[Trickydickie]

Morning everyone,
I live in a rural property just on the outskirts of Glasgow with around 20 acres of rough(ish) grazing. Over the last 4 years I've re-fenced, made new access tracks and planted a couple of acres of small scale woodland for SRC willow to run my home heating.

I've been renting my field out for the last few years to a local cattle farmer to try and get the grass improved but he's been less than reliable and this year there's been no cows in the field and no rent so I'm looking at getting started myself so stand by for lots of daft newbie questions.

edited to add...

I'm looking at either spending £5,000 on a mini tractor and flail mower to improve the grass or get some livestock in to do the job as well as the enjoyment of animal husbandry.  I'd be looking for animals that are more interesting than your average sheep, so goats, alpacas etc are all under consideration but given the land is quite exposed (although there is natural shelter), especially in winter, I need advice on what would be good options.

Richard

[Lesley Silvester]

  and welcome from sunny Shropshire. As you can imagine from my name, I'm all in favour of goat-keeping but you will need proper accommodation for them. They hate getting wet and are prone to pneumonia if they do get wet so a dry, draught-free shed is a must. My girls have a garden shed to live in.


I would suggest you do a lot of reading in the various sections on here to help you decide and if you have any more questions about goats, feel free to ask me.

[mojocafa]

  hi from arbroath, I too have goats, but agree with MGOM , you need adequate shelters,

Good luck in your venture

[Bionic]

Good morning and welcome from Carmarthenshire    Best wishes with your venture

[Fleecewife]

Sounds ideal for Primitive sheep such as the Hebs I keep.  There's nothing uninteresting or average about Primitive sheep and they are much easier to keep than goats, especially as you have limited animal experience, if I read your post correctly.   Go on, have a look at them (try my website below).  You would need quite a few of any species of animal to clear the ten acres not under willow, so you will need to think carefully about numbers, overwintering, breeding, end use etc.  But we're here to help 
If you're determined on goats, have you considered the British or English goat?  I'm not very goaty, but both breeds look lovely and seem to be bred for hardiness here in Britain.

Oh, and welcome to TAS 

[SallyintNorth]

Hi there and well done for deciding to use and tidy up your ground yourself

Like Fleecewife, I'm not a goaty person but my understanding is that they aren't grazers, so perhaps wouldn't do much to improve the grassland.

Native / primitive sheep, however, would do - and are not, IMO, boring!  Have a read up and a look on the RBST website, try to get to some shows to have a look at some (The Royal Highland has gone, but there's the Scottish Smallholder and Grower Festival at the end of September ) and decide which you like the look of.  Or do as I did and buy a few of a few types, to learn which ones you like working with.

For your ground I'd be looking at Boreray, Castlemilk Moorit, Hebdridean, Manx Loaghtan, North Ronaldsay, Portland, Shetland, Soay.  All these breeds have their fans on here .  If you like multi-coloured then you can rule out Castlemilk Moorit, Manx Loaghtan, Portland.  And would have to choose your Hebridean and Soay carefully to get a mix of colours.  If you prefer horned that would rule out Shetland (unless you buy up wethers, which would certainly be an option.)

[HappyHippy]

Hello and welcome to TAS from me in Lesmahagow 
We keep Kunekune and Large Black pigs, have had goats (loved my British Alpine nanny), Shetland cattle and other bits and pieces No sheep........yet 
Kunekune are a mainly grazing pig and worked wonders with our unmanaged land  but if it's bowling green finish you want, best forget pigs........they all do a bit of digging from time to time.
Good luck and if you're ever passing we'd be happy to show you round.
Karen
 

[Womble]

Good luck and if you're ever passing we'd be happy to show you round.

Ditto from near Stirling. Do feel free to pop round if you want to see how boring primitive rare breed sheep aren't! 

[Rosemary]

With 20 acres, you could probably manage a mix of sheep and cattle - which graze in a complementary fashion, the cattle eating rough stuff the sheep will leave and the sheep grazing shorter. The mix of species also helps to reduce worms.

We have 10 acres here plus another 10 rented; we raise two weaner pigs for our freezer, a batch of 20 meat chickens for our freezer; run 100 laying hens and sell eggs; run 12-15 Ryeland ewes for lamb for us and sell the surplus and the cattle for our beef and to sell the surplus.

We have Shetland cattle and (of course) I'd recommend them. If you're ever over Carnoustie way, you're welcome to come and meet them. If you get the right cattle and get some sort of handling facility, I think they're easier to keep than sheep. And I find beef easier to sell than lamb.

[Trickydickie]

Wow, such great replies 

I'm a rather busy guy, with a family, 2 business and a 102 year old car nearing the end (hahahahahah) of a 7 year restoration.

My field is now seriously annoying me with grass so long and unruly I can't walk the dog in it and I hate the idea of it simply going to waste.  Apart from a couple of recent seasons it's not been used in a generation or 2 and latterly it had a dozen cows/calves who did a decent job of eating the grass.

I've got my farm code etc from RPID and the usable area, now I've got the ditch crossings and the like done is probably closer to 15 acres out the total of 21 of the main field.  Its rather undulating with a nice burn running through it so water is not a problem and there is always somewhere to hide from the wind. I like to do some clay pigeon shooting as well so the sheep would have to tolerate that as well.

I think I might take up the offer of a visit or 2. I'm visiting St Andrews next week and Stirling is a mere hop up the road, if the Commonwealth Games lets me past