[rikkib]

like to speak to like minded people re these great little charecters

[Fowlman]

There are quite few on here that keep soay. I'm sure they will see this post soon. I keep shetlands myself.

[in the hills]

Hi, yep, we have 7 ewes and 9 lambs. Weve had them for 2 years now and think theyre great. They are real characters      .
 
Tim Tyne gave us a demonstration of how to turn sheep correctly at the Smallholders show. Tried it on the Soay and it was like handling a bag of worms compared to Tims sheep. They were having none of it. 

[Fleecewife]

Hi, yep, we have 7 ewes and 9 lambs. Weve had them for 2 years now and think theyre great. They are real characters      .
 
Tim Tyne gave us a demonstration of how to turn sheep correctly at the Smallholders show. Tried it on the Soay and it was like handling a bag of worms compared to Tims sheep. They were having none of it. 

That's because Soay are so small you can just pick them up under their oxters and plonk them on their bums, with no chance to kick and squirm      (for the posh of speech, oxters are armpits)

[goosepimple]

Hi, we have 2 of last years ewe lambs and are considering breeding from them later this year.  We sold all our unregistered soays last year,  8 ewes and 13 lambs all to a Deer Farm.  They look like small deer and are soooo easy care which makes them super cute and dead easy to look after.  We also have Castlemilk Moorits - they are very similar, like a long legged, bigger bodied version, the most elegantly proportioned of our sheep without a doubt, they look like roe deer when they are sheared, but they are the most difficult to bucket train.  Good luck with your wee sheep, they're great.  You should fill in your member profile info on here, its good for others to know where you are in the country for swaps, ram visits etc. 

[rikkib]

thanks for replies we live in the midlands and are looking for a registered tup for this years tupping great home for him we keep the sheep as a hobby and to keep grass and weeds down -not- for meat were both veggies please excuse grammer to old in the tooth to learn computer skills

[sarahdean_66]

I have just got my own sheep after helping friends for years I have 1soay ram 1ewe and a ewe lamb all reg and 3shetlands. they are all lovely!

[in the hills]

Ahhh ..... rikkib. If I had known sooner I would have kept one of my tup lambs entire and you could have gladly had him to join your flock. You could try the Soay Sheep Society and talk to Julie Suffolk, the secretary. She is very helpful. We loaned a tup last year from her and she may well have tup lambs at the moment if you prefer to buy.

[ladyjanefarmer]

we keep these pesky little sheep, love them really. we have 11 ewes & a tup, all the lambs are sold to family & friends for the freezer, fantastic meat.

[rikkib]

how are you coping with all this grass they are getting fatter every day having to feed small amounts of pulp to try and stop scours i have another paddock with no grass but very weedy bracken briars cooch etc hoping to grow grass next year on it how do i get round it?

[in the hills]

Sorry, not enough sheepie experience to help very much. Mine are on very lush grass at the moment and no serious problems yet  . They dont seem to keep the grass very short even though I think my stocking is fairly high - 7 ewes and 9 lambs on just under 2 acres of hill type grazing. We do have thick hedges and I guess they get a lot of their nutrition from these as they seem to prefer browsing to grazing. Someone with experience of keeping Soay told me that the land would support double the number of ewes that I have.   
 
Maybe strip grazing would help if you are having problems.    Would they eat hay to dry them up a bit  .
 
Someone else, with more experience, may come along and be able to give you some better advice or you could start a new thread about this.

[goosepimple]

Inthehills, we had 8 ewes and 13 lambs last year on a field of just less than 2 acres and by the time we sold them in late August it needed a rest I think.
Currently have 5 NRs, 2CMoorits and 2Soay on the same field and I wish they would eat more grass!  Think we will have to top it soon, it's very lush too.  Easy to see why they are not really meat sheep as they are all pretty skinny (but gorgeous).

[Fleecewife]

There's more meat in those skinny legs than you would think 

[goosepimple]

That you practising your chat up lines Fleece 

[in the hills]

Mmmmm ..... apart from in the winter, our fields always look too lush. They were grazed heavily on and off by cattle before we moved here ..... 3 years ago. The wild flowers are now moving in .... buttercup, lady's smock, germander speedwell, red clover and so on. Looks beautiful but guessing that maybe the sward will suffer in terms of grazing potential.    Or will these plants provide more varied nutrients? Not sure.
 
Neighbouring sheep fields are grazed right down. Ours look like the wilderness. 
 
Have considered increasing sheepie numbers but guess it may cause other problems ...... worm burden and more winter feeding.