[shep53]

You see the odd pen of small hill store lambs under £20 at the market and if I sell x lambs with horns I expect £5-10 less than ones with no horns .     Last foot and mouth problem  cull ewes from some of the islands  were    £1 each or buy one get one free .   

[kelly58]

That is so sad for the rare breeds, l am very fortunate l keep mine for the pleasure of having them . 

[Coximus]

If you need your flock to pay their are ways around this;

Breed a few pure by all means;

Use an xbred or terminal tup, I've used Texel, Char and easycare over hebrideans, and in all cases you get a lamb at slaughter weight within 10-12 months, and usually get an extra 3-4 Kg per animal too. Also you get 80/20 white over black in my experience and 60-70% polled.

This translates to your cross lambs easily getting £55-65 in the ring - as long as their white. Black ones tend to be £10 back, especially if horned, but the meat buyers KNOW that they are getting a VERY LEAN carcase which is what alot of them want, but with good frame and conformation.

I have also had luck using a texel x heb tup, so the lambs are 1/4 Texel - this confers a great benefit to the legs and size, finishing time is about 12 months give or take a month and weight at finishing about 41-42kg. Downside is lambs are black, upside is most were polled. They went as blue texels for some reason (auctioneers choice) and fetched £50 a head.... This cross is also as easy lambing as the pure, so again adding value and getting rid before the second winter.

[Garmoran]

rare breed sale in Dingwall on the 7th November and when I hear some of the prices for hebs, shetlands etc it makes me mad

There are a few sellers that send Hebs to Fort William mart, too, but I don't remember ever seeing one hit the £10 mark. Very few buyers are interested. People that I know who keep them seem to send most direct to slaughter.