[chippy]

Thanks for all the replies. That's given us a lot to think about.

The 3 ewes are texel/suffolk crosses and we only breed for meat for our own consumption (plus bit and pieces of gifts to family). Breed doesn't really matter (we borrowed a suffolk the first time, hence these three now!) as long as he can do the job.

I hadn't heard about "butchers lambs" before. We have a good farm shop locally that raises beef and lamb. Last time we asked to borrow a ram, but the time wasn't right for them. I hadn't considered buying a ram lamb off them - good idea!

[Marches Farmer]

Thats a very impressive average breeding age MF, 10 years, why aren't the Southdowns used more widely? It halves replacement rate of mules etc

Fashion! (Sigh).  We don't feed the lambs any cake and they grow at their own pace.  We eliminated footrot and scald from the flock in 2007 so that takes away the stress of sore feet and disinclination to graze.  They very rarely have problems with teeth, unlike, say, the Beulah, which has the reputation of becoming broken-mouthed after just a few years.  Rarely have problems with lambing or mastitis.  They're slow plodders with a very quiet life so really no reason not to live to a ripe old (reproductive) age.

Not as tall as the Suffolk, Charollais or Rouge, not as chunky at the front end as the Texel or Beltex ... fashion!