[Me]

, BH has been doing this for nearly half a century - and his experience shows!
[/quote]

He is an expert in his field

[nutterly_uts]

What a brilliant thread for a newbie - Thank you

Can I sort of jump in and piggyback in and ask if there is anything you could/should/would have done differently at the start to set you up in a better position?

[Coximus]

I tend to seperate all young off at weaning and keep them seperate, and any retianed lambs are kept with the flock. The lambs tend to go on fresh pasture / hay aftermath or rented 2-year ley, so no parasite issues.
I only worm If I have a problem / IE the weight gain dips bellow 200g/day avg when weighted every 4 weeks.
90% of my sheep never see click or crovect, - I cull militantly up and down bloodline when an animal gets ill.
A ewe gets foot rot twice, or struck once, Her daughters, mother and sisters are all removed from the flock.

I see little point in keeping freeloaders or spending money where it is not needed. The imrpvements are visible after just one year, and as you keep going the Sheeps welfare increases rapidly. Very much the idea behind the easycare sheep.

[mebnandtrn]

From our personal perspective our biggest costs are medicines / care products. Clik or its equivalent has a use by date, wormer / flukicide is also relatively costly when needed. Heptavac or lambivac is expensive too. These are our biggest annual costs. Many medicines etc seem to be sold in doses for 25 sheep, so space permitting, it would keep costs per head down to have more sheep, up to a maximum of 25, or multiples of 25. Just a thought.