the face must be tricky. :-\
How early in the year can you shear them? or does it depend on the weather. This year has been so wet and hot that I would worry about fly strike and heat stroke.
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Have a look in the TAS gallery and on the website proper for photos of ours OR on our sheep website www.rosedeanryelands.co.uk (http://www.rosedeanryelands.co.uk)
I don't turn mine - I do their feet like you would a horse. Ours are pretty tame - especially the tup and our wether.
I would advise not mixing white and coloured ewes if you are planning to register your sheep (which I would advise) - RFBS prefers white tup on white ewes and coloured on coloured - it sounds a bit pedantic, but take it from one who used a white tup on coloured ewes, it's better not to give your self the hassle at registration.
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Our Ryelands are shorn end of May beginning of June normally. I clean their faces if they are really woolly with a pair of double bow dagging shears, as they are nice and light to handle. I use a head stand as that keeps them reasonably still for trimming.
I have two separate flocks of Ryelands, The Ryelands (white) and the Coloured Ryelands and at tupping the relevent Ryeland or Coloured Ryeland tups go in with their relevent girls. I will probably be using several tups with different groups of girls this year. My new coloured tup lamb was Champion of the Coloured Ryelands at the Royal Welsh this year so he is coming home in a chaffeur driven car rather than a trailer as befits his title.
We have a turnover crate for feet etc. but use a headstand for one or two and turn up their feet as if they were horses hooves.
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GFD's don't get legs trimmed as the norm I'm thinking of making this the standard 'trim' for mine, clipping a Ryeland is hard as there's no start point.
Great sheep though, when you catch them they don't fight back they just give in. When penned and you approach them they hide their heads in a corner hoping you won't see them. :D
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Thanks everyone,
and to Rosemary for the advice on not mixing colour. The breeder advised that the whites could produce coloured lambs which would mean that they are not pure white but have mixed parentage. I was wondering why they have one flock name for the coloureds and one for the whites if either ewes could produce each colour.
The easiest thing for me would be to choose one colour in that case. If not I will need to borrow two rams come tupping time.
Now I have to decide which one :-\
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I have 3 coloureds but am just about to buy 2 whites and they will all live together. However, I will put them to a coloured and white ram respectively
Sally
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That's true but a bit simplistic, I think. As things stand at the moment, the RFBS has two flock books - one for white Ryelands and one for Coloured Ryelands. There is also a supplementary register for white sheep that have a coloured parent (much frowned upon).
I think discouraged would be a better term.
There are some folk in the RFBS who breed white sheep who are (IMHO) obsessive about eliminating the coloured gene from the white flock and have voted to "invest" £30k of members money in genetic mapping to identify the coloured gene.
Rosemary, I think this a rather unfair way of looking at it. The sum involved is considerably less that the one you mention and as I am sure you know, the genetic mapping project will cover far more that fleece colour.
I prefer the Coloured because I like to favour the underdog
Coloured sheep are equal - no underdog complex at all. I can't comment on the views of individual breeders but at far as the breed society goes Ryelands and Coloured Ryelands are on a level playing field.
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I have flocks of both Ryelands & coloured Ryelands. My coloured flock came about because one of my Ryelands have a coloured tup lamb (in effect a new bloodline within the coloured flock).
Some people only breed white or visa versa coloured Ryelands because of the logistics involved at tupping time. The white flock is larger because at the end of the day more people breed Ryelands for the white fleece.
The RFBS has come a long way in the last few years in it's attempt to have the coloured classed as a flock in their own right. Some breeders hate them, but as with everthing in life it's up to the individual what they breed.
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That's true but a bit simplistic, I think. As things stand at the moment, the RFBS has two flock books - one for white Ryelands and one for Coloured Ryelands. There is also a supplementary register for white sheep that have a coloured parent (much frowned upon).
I think discouraged would be a better term.
There are some folk in the RFBS who breed white sheep who are (IMHO) obsessive about eliminating the coloured gene from the white flock and have voted to "invest" £30k of members money in genetic mapping to identify the coloured gene.
Rosemary, I think this a rather unfair way of looking at it. The sum involved is considerably less that the one you mention and as I am sure you know, the genetic mapping project will cover far more that fleece colour.
I prefer the Coloured because I like to favour the underdog
Coloured sheep are equal - no underdog complex at all. I can't comment on the views of individual breeders but at far as the breed society goes Ryelands and Coloured Ryelands are on a level playing field.
I apologise if the sum of £30,000 is inaccurate. The rest is my opinion, as I have said, and I stand by my opinion.However, to avoid confusion and to avoid hijacking the thread, I have removed my post.
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Hi guys,
I appologise for opening a can of worms with the debate about colour. I withdrew from from the croad society for a similar issue regarding the fact that I breed blues which the organisation has very stong views on that I couldnt share.
Looks like I'm courting controvesy again with my sheep. I dont mean to to cause bother...it just kind of happens :-\
I am a bit confused now about buying stock of one colour which may produce lambs of a different colour and how to register them. I dont want to be at odds with the society that Im not even a member of yet as I know that these organisations can make showing and selling animals very difficult for those who they feel do not conform.
can you please tell me what you would advise on this one? Do I need to find a breeder whose stock have been through some sort of scrutiny to ensure they only produce offspring of the same colour? Also, what are the pros and cons of whites over browns ?
Differing oppinions always welcome ;)
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Buffy, don't worry about it ;D and don't worry about the registration.
If you prefer the white sheep, get them - if one happens to have a coloured lamb, which can happen if even if you use a white tup, it's OK. If it's for the freezer it will taste the same regardless of colour. If it's good enough to breed from, a breeder of coloured sheep may be happy to buy it because it will bring fresh genes to the cooured flock.
If you prefer the coloured sheep, get them - if you use a coloured tup on coloured ewes, you won't get any white lambs :) .
If you decide to get a mix of white and coloured ewes, it's probably best to follow the RFBS advice to use the same coloured tup as the ewe. It just makes the paperwork easier and probably makes selling any breeding stock easier too. In any case, Dot is always able to sort out any difficulties with registration.
Please don't be put off the breed by the colour issuse - they are lovely sheep and most of the folk that have them are nice too.
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Good to talk yesterday Buffy
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Buffy,
With regards to your original point on keeping them, I now have 5 ewe lambs and had them all of 6 weeks, settled in great and 2 will eat out of your hand.
They are ranging in 3 acres at the moment with 2 horses, 3 dogs and 34 hens and a quad bike, and you would think they have been here all their life. One major benefit is that they like to nibble new green shoots/leaves of brambles and they like the new small leaves of docks - saves on weed spraying.
The photo was taked 2 days after they arrived.
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My main ram is a brown Ryeland and he has mated with my white crossbred ewes and purebred Charollais - all the resulting lambs are white (although some have initially had one or two brown patches which have disappeared). The lambs are fantastic commercial lambs and I couldn't have wished for better stock.
I now have a Zwartbles and Gotland ram which I will be experimenting with so it will be interesting to see what they produce compared with the Ryeland!
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Oh Toby,
how cute are they? Especially the one hiding in the tree pretending to be a little owl :D
Well I have decided on colour.......or rather I couldnt decide on colour so Im having 3 of each and planning to borrow a tup of each colour when the time comes ;D
Remy,
I have just seen an ad on preloved for a lovely white ryeland ram for £100. Unfortunatly he is not registered but would be ideal for someone like yourself who is breeding for meat. As the ewes that I am buying are registered then I am better off borrowing a registered tup to serve them but if I was breeding from unregistered stock for meat I would have snapped him up.
Rosmary,
can you tell Dan that we need a smiley icon thats really, really excited ;D
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Rosmary,
can you tell Dan that we need a smiley icon thats really, really excited ;D
Does this sufficiently convey your excitement? :excited: :)
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Perfect! :excited:
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Buffy, put my name down for some of your first lambs. I have totally fallen for Ryelands after getting a bottle fed Ryeland x Charollais from Remy. He is absolutely adorable and so unbelievably friendly (obviously thats something to do with him being bottle fed too). Am looking to add to my mini flock next year and after researching more I have made up my mind that Ryelands are the way forward. Live just a few miles from you. Can I come and see yours when you get them pleeeeeeeeeease?
Remy, Bugsy is happy and healthy and enjoying life as an orchard lawnmower with Amos. :sheep: :sheep:
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Lucky lady,
of course you can ;D I will pm you when they arrive. If I get this years lambs though they wont be put to the tup till the end of 2013 to lamb in 2014.
I will let you know what I get.
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Oooh, and I was pretty thrilled wityh my Ryeland x Poll Dorset... really looking forward to my Ryeland x Charollias next year now too. I guess that is one huge thing to be said about x-bred sheep. Not hassle with breed societies and registration! ;D
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Lucky lady,
of course you can ;D I will pm you when they arrive. If I get this years lambs though they wont be put to the tup till the end of 2013 to lamb in 2014.
I will let you know what I get.
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: ;D ;D thankyou buffy