The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Azzdodd on July 12, 2015, 10:29:22 pm
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Any body had any experience with this ive always bought private but what's on offer at the moment doesn't really show value for money the markets by me is full off full mouth Welsh ewes off the mountain at the moment an the price is good. My worry is there off the mountains gonna be hard work. People I've asked said once they get used to being fed there fine. But I don't really feed hard feed so just looking for some views on the matter
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Scab ridden fence climbers
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We had a few hill ewes get in with ours , they come down from the preselis for a little holiday, but don't like staying put. Taming them.......mmmm good luck with that.
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If you have great fencing and lots of lush grass plus a large area for them to go in, or feed them daily you can keep them at home and keep them content. If you don't they will go off into the sunset and upset all your neighbours. If you do get some, dip them first job.
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Our home bred Badger Face get very restless if they've been on the same field for more than a couple of weeks, no matter how good the grazing. They will come to call or follow the bucket but they've been raised with our docile Southdowns.
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For my sins I had a flock of them once..... ::) . All I can say is good luck with taming them, mine jumped the gate and I spent an 'entertaining' few hours collecting them from all over the place! Iwouldn't have minded but they had a lovely field with good grazing and my suffolk ram for company - poor chap looked very miffed when they left him, you could almost see it on his face - 'was it something I said?' :roflanim: .
After they departed to the slaughter house I went in for suffolks, different ball game entirely all was peace and tranqility, the ram would walk alonside you on a lead like a dog! :)
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Are we in danger of having a thread where everyone agrees? Surely not
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Yeah, I agree, full mouthed - wouldn't touch 'em. If they were shearlings or ewe lambs then maybe, but not old girls who are stuck in their ways.
My neighbour has welsh and keeps the ewe lambs on lowland for their first winter and he deliberately doesn't feed them or interact with them so that they learn to fend for themselves. And they won't touch a bale of hay!
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The one plus is you will get to meet people in your area that you never knew existed when they come knocking.
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Can be a good earner. Mate of mine buys 1000 each year, tups then, lambs them, weans the lambs, culls the ewes and fattens and sells the lambs. Repeats each year and does well out of it.
Edited to add - it might be worth noting though, that I've just been asked to go out with the dog and catch some escaped welsh ewes and lambs lol.
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Decision made for me thanks guys no Welsh ewes haha
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Keeps you fit at least - they will bugger off to the horizon, find the nearest arable field and nibble it abit, go for a walk in the woods, and then rest on the verge of a main road.... And run when they see YOU, no one else, just YOU.
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I thought of this thread and laughed on my way home from work last night ... driving along the A48 (a 60mph main road), I saw a welsh ewe and her twins scoffing their faces at the road side, clearly escapees from the roadside field. haha.
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A44 last night, two ewes and two lambs on either side of the road....
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. . . . . the ultimate economical sheep. What's not to like?
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Lots of them around here and always in the road. Have removed a gang of neighbour A's ewes from my drive twice this past week (fenced both sides, cattle grid top and bottom but they've learned to navigate the grid), and one of neighbour B's ewe lambs is in the pasture with mine after I found her in the garden on my way out to an appointment. Of course neighbour A also has possession of two of neighbour D's Shetland lambs that escaped my field a month ago and got rounded up with his. At some point we will all swap back.
My favourite was last year when one Welsh ewe with triplets had them all bedded down sleeping in the middle of the road, with her looking on benevolently. I think she decided three was too much!