[Shropshirelass]

Right I'm a farm girl myself & am used to working with sheep, & where we live have a good set up for sheep & cattle in large amounts - but I've never owned any of my own, they've always been relatives. I now have the funds & the opportunity to use some of the land & would like a small pedigree flock of Cluns or something similar, (I know a lot about the Cluns as a relative used to show them & they originate approx 5 miles from where we live).

I just mainly wanted to know what paperwork & stuff is now involved with sheep work as I enjoy cattle work but it's too much hassle with paperwork & I enjoy sheep work more.  I know they have to be electronically tagged now, (is that sheep of a certain age as I think it is? & whats the difference between breeding stock & slaughter tags?)  & have to be fit for transport. But what requirements & hoops do I have to jump through to move them for slaughter to an abattoir approx 10 miles away & for buying & selling? & moving for grazing - which would be approx 600yards up the village - 2 miles away max?

Most of the time they would be grazed down at home on the farm anyways as there's more than enough grazing for a small flock of around 20 - I'm thinking. The only other grazer type animals they'd share with are a few of my uncles sheep & occasionally around 40 head of cattle, 3 turkeys & 3 geese & hens & ducks. They would also be kept outdoors during the day for lambing & brought in at night with access to shelter during the day.

Also can I keep my flock with a family members flock? To keep grass at decent levels & what sort of worming rotation would I need to do? As we have 6 large fields & 1 small field at home - so we could easily do that.  I know the initial cost of a few pedigrees & would probably end up with less than 20 to start & build up a home flock.

I'm also tempted with getting a couple of sows & possibly a boar - but any tips on pigs? as we haven't kept any in years & it would probably be a sty set up - I'm thinking Gloucester old spots. x

[Blacksheep]

Hello Shropshire lass you can't be very far away from us as we are in Clun country too,  we keep Zwartbles though at 1000ft, and have also starting with a few Shropshires this year.
You will need a holding register and to decide whether your flock are grazed on the same holding as your family farm or whether you have your own holding number. You can have several seperate parcels of land under the same holding number if they are not too far apart (I think 5 miles but would need to check) so then you wouldn't have restrictions moving animals between fields etc.
re tagging breeding tags will be double tags with an individual visable number, slaughter tags can be eid or  non eid (if non eid they can't be upgraded to breeding tags if the animals are sold) these will just have your holding number on, although are also allocated numbers by Defra apparently when issued, they are ok to use for up to one year old in slaughter animals.   For pedigree stock you will probably also have management/pedigree information to include on the tag.
The Animal health officer at Shropshire Trading standards is very helpful, unfortunately I can't remember his name, if you want any advice.

[Shropshirelass]

Will have a word with him I think at some point, do you know if I have to own the land myself or not as my parent's are the landowners but my uncles the farmer - oh it gets complicated 

As for the tags so eid 1s can be upgraded to breeding tags??? & what doe's eid stand for sorry? Also even though I know your supposed to tag lambs at birth now, you can't always select which ones will make the grade for breeding stock / meat straight away - so am I able to do this later & use the eids in case I make the wrong choices & want to keep some for breeding??? Also what happens with tags if say I'm sending some cull ewes / tups off for slaughter that were breeding stock? will they then need slaughter tags?

Also Blacksheep good choice in breeds I do like Zwarbles & we had a small pedigree flock a few years back - not so keen on Shropshires though sorry - I just find them to short & fat & hard to grab hold of & the carcasses are a bit fattier than that of things like cluns & zwarbles in my opinion. But I suppose they grow quicker & their a very good breed. Where about do you live then? It would be interesting to see your set up sometime if poss x 

[Foobar]

Save yourself the headache of working out what tags to use for what, and just double tag every lamb (one visual and one eid).  (EID=electronic identification/identifier/identity).  That way if you change your mind about which ones you want to keep etc it won't matter as they will all have the correct tags.  I can recommend Shearwell Set EID tags (come in pairs), which you can use at birth.
The only other thing you need apart from your CPH holding number(s) and flock number, is some AML sheep movement forms, which you can get from trading standards/animal health.

[Shropshirelass]

Ta the AML movement forms are they what I'd need when taking stock to slaughter? x

[Bionic]

You need the AML forms when moving the sheep anywhere off of your holding

[Blacksheep]

Also Blacksheep good choice in breeds I do like Zwarbles & we had a small pedigree flock a few years back - not so keen on Shropshires though sorry - I just find them to short & fat & hard to grab hold of & the carcasses are a bit fattier than that of things like cluns & zwarbles in my opinion. But I suppose they grow quicker & their a very good breed. Where about do you live then? It would be interesting to see your set up sometime if poss x

Yes the Zwartbles are a lovely breed to keep, and produce excellent quality lean meat, we wanted to try a native breed also and hoped the Shropshire's would do well on our holding, and have a good market to sell, the society seems to be working to improve the breed - will have to see. I don't think that I will like the meat as much as the Zwartbles though.  May try crossing for a commercial lamb.
We are about 7 miles from Clun up in the hills above Beguildy, definitely a few Clun Forest flocks up here.   We are quite busy this w/e, I will send you a pm after the weekend if you would like to come and visit our small farm.