The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: DCBBGB on December 25, 2015, 08:31:52 pm
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Hi all and Happy Christmas,
I am looking into shedding sheep breeds and so far have considered Castlemilk Moorit, Wiltshire Horn and Exlana.
I have a personal preference for Exlana, however, the fact that the Castlemilk Moorti is a rare breed - as well as apparently being more intelligent than most other breeds - makes it a strong candidate.
I am seeking advice and feedback from owners of these breeds and how you think they would do in South Wales (very wet/saturated grounds + very windy).
Also curious to know how sheep do on long grass?
Thank you all
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Sheep aren't fussed on long grass, best topped first, long grass more likely to catch in theyre toes too.
I ll say one breed, Lleyn. They seem to be able to live everywhere. I'm a little biased though :raining: :innocent:
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Ok thanks for the info.
Concerning the breed I am solely looking into "no wool" sheep. Lleyn is lovely, but wooly! :sheep: :P
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True, but a good breed to think about for the future :thumbsup:
Good luck with your search :wave:
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Cheers :)
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We have Castlemilk Moorits in wet west Wales (very wet at the moment). They are fine on the wet ground but like any other sheep they do appreciate some shelter when the rain is relentless as has been recently. I find they like to browse, and will eat brambles, thistles and long grass so are good for helping clear overgrown land - we have them on very steep land where a tractor cannot get. I would say though that they can be a bit flighty as most primitives are!
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I keep Castlemilk Moorits and find that far from being flighty that once acclimatised to you and your ways can be positively clingy. I ride round the farm on a quad bike and they can't be bothered to get out the way. With the Defender, reversing is a nightmare as they plonk themselves down where you can't see them.
CMs are sheep that are more like goats when it comes to their eating preferences. My farm is prime permanent pasture and the grass is almost too good for them. Any tree branches that fall have their leaves eagerly eaten. They don't seem to care which species.
My farm is on top of a hill, in fact almost the highest hill in Northamptonshire. It is windy. On Christmas eve I could hardly keep my feet on the very top of the hill. My CMs thrive in this environment. So get some CMs. One other thing about them, they are the most beautiful of all sheep breeds, the only sheep breed who were bred solely to look nice on a gentleman's estate.
Regards, David
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Shedding sheep---the future in my opinion ( a bit biased here)
We used to run about 200 wiltshires and 600 Lleyns (performance recorded over many years and all in the top 10% of the breed), the problems with the wilts were that they had poor maternal qualities and scanned at a lower rate than the Lleyns
Problem with the Lleyns was the wool
So we crossed the 2 (and added many other things), recorded everything and culled hard. What we have now we market as the Exlana and put a lot of work into ---recording individual FECs , disease incidence and recently started measuring feed conversion rates
If you want shedding sheep then my advice is to not get hung up with breed names , just breed/buy an animal that suits your aims and budget
If you want to show then think about the wilts
If you want hi performance then look for recorded stock from a large flock with commercial pressures applied
Rain/wind ---shedders do fine, plenty of folk keep them in Wales/Scotland etc and they graze them on the same land as the Welsh Mountain /Blackie flocks
CM beautiful? Surely beauty is in the eye of the beholder and in many cases influenced by commercial returns
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In my experience, Castlemilk Moorits are not shedding sheep. Some CMs may shed, usually only partially, sometimes, but if you had CMs you would need to shear.
Do you find the same with yours, [member=25822]Maggy[/member], [member=590]daveh[/member], [member=3983]Brucklay[/member], [member=3211]Anke[/member] ? (I added a few folks I know have, or have had, CMs.) Maybe there are some strains that are more sheddy than others?
The breed was developed to look good in parkland, to provide good meat and also cloth for the estate workers. You'd hardly make them a shedding breed when you wanted the wool to be spun for cloth.
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They will shed their fleece if you leave it on when it should have been shorn off. It is not the easiest fleece to spin (according to my other half) as the staple is fairly short but the wool is fine and soft. I'm sure there were primarily bred to be beautiful, the lovely soft fleece and gourmet meat just being added bonuses.
Regards, David
P.S. If anyone doubts their beauty, go to the Castlemilk Moorit website and check out the pictures.
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Some of my Badger Face will start to shed at the beginning of May ..... and some won't.
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If you want shedding sheep then my advice is to not get hung up with breed names , just breed/buy an animal that suits your aims and budget
Thanks for the reply Tim. I have in fact visited your website previously and learned about the Exlana breed thanks to it.
When you suggest not getting too hung up on breed names - and considering the fact that I am new to owning sheep - what would you suggest I look for if my main focus is a low feed requirements and non shedding breed (my location in Wales is very wet, very windy (mountain top))
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Do you find the same with yours, [member=25822]Maggy[/member], [member=590]daveh[/member], [member=3983]Brucklay[/member], [member=3211]Anke[/member] ? (I added a few folks I know have, or have had, CMs.)
Thanks for getting experienced owners involved. I am eager to read several opinions on the matter.
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Do you find the same with yours, [member=25822]Maggy[/member], [member=590]daveh[/member], [member=3983]Brucklay[/member], [member=3211]Anke[/member] ? (I added a few folks I know have, or have had, CMs.)
Thanks for getting experienced owners involved. I am eager to read several opinions on the matter.
Don't have CM's, never had them either. I keep shetlands and gotlands, particularly for their fleece (amongst other reasons).
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It is not the easiest fleece to spin (according to my other half) as the staple is fairly short but the wool is fine and soft.
It isn't the easiest, no - but I have found a really good technique that works for me, so please pass this on to your wife!
It's counter-intuitive to use combs for a fibre which has such a short staple, but there's so much crimp it actually works really well. What I do is lash the locks onto one of my small Louet mini-combs, comb gently onto the other comb, then spin directly from the comb. (Or combs, if it didn't all transfer across.) When you're starting to be drawing off the very short bits, stop, discard what's left on the comb.
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Do you find the same with yours, [member=25822]Maggy[/member], [member=590]daveh[/member], [member=3983]Brucklay[/member], [member=3211]Anke[/member] ? (I added a few folks I know have, or have had, CMs.)
Thanks for getting experienced owners involved. I am eager to read several opinions on the matter.
Don't have CM's, never had them either. I keep shetlands and gotlands, particularly for their fleece (amongst other reasons).
Sorry Anke, must've been getting confused with [member=4222]goosepimple[/member].
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I would agree that all CMs are not really wholly self shedding, though some shed more than others. I also keep Portlands and Hill Radnors (both rare breeds) and if you are not too bothered about the self shedding business then I would really recommend the Hill Radnors, they are a Welsh Hill breed but quite a large one. I find them the easiest and most docile (dopey!) of the breeds I keep and they are very used to the very very wet weather/ ground we have here in Wales :)
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Personally I love the Castlemilks - yes, agreed they are not stupid and not dopey, lamb well have an excellent meat and are very hardy - from Aberdeenshire's relentless wind to northern Perthshire's endless rain they look perky every morning and even recognised a new (to me) vehicle on day 2 :) They get very used to routine and will quite happily allow me to wander around them, they don't all shed, although some do seem to pass the trait and as the fleece so short it is easy to clip once you get into the line of the break - beautiful to me - yes, and elegant to all I would say.
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We left our CM's without shearing them as it just wasn't that hot here this summer - the shedding thing happens all over the field so if you are limited on grazing (ie no alternative grazing field) then they are shedding it all over the area they are eating.
This is the first year we haven't sheared and the result is that they look a bit of a mess, they haven't shed evenly if you like - clumps here and there, so just depends if you want them to look nice or not, expect they wouldn't in the 'wild' and doubt that they're bothered.
Our best self shearers have been our north ronaldsays but they are not the easiest to deal with, they tend to be a bit on the flimsy side as a breed.
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Thanks all for your responses. I see there is quite a bit of experience on the Castlemilk Moorits.
How do they cope with being out wintered (in wet/windy conditions), and what are their feed requirements like?
Same questions for the Exlana (if anyone has got experience with them).
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A truly hardy, self-shedding, sheep ? Why not get Soays, or Soay crosses. They have managed to survive on Scottish islands since the Vikings put them there, so they have proved their worth for being hardy. They are easy lambers, ideal for first time shepherds.
One word about long grass, though. Sheep don't want yesterdays grass, they prefer tomorrows growth, so get it topped off.
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I have easycare sheep which were bred on Anglesey (I think) specifically to be wool shedders that cope well with the welsh climate and be commercially viable.
They're not especially pretty to look at though.
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I now have made my decision and I thought I'd let every one know that I will be going for the Castlemilk Moorit. Although they are not officially self shedding, they do not have tremendous amounts of wool (approx. 1kg); an important factor for me was that there are still very small numbers of CMs around and helping preserve the breed will feel like doing something good. The fact that they are one of the most intelligent breed will make it all the more interesting (and I do like the look of them). I will start with 2 ewes for 6 months to get used to them and will then introduce a ram and take it from there. At the moment I am not planning on creating a big herd but simply learning to know the breed and appreciating the meat. Depending on the potential demand in my area I will consider marketing the products and in turn, grow the numbers.
I thank you all for your posts and advice. I will keep you posted if you are interested and will certainly have more questions! (planning to purchase the sheep by the end of Feb / beginning of March 2016)
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Out of interest, why do you want a self shedding breed? Your neighbouring sheep keeper would, no doubt, shear your little flock alongside his and the fleece is useful for lots of things, not least, lining your next year's runner bean trench.
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Well, they are not really self-shedding but I am very happy to hear that this delightful rare breed has found another supporter :thumbsup: ;D
The meat is very distinctive, lean and really tasty, slightly gamey (but not in a bad way.) Friends of mine who say they don't usually like lamb (or mutton) really enjoy CM meat. If you decide to go into producing meat boxes, it should do really well.
I know that you at the moment are thinking negatively about fleece, but if you or your wife should ever decide to take up spinning, CM is an unusual fibre and, once you've mastered the knack of managing the short staple, makes a most beautiful soft yarn.
I bought a couple of ewe lambs which had been bred in a children's farm; they were silly tame.
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Your neighbouring sheep keeper would, no doubt, shear your little flock alongside his
Actually, if the neighbour has white sheep, s/he may not be at all enthusiastic about having coloured fleece around on clipping day. Dark fibres can devalue a good white fleece by tenfold. We make sure we do my fleece sheep at the end of the day, when all the white fleeces have been safely bagged up.
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Out of interest, why do you want a self shedding breed?
It is a good question. Purely for maintenance reasons, however, after looking more into it, my Wife and I don't think we will mind a bit of fleece, so having a relatively short coated sheep to start with might just entice us to start spinning!
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Well, they are not really self-shedding but I am very happy to hear that this delightful rare breed has found another supporter :thumbsup: ;D
Looking forward to be part of helping on our small way