The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Graemscifi on October 01, 2014, 05:06:37 pm
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i am so exited its sad. after coming across this breed at the Rare Breeds tent at the Highland Show a couple of years ago i have lusted after a wee hobby flock to run with my big comercial Cheviots. and totaly out of the blue, after a fruitless couple of years of sort of looking, someone advertised localy some ewe lambs. Long story short i saw them last night and agreed to take all the ewes for sale. they are coming at the weekend!!!!
They are so cute its silly. Big for so called primitives. i think they will settle in with my ewe lambs very well, and all the nehbours will rubberneck at them in the park wondering why "deer" are running with me sheepies
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Congratulations :thumbsup:
I love my Castlemilks. :hugsheep: So elegant. :love: :sheep:
Be on the alert for shenanigans with horns, though, especially if you feed 'em cake ;) They'll push Cheviots out the way no bother with the superior headgear! :D
We shall, of course, expect pictures and stories ;D
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That's great. I fully understand your :excited: :excited: . Very pretty little sheep and it is good to have something beautiful as well as your practical Chevvies. ;D
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:thumbsup: :thumbsup: from me too - love mine
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Yay, excited for you! :excited:
I've fallen a bit in love with this breed, though the OH wonders how practical they are as smallholder sheep. Any have any winning arguments I can send his way?
Is the fleece really as good as advertised for spinning? And is the meat really as tasty?
Thanks
Dans
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The meat is awesome. Not like any other lamb or hogget; almost like venison. Lean and very very tasty. :yum:
Several family members who "don't like lamb" polish off any amount of Castlemilk Moorit. ;)
The fleece is a tricky one. Like Manx, it can be very short, and like many primitives it can be a bit scurfy. But if you get some clean fleece with a reasonable staple length, it's very fine and very lovely. IMO ;). Deb Robson showed us how to spin it directly from the comb (I have the little Louet ones) and it's a doddle and very pleasant to spin that way.
So far I have found the Castlemilks to be less flighty than Manxes or Shetlands. All my sheep are pretty tame, but some of the Shetlands, Shetland crosses and Manxes use stone walls like vertical roads ::), and no fence will really hold them if they have a reason for being somewhere else. So far, none of the Castlemilks has jumped or climbed. ( :fc: I haven't jinxed that now...)
I can't yet talk about how they are for breeding. I tupped both my gimmers last year; one was geld and the other had a dead lamb. She was proper poorly so I didn't set another lamb onto her.
They'll both go to the tup again this year. Something tells me that Goldie isn't a breeder and will be geld again, but hopefully Whirly will manage to have a live lamb and rear it this time.
I think they are lovely, elegant sheep. They are bigger many of the other primitives, certainly than Shetlands, Manxes, etc. I am hoping that once I get them breeding they will be as capable of lambing and rearing a commercial cross lamb as a Shetland or Manx.
Pure bred offspring would need to be sold as breeders if good enough, or as meat; wethers won't fetch much at all in the ring. I got about 55kgs usable meat in total off four 30-month old wethers, which is about 2/3 the amount you'd get off a small commercial fat lamb.
Good fleece will sell, but as it can be short and they are not huge sheep, it won't make you rich! However, being primitives they don't need a lot of feeding, so if you have the ground and like the look of them grazing on it...
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I started with mine in July and I love them! I have seven now and thankfully they are not as wild as I thought, and are very beautiful. Good luck with yours.
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Happy sheeping :sheep: :sheep: :sheep:
Dans I had some CMM fleece and didn't like it. I found it very difficult to spin as it was so short but I am sure someone who is a better spinner than I am could have polished it off with no problem.
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Congrats on the Castlemilks.
We love our Castlemilks - very well behaved and friendly and very low maintenance so far.
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I have been looking for ages for a couple of CM ewes in Devon with no success. Anyone have any for sale?
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Congratulations, I totally understand the feeling of being stupidly excited despite and abundance of 'normal' sheep, when my boys got their shetlands, I spent hours just sitting looking at them.
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I have to say they would be my choice of primitives.
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Thank you guys. I've directed him here, he is a member but is very quiet!
I happened to be at the Bristol Wool Fair and picked up a small amount of CMM fleece that I was going to have a go at, but damned thesis just keeps getting in my way :innocent:
So it sounds like their fleece isn't a big selling point with them, but the meat, the hardiness and beauty are all plus points. Might have to run them alongside something more practical. Though now I'm thinking what kind of crosses would work.
Gah. Thesis and find a smallholding first, then think about breeds!
Thanks again
Wish you all the best with yours Graemscifi! Think pictures are a definite must!
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we have some too, very beautiful, partic when just sheared. ours are good mums too. they shouldn't be on the rare breeds register really, they're meaty and lovely compared to our soays and north ronaldsays and their fleece is dense. have often thought about keeping them and nothing else but they are leggy and jumpy. ours were quite nervous for a long time I almost gave up on them at one point but they are friendly now. ours had x north ronaldsay lambs this year so we have some shaggier looking ones which have the super friendly NR gene, very nice, I'll try and put up some photos.
Photos when you get them please. Good luck with them. :excited:
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Have they arrived? :excited:
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Thank you for the kind sentiments here, i am a little overwhelmed. I am now the proud owner of four lovely Castlemilk Moorfit ewe lambs. They are 6 months old and so cute its ridiculous, i go out and stare at them several times a day, with a goofy grin and an internal laugh that could come out as MO HA HA. i just have to figure out how to regester them, a chore for the next rain day.
They are in fact everything i hoped for, delicate, soft and not as wild to handle as other similar breeds i have met; more a hiding of the head in the corner, not a running up the side of the barn and looking down with distain, which can be troublesome (manx jacob cross with two young lambs who followed up to stand on the roof). They are also a good size, as big as my smallest cheviot lambs, so i am very pleased there, thier sire was a good lumb of a tup, their mothers also a decent size so i am looking forward to how they will finnishup.
They are in by at the moment waiting out there isolation period, which is good cos during the severe rain and gale we had up here the last few days they can hide inside one of the out buildings. They are variously staring up the hill at my cheviot ewe lambs who are in a wood 30 meters away or down the hill to the old horse field here where the tupps and tup lambs are in fattening up for thier annual work. I suppose they can smell each other cos both groups spend a lot of time looking and sniffing towards the other. The boys are properly pungent at the moment, a wild reek of lust and manliness, not quite as blinding, or clingy, as goat but an advert of the coming season.
i love this time of year. Its the start of the sheepie year, lots of bits and pieces of work laying the foundation of the years lambs. theres lots of work in with the sheep which i love and theres so much pleasure in turning them into the tupping park, ewes and tupps both in top condition, letting nature start again.
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Glad they have arrived.... yes they are enchanting aren't they?... hope you continue to enjoy :thumbsup:
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they sound lovely ..... and you sound smitten :) :sheep: :sheep:
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a wild reek of lust and manliness
I'm going to remember that phrase the next time Mrs Womble points out I stink! ;D