[lizzypeg]

looking to get some easy care sheep to add to our small mixed flock.
any breeders on here that can give me info on them.
how easy care they really are.
diet, housing etc if diff from other breeds..
do they roo like shetlands or not have a fleece as such?
are they big sheep?

[SteveHants]

"Easy Care" can mean more than one thing.


There is the "Easy Care" breed of sheep, started by Iolo Williams from a Welsh Mountain and a Wilts Horn. They are fairly small sheep and are polled (without horns) and the breed society has a website. They should all shed, and they get this from a Wilts Horn, but they only shed when they are 'doing well' so, you will find ewes with lambs at foot shed later than your rams.


There are now quite a few breeders of composite shedding ewes, which people generically refer to as "easy care" (I'm one of them). They will all have started with different breeds to get where they are. The 'exlana' is one of the newer ones of these.


"Easy Care" can also refer to a system of keeping sheep (which is the kind of system the Easy Care breed was developed for). This is an outdoor lambing, low stocking density based system where all the animals should 'do' on grass alone. They should have sound feet and udders and any that need trimming etc should be culled. Wooled breeds often run on the same systems include the Lleyn and the Romney.

[Marches Farmer]

Easy Care seems to me to be a bit of a catch-all term which may not be relevant to all farms or farming systems.  If I was lambing outside on a Welsh Mountain I'd go for a Badger Face because it's as tough as old boots, an excellent mother and is unlikely to get mastitis because its tail is traditionally left long.  If I want a docile breed that gives the sweetest lamb on an excellent carcase and the finest wool of any UK breed I'd go for a Southdown.  Actually I already run both those, so you can see where I'm coming from.  Apart from the wool/hair shedding option any breed of sheep can be easier care than others of its kind if a rigorous culling policy has taken place every year, if a fit-for-purpose vaccination, worming and footcare policy is in place, if pasture is well managed, and if there is a sound nutritional programme  There is no substitute for good shepherding and sound stockmanship.

[VSS]

There is no substitute for good shepherding and sound stockmanship.

Absolutely!

[SteveHants]

There is no substitute for good shepherding and sound stockmanship.

Absolutely!

Thats a rather 'catch all' statement too...


For example: People used to think of routinely foot-trimming their entire flock as 'good shepherding' - but now it has been shown that this can lead to further incidences of foot problems as it provides a way for disease to enter and now it is generally accepted that one only trims (and in my case, culls  ) a sheep with footrot, ergo, routine foot trimming is quite poor shepherding.


The main criteria of 'easy care' breeds and systems as I can see it are: Rigorous culling for genetic faults (especially in cases where the sheep would die if it was not helped by the shepherd, one acts as 'natural selection'), all sheep must lamb outside, unaided and must not need feeding (under normal circumstances). You could extend this to selecting only the females with the highest natural worm ristance/wt/heat of lamb reared to breed from and so on.


But I believe the OP really was referring to the "Easy Care" breed of sheep...

[lizzypeg]

hi

yes I ment the actual easy care breed that people advertise for sale as a breed.

[SteveHants]

In that case - most of the answers are in my response.


You shouldn't need to feed them, providing they have enough grass, their feet shouldn't need trimming and they shed their fleece by themselves - no need to roo or similar.

[ZaktheLad]

You just need to spend ages walking around your fields collecting up the fleece!  We let a friend of ours keep his wool shedding sheep in a small paddock we have and the mess left behind from their fleece was horrendous. 

[Marches Farmer]

Yes, their timing's off - a bit earlier and the crows would collect it all to line their nests.

[SteveHants]

The wool gets picked up pretty quickly unless you stock them tightly for some reason.


Never had a problem with mine, and the downs mine are on never seem to be littered with wool, although there is the odd bit about when they are shedding.


Even if you do have a bit of wool about, it only gets picked up/trampled in and can only do the soil good.


The mess is certainly less than free range chickens, for example.

[lizzypeg]

great, thanks for all your replies...its been very helpful.