[wonderwooly]

Hi there,

I have a ewe who's a bit difficult for several response, and was considering
the freezer option, but is the meat worth it at this age she is 5 years old
produces lambs, but last year problems with prolapsed, so just trying to work out
weather to give her another go, and gain a lamb next year or not.?

thanks


   

[lachlanandmarcus]

I would cut your losses, cooked long and slow I bet she'd be fine. If you or family/friends have dogs then if any bits are too chewy, they would certainly enjoy...my cull ewes are eaten by us or our dogs and not a scrap wasted.

[shygirl]

we sent some old rams off to slaughter with intention of giving them to the dogs. the butchers looked at me as if i was mad when i said they were for the dogs but they do enjoy raw meat so much and nothing is wasted. id rather pay for butcher than just get them shot and wasted.

[Pedwardine]

Use her pelt too. Just for info I had a (slightly younger) prolapser. Gave her a year out then tried her again. Did really well with no problems reoccurring. Depends on how bad the prolapse was.

[Hevxxx99]

Traditionally, the best and most delicious mutton is from 5 year old sheep. Usually wethers these days, but if she's been taking it easy recently, she should be delicious!  Long, slow cooking will produce very good and very edible results.

[Castlehill Farm]

Hello All,

We bought 10 ( older ) cheviot mules last year and put them to a suffolk tup and now the have lambed we are sending the ewes off to slaughter 2 per month and the butcher is saying he has never seen so lean mutton and we sell at Huntly Farmers Market first Saturday of the month and Fraserburgh Super Saturday 2nd Saturday of the month and people can not get enough of our mutton.
We sell Soay mutton and the older they are the more flavoursome they are and again customers can not get enough!

Cheers.

[Foobar]

Had 4 year old mutton stewed in the slow cooker today.  Lush, just fell apart, so tender .

[Marches Farmer]

Usually cull for prolapse and haven't seen on for years but I'd heard it could be due to calcium deficiency so I kept one ewe who had and gave her 10ml of calcium every week for the last month of pregnancy and she was fine.  I repeated it the following year with the same result.  I didn't keep any of her ewe lambs, though, as I would guess the inefficient utilisation of calcium could be a heritable trait.

[SteveHants]

Usually cull for prolapse and haven't seen on for years but I'd heard it could be due to calcium deficiency so I kept one ewe who had and gave her 10ml of calcium every week for the last month of pregnancy and she was fine.  I repeated it the following year with the same result.  I didn't keep any of her ewe lambs, though, as I would guess the inefficient utilisation of calcium could be a heritable trait.

Its funny you should say that about calcium - I always consider prolapse to be a problem linked to overfed sheep. I have had one partial prolapse in my entire time of keeping sheep.

[Marches Farmer]

Can't remember where I heard about the calcium thing but my experiment seemed to suggest there might be something to it.  Any prolapses in the past tended to be old ewes, which would suggest either poorer muscle/ligament tone or poorer calcium utilisation due to age.  The old girls rarely carry too much condition and I've refined the feed regime over the years as I reckon big singles are more of a pain than small twins.

[sh3ph3rd]

I always consider prolapse to be a problem linked to overfed sheep. 

From what I've read and seen heavier females tend as a rule to have more issues during parturition including prolapse. In older times it was the general consensus on the reason behind prolapse occurring in most female livestock, if the random ancient books I've read were anything to go by.

Having said that even obese animals can die of malnutrition so it can get difficult to say for sure when she is overfed. Might depend on breed to a large extent, for example when naturally leaner, more feed efficient stock have been moved from harsh landscapes onto lush ones they're not adapted for. Certain foods were proven to help with that, like raspberry leaf, it works on human females too. Tones the whole female reproductive system and has an effect even if you only give it while she's in birth. My brother's lazy collie mix won't have contractions without it. But even for normally contracting females it helps a lot.

[shygirl]

My brother's lazy collie mix won't have contractions without it. But even for normally contracting females it helps a lot.

  lazy??? men do just not understand childbirth at all   
    just jestin   

[sh3ph3rd]

It was a joke in the first place.

The 'laziness' is actually a disorder. But given how lazy she can be in general, we joke that she was lazy in whelping too.

[melholly]

Set me thinking this thread. We've an old and difficult one who's not up to much and whereas we've always been soft with her being an ex orphan given to us, the times come where she eating valuable grass! I had just thought of getting her dispatched by local hunt but actually maybe ill try the mutton. Am a fan of slow cooking casseroles so perhaps ill send her off with the lambs come November time.
Mx

[Hevxxx99]

Personally, I'd eat mutton over lamb every time: far tastier and less fatty, to say nothing of traditionally British!

I believe the eating of lamb started mostly through necessity during WWII and for some reason, mutton is only just now starting to make a comeback.

Cooked fast and carelessly, it is pretty joyless but slow and with care and it is meltingly delicious!   I love slow roast leg of mutton as a real treat, or a good mutton stew, which is as good as any made with stewing beef.  Mrs Beaton has a lovely recipe which contains mace in the cooking and a wineglass of sherry stirred in just before serving which is utterly divine. It just shows what nonsense people talk when they say English food is tasteless.