[Helencus]

Hi a friend rents his field out to someone with Jacob sheep and she has some ram lambs for sale for fattening. 2 questions do they taste good and will they eat docks?

[Daisy]

I'm told they taste good, not tried any yet, as for eating docks I would suspect not if there is grass about, but once the grass goes probably 

[Fleecewife]

Jacob meat is good, as long as you don't let your wethers get fat and don't feed supplements.  They are usually ready for slaughter at about 7 months. They are midway between a primitive and a commercial in taste and the gigot is longer than a commercial as they are a long-legged breed. Nice big joints though.
For the dock eating, we are back to what is poisonous for sheep !  When we kept Jacobs they did eat docks and anything else going, including apple trees. If the pasture is badly infested, is it possible to mow it and collect the clippings, so that they don't OD on docks straight away but can just nibble out any new growth?

[mab]

Never eaten jacobs myself but I'm told it's good - Hope so as the ram that serviced my ewes was a jacobs.

I was under the impression that docks are one of those thing to be wary of with sheep (I.e. they shouldn't eat them) but my memory may be faulty.

mab

[Helencus]

Thanks fleecewife. I can strim the soca before puttiing sheep on. I didn't realise they could be harmfull to sheep though. Do you feed any hard feed at all?

[Fleecewife]

Hi Helencus

If you just strim, the bits will be left and they'll eat them.  Best to clear them up somehow, which is where a lawnmower can be helpful, even after the strimming.  Check with your vet just how much dock is ok and meanwhile I will try to check too.
We don't keep Jacobs any more, just Hebrideans and Soay, but when we did we found that the Jacobs put on fat too quickly with hard feeding in the summer.  Grain affects the taste too and apparently raises the levels of 'bad fat'. I'll need to revise that bit and come back later - something about CLA, which has been studied in Shetland sheep (there's not a smiley for forgetful old codgers).  Grass fed is best for meat animals, with ad lib hay if you are worried about not having enough grass.  We feed Carr's Tup and Lamb or Coarse Sheep Mix over the winter plus licky buckets and hay, but in the summer it's just grass, grass, grass (and licky buckets !)

[Helencus]

Thanks again. I'd be running them with our horses and I don't give them anything else either in the winter. Will check with vet re docs cheers

[egglady]

Hi Helencus

If you just strim, the bits will be left and they'll eat them.  Best to clear them up somehow, which is where a lawnmower can be helpful, even after the strimming.  Check with your vet just how much dock is ok and meanwhile I will try to check too.
We don't keep Jacobs any more, just Hebrideans and Soay, but when we did we found that the Jacobs put on fat too quickly with hard feeding in the summer.  Grain affects the taste too and apparently raises the levels of 'bad fat'. I'll need to revise that bit and come back later - something about CLA, which has been studied in Shetland sheep (there's not a smiley for forgetful old codgers).  Grass fed is best for meat animals, with ad lib hay if you are worried about not having enough grass.  We feed Carr's Tup and Lamb or Coarse Sheep Mix over the winter plus licky buckets and hay, but in the summer it's just grass, grass, grass (and licky buckets !)

fleecewife, do you feed hard feed when the ewes are feeding the lambs?  We've been told to feed twice a day until the lambs stop feeding from the ewes, but we do have them in a 2 acre field so there is lots of grass around.  PS - they are shetlands

[Fleecewife]

Hi Egglady
We feed our ewes with concentrates (sheep coarse mix is sufficient for primitives, not pencils which are higher protein) for the six weeks before the first one is due to lamb, gradually increasing the amount.  We carry on through lambing (April) at the high rate and then on into May.  At the moment, late May, they are all still interested and are eating plenty of grass plus a slightly reduced amount of concentrates.  I am expecting that some time in the next few weeks they will show less and less interest in the concentrates so we will reduce the amount they get.  In practice we tend to continue to give them a little up until late June because we usually take sheep to the Royal Highland Show, where they need to eat concentrates, so we are continuing to maintain the correct gut flora until then.  We stop after that. This year we are not taking ewes with lambs, just 2 gimmer shearlings and a tup, so we will stop feeding the ewes when they tell us to.
We judge the precise amount to give by  a mixture of the general condition of the sheep - not too fat or too thin - and by how much they want to eat.  If they eat it all very quickly we know they need more, but if they tend to wander off before it's finished then we know they are getting too much.  For those who wean their lambs at 3 months, that would almost be feeding throughout milking, but in the later stage of ewes feeding their lambs, after 3 months, the lambs are getting a lot of nutrition from grass and the quantity of milk from the ewes decreases, so their need for concentrates also decreases.
We had deep snow at the end of March, beginning of April this year and plenty of frosts since so the grass was late to get going and we have been feeding more concentrates than usual.  It varies from year to year.

 

[egglady]

fleecewife, that's really helpful - many thanks indeed
Laura