[daveh]

I have a small flock of Castlemilk Moorits (3 ewes, 5 hoggs and 3 lambs) which are currently kept on my pal's farm. I am in the final stages of purchasing a small farm of my own which is just over 5 hectares. I am a RBST supporter and want to acquire another minority breed to keep on the land but a breed which is a lot more commercial than a Castlemilk Moorit. My thinking is that the breeds should not be too dissimilar in size so the CMs don't get knocked out the way at feeding time. The breeds I have come up with so far are Southdowns and Ryelands. I've heard that Southdowns aren't a milky sheep and not good mothers but what I want to know are the plus and minus points of both breeds. And is there another breed I should consider?

Other factors that affect the choice of breed are that my wife is a hand spinner, the land is a Northamptonshire hill, I don't have a dog and rely on the sheep being bucket trained, the grass is good permanent pasture.

Regards, Dave

[Anke]

Are there any breeds of commercial value on the RBST list?

[Foobar]

Southdowns are a fair bit bigger than the CMs.  I would have thought that any "more commercial" breed will be a fair bit bigger than the CMs!
If you want to support the rare breeds then if I were you I'd go down the watch list breeds and see if any of those meet your needs, and match your local environment.  As you have 5 hectares you could always breed some pure and cross some with terminal sires, so getting the best of both worlds.

[daveh]

Anke asked:

Are there any breeds of commercial value on the RBST list?

Yup. Border Leicester, Dorset Down, Cotswold to name but a few.

Regards, Dave

[SallyintNorth]

Castlemilks being horned, I really wouldn't worry about them competing at the trough.  Mine give our 80kg+ Texel ewes a run for their money!

I have Manxes and Castlemilks.  Both are horned, of course.  My Manxes so far seem to be super crossing mothers - hybrid lambs growing big and strong.  But I haven't tried a full-on commercial tup on them yet; I used a Shetland x commercial (1/4 Charollais, 1/8 Beltex) tup on them this time, and the lambs are looking good - at this point they're as big as the ones out of Dutch Texel ewes to the same tup.

Oh, and my Manx fleeces are divine.   

If you want to help a rare breed, then neither Southdown nor Ryeland are in the 'at risk' categories at the moment - they're both 'Success Stories', which is great, eh? 

Teeswater and Wensleydale are both still at risk (in fact, Teeswater is one category higher, 'Endangered', like Castlemilks), lovely for spinning, can have good fat lambs either purebred or crossed.

I span the Norfolk Horn for the RBST Rare Breeds Blanket last year, and have wanted to get my hands on some more fibre like that ever since.  Norfolk x Southdown is what created the Suffolk, so a Norfolk should be able to birth and rear a fat lamb, I would have thought.  Purebred lambs are really sweet

Oxford Down would perform similarly to Southdown, I'd have thought, and is still at risk.

Border Leicester is a big sheep, so no problem with producing a fat lamb, and stupendous fleece.      They're in the minority category, so it would be good to have some out of their home area.  (Can I have a fleece if you get them?  )

Equally, Dorset Horn and Dorset Down both have lovely fleece and produce good fat lambs, and are in the Minority category.  They probably meet your spec as well or better than any, I think. 

I love choosing!  I like helping other people choose nearly as much as choosing my own! 

The only other factors which leap to mind are that the Dorsets are not seasonal breeders, so you can have a crop of lambs whenever it suits you. A lot of people lamb them late summer / autumn to get the best prices for 'spring lamb' after New Year

And people seem to get very very attached to their Teeswaters.  They had a couple at Woolfest last year, and they were the undisputed stars of the show.  Take that, you alpacas  

[madcat]

Ask your wife which fleeces she would like to spin .

If Teeswater and Wensleydale are at risk then they seem like a good candidate for additional sheep.

Photos please when you decide.

[shep53]

Never see any one mention the hill Radnor which is on the at risk list, nice sheep  medium size  and brown faced so would blend in with the castle milks

[langfauld easycare]

  i had soays and they could hold there own with any of the commercials infact sometimes terrorized them  . texel and beltex were the best x from them, tryed charollais, lleyn and easycare over them to . whats the difference between soay and cms ? they look very similar to me

[Anke]

BUT - can you sell funny looking crosses at the mart... or do you have a ready market to sell directly to customers?

[SallyintNorth]

Never see any one mention the hill Radnor which is on the at risk list, nice sheep  medium size  and brown faced so would blend in with the castle milks

I know nothing about them so couldn't say whether they'd suit or not.  They sound nice from your description!  What are the fleeces like?  And how do they breed, in terms of a fat lamb?

[waterbuffalofarmer]

What about the northern short tail? We keep a flock of Lleyns and they're some of the best sheep we have ever had. However british milksheep are a good breed too and I have heard that their meat is excellent, we used to keep them.
Hope this helps

[goosepimple]

I have soay and castlemilk moorits - they look very similar except the cm's are a bit bigger and their horns go at a different angle than the soays.  The all get along swimmingly.

 Just crossed cm's and soay ewes with a north ronaldsay tup - the soayxnr is the prettiest and the biggest and strongest looking of all our lambs this year, very rough coated and wooly. 

CM. 's are the biggest out of our 3 rare breeds and I'm surprised they're on the register at all as they're such a great sheep.  Our cm's are the most timid of all our breeds, will come near but always on their guard, the NRs are bold as brass and don't give a stuff.  Maybe you should assess their personalities too?