Author Topic: feet (Read 3820 times)

plt102 · « **on:** June 18, 2012, 06:47:11 am »

Hiya, we have a gfd ram and 4 ewes. All of them have a tendency for their feet to grow over sideways. I must admit we weren't too rigourous with their feet while the ewes were in lamb as didn't want to stress them too much so now we are having to trim very regularly to get any sort of shape back. It doesn't make them lame (yet) but I am worried about their future. My main worry is that our two ewe lambs that were produced also have the twist in their feet so I guess it is genetic. I have been told that I should cut my losses and send them all to market but it seems such a waste. Could I breed it out by replacing the ram or the ewes? The crosses we produced with our gfd ram and our shetland ewes all seem sound and are great little lambs so maybe we could replace our gfd ewes... Or should we persevere with careful foot care and just use the offspring for meat?

omnipeasant · « **Reply #1 on:** June 18, 2012, 09:20:44 am »

How old are the ewes? Is it down to bad trimming before you got them?
Alsso sorry but what are gfd's ?

I wouldn't cut your losses and send them to market unless you are specifically breeding to show. Persistent trimming will certainly help. Perhaps your land is soft. We have a similar problem with our donkeys.

You could try trimming in the standing position for ewes in lamb in future.

Haylo-peapod · « **Reply #2 on:** June 18, 2012, 10:42:49 am »

This is quite common with GFDs which are known for not having the greatest feet.
We find that some of ours have much faster growing hooves than others and it does seem to be genetic as it runs in family groups.
Be careful not to trim too frequently as this has been found to encourage growth.
We check/trim the feet after lambing but other than that we no longer routinely trim the hooves but instead just deal with ones that a) are lame or b) have particularly long hooves that are likely to affect their gait.
In most instances I wouldn't have thought it would be a reason to send them to market - if it were I think the population of GFDs would decline very quickly.
Going forward it would be good to try and find a ram that has good feet.

SteveHants · « **Reply #3 on:** June 18, 2012, 11:02:09 am »

Routine foot trimming makes your sheep more prone to lameness and footrot. Only trim if they limp. If the feet are 'an odd shape' but it doesn't affect the animal, Id live with it, personally.

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #4 on:** June 18, 2012, 12:11:48 pm »

I'm not a GFD person but I do know Dartmoor... rocky sort of a place. I presume sheep up there would need feet that can cope with a lot of wearing down....? So that when they are living on lush pasture, there's nothing to wear their feet down and they overgrow? If so, and you culled these, you'd be taking out the very sheep that carry the genetics necessary to live in their original habitat!

Small Farmer · « **Reply #5 on:** June 18, 2012, 01:48:03 pm »

Dartmoor is also wet. Our vet, who was brought up on Dartmoor, says that the only sheep she knows with worse feet than a GFD is a white-faced Dartmoor.

Rare breeds are rare for a reason.

Haylo-peapod · « **Reply #6 on:** June 18, 2012, 02:40:30 pm »

Quote from: omnipeasant on June 18, 2012, 09:20:44 am

Alsso sorry but what are gfd's ?

Just realised that although we have given some clues nobody has actually answered your question omnipeasant - GFD's are Greyface Dartmoors

omnipeasant · « **Reply #7 on:** June 18, 2012, 04:58:53 pm »

Ahh, so they should have good feet then not like the heavy downs types.

plt102 · « **Reply #8 on:** June 18, 2012, 06:01:09 pm »

Ah well if it is a common thing and I won't get frowned at by other gfd keepers then ill persevere. Our land was very boggy over the winter and spring. I'll keep a close eye on them and try to breed it out over time if I can. Thanks for the advice :-)