[SallyintNorth]

Still trying to fathom the best sheep for us to have to give us lamb in 6 months off grass and without lambing or mothering issues.

  Ewes which have singles (and polled singles at that) would work best for us.  We don't mind tupping more ewes to get the numbers of lambs we want; in fact, I would prefer it.

[Anke]

But large singles are exactly what causes problems at lambing.... so I want mutiples and small for easy lambing. Shetlands (non-flushed) rarely have triplets, even if mated to a temrinal sire.


Just convince your fellow community people to get some goats - then you have spare milk and it is easy enough to take spare triplets off the ewe and rear with the goatkids. Much healthier milk too and a lot less likelihood of TB, and the meat from the male kids may actually be enough to not have sheep at all.... (just saying...)

[SallyintNorth]

My own (pretty wide and varied) experience is that as long as you don't (over)feed a ewe carrying a single lamb, and the breeding doesn't give horn buds, singles are usually trouble-free at every stage.  (Even using a chunky tup.) 

And that's a hard no to goats, thanks!  Maybe if we decided to switch out of cows, but (a) there are too many of us love beef too much, (b) goats won't help clean the ground one bit, whereas if you have ponies and/or cattle, you really want sheep to graze to clean the ground anyway, (c) we live in a very wet place, and there's no suitable goat housing, and (d) if I can't get the delicate townie palettes to adapt to Shetland hogget, I don't think I even want to try with goat meat..!

[SallyintNorth]

All my most difficult live lambings bar one (which was overlarge twins, and ended up with a caesarian) have been triplets that got in a muddle, and muddles and dead lambs are far more likely with triplets.

And since being at Trelay, I have had my hand inside a ewe only 3 times.

Twice was triplets, and the other was the fat, out of season, older maiden ewe unintentionally bred, having twins with the first coming breech. 

[Rosemary]

Portlands are only supposed to have singles.

[SallyintNorth]

Portlands are only supposed to have singles.

[member=13]Rosemary[/member] you are a genius.  They mostly do, and they have nice fleece for spinning, the lambs are super-cute fox red, they *do* have horn buds (both sexes are horned) but the lambs are tiny and it doesn't seem to hurt, the meat is great and, as singles, they probably would be big enough (not large, but worth sending) to go off at 6 months in Oct, which is what we are aiming for.  Thank you! 

[Rosemary]

Portlands are only supposed to have singles.

[member=13]Rosemary[/member] you are a genius.  They mostly do, and they have nice fleece for spinning, the lambs are super-cute fox red, they *do* have horn buds (both sexes are horned) but the lambs are tiny and it doesn't seem to hurt, the meat is great and, as singles, they probably would be big enough (not large, but worth sending) to go off at 6 months in Oct, which is what we are aiming for.  Thank you!

You're welcome. My pal Martin keeps them. They do run them on to hogget though.

[Anke]

(d) if I can't get the delicate townie palettes to adapt to Shetland hogget, I don't think I even want to try with goat meat..!

When did you last have milk-fed kig goat (wethered at 7 days max) grown to 9 to 12 months, slowly roasted with a North-African spice coating and falling off the bone?


Shame that so many people in this country are so arrogant, it has to be beef... When you look back in history, lamb was the food of poor peasants and the aristocracy ate mutton joints. The only lambs slaughtered were the ones that could not be kept through the winter. And now the urban population only eat lamb... all to do with maximum production and low food prices... so that the ewes have to lamb each year to make enough money for the farmer etc etc...

[SallyintNorth]

I totally agree, Anke, but people like what they like and no amount of logic or facts is going to change that!

But as it turns out, we just had a show of hands at our meeting, and more people here like our hogget and mutton than would prefer a milder-tasting meat. 

Those who would prefer a milder meat have health issues which make stronger (and fattier) red meats a problem for them to digest.  So we are looking at sending off one of our 2022 lambs (with a little batch of oldies for mutton) at the end of the month, and will see how they get on with that.  Then decide if we need to look at changing breed, or at least running something else alongside the current sheep, or what.

I've been chatting with a mutual pal who has Portlands, Rosemary... Tiva Diva says they do indeed mostly have singles, and could be sent off at 6 months but would still be quite small.  So if it transpires that our current lamb is still too strong, I will put a shout out to the local smallholding community and see of I can source some Portland meat for them to try.  They used to run Portlands on Braunton Burrows, but they had too many problems with dogs and have stopped having sheep now. There are Portlands in Cornwall, though ... I see fleeces advertised and being bought on spinning groups! 

[roddycm]

I was just coming in to say Portalands too! If you get traditional bred stock they will certainly only have one. My old neighbour in Dorset bred them for about 30 or more years and never once had twins. They are also absolutely gorgeous when they are born, a lovely foxy red colour. I used to help him show them and they are incredibly placid calm animals. They are horned but the rams again are very placid and easy to handle. We met quite many other breeders at the shows over the years and some people started breeding a much larger type and those regularly had twins, so if you do decide on this breed do keep that in mind! The lamb was always delicious.

[SallyintNorth]

Oh, good tip, thanks roddycm