[MischieMoo]

 :dog:Hi everyone

We are just about to get our first sheep to sell on as breeding ewes next year and wonder what is the best place to buy from.  We only want about 10 to start with.  There is the local livestock auction but wonder whether this will be OK for novice sheep owners.  We do not have a particular breed in mind but as we are in north east Scotland will need to be hardy, probably black face.  Any tips that will help us with our first foray into livestock will be much appreciated.

[SteveHants]

Decide what you want first.


What do your neighbours have? What do you think would do well on your ground? You could have Blackies or North Country Cheviots and be fairly sure of finding plenty to choose from up there. You could also look at any of the other hill types or primitives and they would do okay for you.


Once you have a clear picture of what you want, its easier to decide where and when to buy.

[Sbom]

Also if you intend to sell them on for breeding then you will need to have an idea as to what they will be worth when there ready, so you can make sure you don't pay to much when you buy them.
Hello  by the way 

[Brucklay]

Thainstone Rare Breed Mart is tomorrow at Inverurie - you get to see a few rare breeds, what they look like, speak to breeders and see what they go for. A fun educational day out in my book - I going just for a spy.

[domsmith]

The store sheep market is a difficult thing to crack. the market will give you the best chance of making a profit, but also the biggest chance of making a mistake!

but if you buy private the vendor will want the best price from you he will already be selling them as breeding ewes and will surely limit your potential profit.

would it no be better to get some ewe lambs and sell the next summer with lambs at foot. a better way to ad value in my opinion.

as for breed NCC over blackie imo

dom

[bangbang]

I would suggest you might want to source info on what will suit your setup, and what you personally think you can find manageable.
Originally my wife and I got Jacob sheep, cos they 'look pretty in the field', finding out only later that they were to flighty, heavy, and more problematic than we expected.
Their plus side was they were easy to manage when in labour.
We now have shetlands and castlemilk moorits all trained to the bucket.......Castlemilk are the smartest
of the sheep (in my opinion) and at times can be a bugger to catch....As a novice myself (4 years with sheep)
smaller rare breeds would definately the path to search. 

[Legaston2012]

Hi, we live in Angus, north of Arbroath, and we acquired Texel cross ewe lambs from a farmer near Keith in 2010.  This april they had their first lambs using a pure texel tup. They lambed well with good strong lambs and the ewes themselves came through the winter of 2010 with no problems and no field shelter. As a bonus they have good thick fleeces. They have been easy to look after and are soon trained to a bucket of food to follow! We have seven ewe lambs which you  are welcome to visit  to see if they would suit.

[Lagmore]

Legaston2012 - do you know the name of the farmer you bought your ewe lambs from?