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Author Topic: Best breeds for a beginner?  (Read 7206 times)

crimson

  • Joined Apr 2014
Best breeds for a beginner?
« on: January 14, 2015, 05:26:27 pm »
Looking for docility and resistance to disease , fly strike etc.

sillyewe

  • Joined Oct 2014
Re: Best breeds for a beginner?
« Reply #1 on: January 14, 2015, 07:16:57 pm »
Sheep resistant to disease and fly strike? Do these exist?  I always thought that disease was vaccinated against and flystike preventative applied to fleece.  Many types of breeds can be tamed the key would be to try get some that know what a bucket is.

nutterly_uts

  • Joined Jul 2014
  • Jersey - for now :)
Re: Best breeds for a beginner?
« Reply #2 on: January 14, 2015, 07:38:01 pm »
As Sillyewe above said - all depends :) but bucket trained hugely helps

Personally I would say to avoid southdowns because I have found them more prone to flystrike with the wooly faces AND although super docile when hairy, they seem a bit daft and spooky when shorn and can see properly again .. the next poster may find something completely different :)

crimson

  • Joined Apr 2014
Re: Best breeds for a beginner?
« Reply #3 on: January 14, 2015, 09:41:17 pm »
Sheep resistant to disease and fly strike? Do these exist?  I always thought that disease was vaccinated against and flystike preventative applied to fleece.  Many types of breeds can be tamed the key would be to try get some that know what a bucket is.

You know what i mean ;), hill sheep are less prone to fly striker because of the different weather.

crimson

  • Joined Apr 2014
Re: Best breeds for a beginner?
« Reply #4 on: January 17, 2015, 09:13:35 pm »
Ryelands any good?

langfauld easycare

  • Joined Apr 2012
Re: Best breeds for a beginner?
« Reply #5 on: January 17, 2015, 10:09:42 pm »
easycares  :thumbsup:


Bionic

  • Joined Dec 2010
  • Talley, Carmarthenshire
Re: Best breeds for a beginner?
« Reply #6 on: January 17, 2015, 10:30:35 pm »
I have Ryelands and love them but then I haven't had any others so can't compare. Although they aren't a hill breed I do live quite high up.
There seemed to be a lot of flystrike about last year and luckily we didn't have any but then I did put prevention on the lambs fairly early and some natural stuff on the ewes until they were shorn.
Ryelands aren't escape artists either. Even the thought of jumping a fence would be too much for them.
Life is like a bowl of cherries, mostly yummy but some dodgy bits

Tim W

  • Joined Aug 2013
Re: Best breeds for a beginner?
« Reply #7 on: January 17, 2015, 10:43:19 pm »
There are breeders who select for disease resistance and to minimise other problems, if you want easy to look after animals it will be more important to find the right breeder than the right breed
Look for someone who has a large flock (easier to select /cull within and hence make genetic progress) and keeps accurate records on an individual level

I breed for worm resistance, foot rot resistance and cull for any problem whatsoever----no second chances
(Out of 700 ram lambs born this year only 19 have made it through this far! )

Hair sheep will vastly decrease your fly strike incidence (and dagg problems) eliminate shearing need and reduce numbers of cast ewes

Good luck!

Beeducked

  • Joined Jan 2012
Re: Best breeds for a beginner?
« Reply #8 on: January 18, 2015, 12:14:34 am »
Like has already been suggested, ask 10 people and get at least 12 different suggestions. I have Castlemilk Moorits. They are hardy, have good feet and I have had very little problems with strike despite being on wet and usually waterlogged ground. I love my sheep but they probably weren't the best choice for a beginner as they were very flighty when we first got them (almost every one of our neighbours plus friends has helped us get them back where they belong at some point!).


2 years later and they can still clear a sheep hurdle without touching it from a standing start (they are like Jack-in-the-Boxes) but come back at the rattle of a bucket. We have a couple of cades from triplets who think they are people (or dogs at least) and follow us round, sneak into the house (OH NOT impressed) and hide behind trees to jump out on the ducks and panic them (to be fair they are very little trees and it is just that ducks are very stupid that this works every time). It all depends on what you want from them

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Best breeds for a beginner?
« Reply #9 on: January 18, 2015, 09:23:43 am »
Sheep resistant to disease and fly strike? Do these exist?  I always thought that disease was vaccinated against and flystike preventative applied to fleece.  Many types of breeds can be tamed the key would be to try get some that know what a bucket is.

You know what i mean ;), hill sheep are less prone to fly striker because of the different weather.

There's generally a lot of wind on the hill, and wind + open terrain is what keeps the flies away.  Get humid muggy weather on the hill, and the hill sheep get strucken just the same as any other sheep would.

Having said which, there is believed to be a hereditary component in being resistant to strike.  I currently have a nice little 1/4 Shetland ewe hogg I am dithering about whether to keep or not - she was the only one strucken in the whole batch last year.  If I had plenty of females to choose from I would definitely let her go, but I had mainly boys last year, so am awash with meat-to-be.  I guess I'll wait and see what this year's lambing produces; if I have a few ewes to cull, and/or not many ewe lambs again, Strike! might get kept on.  If I do keep her, I shall be very watchful of her babies...

The other thing is that lambs are generally far more prone to strike than ewes. The ewes get shorn in summer, of course, which helps.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Marches Farmer

  • Joined Dec 2012
  • Herefordshire
Re: Best breeds for a beginner?
« Reply #10 on: January 18, 2015, 09:35:00 am »
As Sillyewe above said - all depends :) but bucket trained hugely helps

Personally I would say to avoid southdowns because I have found them more prone to flystrike with the wooly faces AND although super docile when hairy, they seem a bit daft and spooky when shorn and can see properly again .. the next poster may find something completely different :)

Your Southdowns got flystrike on their faces?  Never seen this in the many hundreds that I've bred.  I trim round the eyes if necessary, when gathering for vaccinating and condition-scoring.  Some sheep need to be done twice a year, some never.   If they're wandering around in the dark I expect they would be freaked out by suddenly being able to see again.  Flystrike isn't a problem iif they're shorn early enough and pour on applied when the fleece has grown back to about 1cm.

As TimW says, go for a flock, whatever breed, where problems have been culled out.

Down sheep are very docile - for centuries the shepherds were with them all day, leading them up onto the Downs to crop the short grasses in the day time and bringing them down to fold them on the arable fields at night, so their dung fertilised the soil.  Their short legs make the average fence far too challenging. If you're passing Herefordshire you're welcome to come and take a look at our flock, although we presently don't have any for sale.

nutterly_uts

  • Joined Jul 2014
  • Jersey - for now :)
Re: Best breeds for a beginner?
« Reply #11 on: January 18, 2015, 09:38:35 am »

Your Southdowns got flystrike on their faces

Not mine but yup, one had it on their head. They get their faces trimmed regularly when collected so they aren't walking round with long fleeces but after it are noticeably much more skitty. Its only my experiences with one bunch of sheep as I've said :) Southdowns aren't the breed for me but they suit many people

landroverroy

  • Joined Oct 2010
Re: Best breeds for a beginner?
« Reply #12 on: January 18, 2015, 10:18:26 am »
If you're just starting then you want something you like and that you can handle, as these first sheep are going to be the start of your learning curve. So the most important thing is docility. Minimum disease and fly resistance are due to your husbandry, as well as breeding. They don't come with a guarantee!
Many people start with Ryelands as they are small, easily handled, docile and wouldn't dream of escaping unless you've got them on a bare field with an open gate.
See what's for sale in your area and go and have a look at the animals available and see if any take your fancy.
Rules are made:
  for the guidance of wise men
  and the obedience of fools.

Deere

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • Peak District
Re: Best breeds for a beginner?
« Reply #13 on: January 18, 2015, 04:09:48 pm »
Just wondering where in the country you are Crimson?

Maybe there's some of us on here close by you that you could take a look at too? (our sheep of course  :thumbsup:)
Pedigree Ryelands, Charolais cross Mules

Foobar

  • Joined Mar 2012
  • South Wales
Re: Best breeds for a beginner?
« Reply #14 on: January 19, 2015, 10:15:47 am »
Black Welsh Mountain :).


 

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