The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Oopsiboughtasheep on January 13, 2015, 08:22:43 pm
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I am hoping to add 2 more ewes to my current small flock of 4 and thought I would get Greyface Dartmoors this time. They will live life as 'mowers' so not for breeding or slaughter. Ideally, I would like to hand rear orphaned lambs so that they become nice and easy for me to handle later on (as I have broken my back twice in recent years...horses!) and also for a bit of extra 'sheep' experience for me. I understand all about the 'hard work' involved and am not at all bothered about that side of things. A recent post on here was very helpful about that. Is it acceptable for me to make contact with breeders of GFD's and let them know that I would be interested if they have such lambs? If not, I will buy some when they are a bit older. Or do breeders actually like to keep them and raise them themselves? I don't want to do the wrong thing re: etiquette. I live in the Basingstoke (Hampshire) area, so if anyone knows of contacts near to me I would be very grateful to know about them.
Many thanks.
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BFD or GFD? GFD there is a very good facebook page for
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Thankyou 'Me'. I do of course mean Greyfaced and have ammended my post. I knew I shouldn't have drunk that extra glass of wine! I don't have a Facebook account though.
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It would be worth creating one just for the forum I would think, keep on the wine
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Have pm'd you :thumbsup:
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Thankyou!
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All my sheep were sick orphan lambs, but I wanted a Southdown as my great-grandfather used to have them in 1800s I approached several Southdown breeders who were very helpful, so go ahead :) . I adopted a southdown ewe who couldn't feed her lamb so took both of them. Have to say it was much less work because I only had to bottle feed Toby and his mum did the rest. Mum was very tame as she had been shown, she is a champion ewe, but I can't take the credit for that!
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Thank you for your encouragement Maureen and how lovely to follow the tradition set by your Great Grandfather with the Southdowns. Bramblecot has kindly provided me with helpful advice and contact information so hopefully I will be lucky with the Greyfaced Dartmoor lambs. Fingers crossed!