Thinking ahead to Autumn here.
We have 12 Shetland ewes, who belong to my children, but mainly my middle one, Angus, who is 3. He has a pretty good grasp of the way things are, that we produce animals for meat and so on. But, he is VERY attached to his Shetland tup, Ken. we have just had a sort out of tups, and culled anything that we won't use again this back end. Angus persuaded me to keep Ken (I wouldn't have actually culled him, he is only 3 shear, so I would have looked for a swap, but that is beside the point). He says he understands that we can't keep Ken for ever but wants to keep him a bit longer.
The problem lies in that we have 4 of Ken's daughters to tup in November. There is absolutely no way I am getting into a two tup situation for 16 ewes, and I am not keeping something, not even as Angus's pet, that is not producing, so need to tup these 4 with something we have. The choices are: Lairg type cheviot (could work well), Kerry Hill (ideal shape for easy lambing but offsping likely to be worth about 10p, I would think), Berrichon (ditto Kerry Hill, although maybe a bit more shapely. And might just be interesting!) or texel (a normal shaped one that looks like a sheep, but still a bit worried about the lamb size for lambing, although offspring might at least get the boy some pocket money for a new tup!).
Thoughts and experiences?