Hi all,
We keep a small flock of sheep up in the North East of Scotland and are now in our 5th year. My wife is a keen hand spinner which led us to start our own flock. Funny that we started with 2 to and have ended up with a flock of around 30, mostly a mix of registered and unregistered Shetland sheep.
We mainly concentrate on fleece production and with the aim of improving the quality of the wool. The unregistered Shetlands are put to a heavier crossing ram, a Grey Faced Dartmoor, to produce bigger lambs which always sell on well at the mart.
Our lambs are sold either privately or through the local mart at Thainstone. We also sell a few for the freezer and let the lambs grow on to either hogget or mutton for a bigger carcass with a richer flavour.
Our flock consists mainly of Shetlands but we have kept a few odd sheep as we "test drove" a few different breeds before settling on Shetlands. So we have a few Black Welsh Mountains, a Jacob and a couple of Grey Faced Dartmoors which being big softies we couldn't bear to part with.
Looking forward to joining in the conversation regarding all things sheep related.
We also keep bantam Scots Dumpy chickens but that's another story!