Hi everyone I thought I'd just introduce myself I came across this forum just by an accidental web search but find it very knowledgeable about farming & smallholding which is great as its one of my passions & farmings in my blood. I am also a member of a few poultry forums but am glad I found something like this as they mention livestock but not much as opposed to the poultry

So a little bit about me I'm a trainee veterinary nurse, who's in her mid 20s & a south Shropshire farming family - we've owned the same family farm for 60-80 years over 3 generations & in the past kept dairy & beef cattle, sheep, poultry, waterfowl & pigs & 1 goat - although we now just do the poultry, waterfowl beef cattle & sheep with about 90 head of cattle & 300-400 head of sheep, 3 geese, 5 ducks & 20-30 chickens. Like I said farmings in my blood & I knew that even though the farm we live at now has been with us for 3 generations - the farming in the family goes wayyyyyyy back for at least 4-5 generations before that as it's being traced through the family tree

& my grandfather was a butcher & slaughter man in his youth & a respected buyer at livestock markets who bought for the major supermarket chains years ago. I believe in producing quality stock & not making it travel huge miles for slaughter / food miles - hence I'd say 90% of our stock goes to a local slaughterhouse -20 mins away & we always send in small numbers - Unfortunatley I am not the farmer at present , but its my uncle instead which we let the farm out to although if & when I have the time & money I would love to take over. At the moment I am more or less limited to my rare breed waterfowl & poultry, which I had to cut back on because of a lack of time due to my studies - but am building it back up again

& would like to purchase a few rare breed sheep next year - pref Herdwicks & Clun forests - which my great uncle used to show

& would like to get into showing livestock, I'm also a keen rare breeds enfusiast wildlife photographer & live with apart from my family my Basset hound Sebastien (aka seb) & cat tigger & a new kitten (yet to be named) & 3 other cats.
so enough about me tell me about yourselves xx