[farmershort]

My betterhalf and I had a great time at the Devon show on saturday (despite the rain) looking at stock ahead of our smallholding move.

Now, I should say, we have kept sheep before (up to 100 breeding ewes at one point) - and a mix of texels, welsh-halfbreds, herdwick, wendsleydale, and white face woodland.

We're properly soft on white-faced woodlands (and they're very very rare) so we'll be having a small flock of those.

as for our "other" breed, we'd suggested we wanted to find a native (and local preferred) breed that will provide tasty meat and will fatten on grass, giving at least a half decent carcass.

From looking at the pictures in the books we have, I was pretty set on the white-faced dartmoor. My other half putting forward a case for exmoor horns. Our small holding is deffo not in exposed moor country, and on viewing both those breeds at the show, we felt they were pretty small.

The big big surprised in the show were the Devon closewool and the Ryeland. I've never seen either up close, and was quite impressed. Devon closewool maintain the really strong forelegs no doubt passed down from their exmoor horn heritage, yet with a tall frame. Ryelands seem to have the most amazing shoulder structure, with a really really wide stance at the front. Very impressive.

So, does anyone on here have experience of these 2 breeds, and the pros/cons there might be? We're going to try and find some breeders of each who will sell us a half lamb carcass so that we can test, but in the mean time....

Thanks

Adam

[Marches Farmer]

I believe the breed came about when the Exmoor Horn was crosssed with a Devon Longwool.  If you're into the conservation of rare native breeds this may be the one to go for as it's geographically more concentrated than the Ryeland.  You could put some of the females to a Blue Faced Leicester to produce a Mule type for commerical appeal as we do when we put our Badger Face to one of our Southdown tups.  The Ryeland, being a Down sheep, will produce an excellent carcase with superb flavour but I have no experience of the DC.

[Remy]

I've only had experience of the Ryelands, what I can say is that lambs are generally a good size but they seem predisposed to getting quite fat - especially on my grass!     Also, the fleece is plentiful and dense and my shearer said that Ryelands are one of the most difficult to shear as they have fleece everywhere 


I've had a Ryeland x Charollais hogget killed and jointed for my own use.  It had a huge amount of fat on it as opposed to a purebred Gotland 3 yo which was all meat!

[Bionic]

I don't have any experience of the Devon but love my Ryelands. They aren't flighty, have good feet and just the sweetest nature. Yes, they do have fleece down their legs and on their faces but it doesn't seem to give my shearer a problem.

[waterbuffalofarmer]

This is according to the RBST
https://www.rbst.org.uk/layout/set/print/Rare-and-Native-Breeds/Sheep/Devon-Closewool
It may be worth getting in touch with breeders and asking to visit and walk around their holdings to see the sheep in their working clothes, also by getting to talk about their experiences of them may help you to decide. All the best with it all and with whichever one you decide. Is it too late to introduce you to the Lleyn?

[Rosemary]

If I was in Devon, I'd probably go for the local breed if it suited my management system.

I have Coloured Ryelands and love them though 

[farmershort]

thanks for the input all.

We've managed to find someone selling ryeland half-lambs so we've ordered one of those (worcestershire), althought it is a hogget. The test will be if it tastes a bit average AND it's a hogget, then it'll deffo put us off.

Had a chat with a nice lady yesterday who keeps devon closewools, but sadly can't do mail-order meat. She did say that they don't go on well to mutton, as they get very fatty. I'm not sure I've ever seen lean mutton, and I'm not sure it's even desirable, as the fat will baste the meat during the long slow cooking.... that said, I probably need to sample a bit more mutton than I have to date. I remember killing a WFW for mutton years and years ago.... a 3 year old I think.... lovely, but loads and loads of fat.

sorry WBF - no Lleyns for us. If we were going for something that small then the white-faced dartmoor might make more sense. Lleyns have a nice head on them, but that's about all I like about them really.

I'm getting the sense that Ryelands are a very popular smallholder breed. I do my own shearing, and I have to admit that the extra wool does raise an eyebrow - but it's not like we're going to have hundreds of them. I was also really impressed with some of the west country longwool breeds - very big frames to them, but I imagine fly strike would be sooooo much worse.

[waterbuffalofarmer]

Well I am glad youre testing to see, always the best way to go. My Lleyyns are quite big, not small. They produce a large decent sized carcass with an even fat layer and loads of meat. The meat is best at a year old as it takes time to mature and all of ours are grass reared, its the best meat I have ever tasted. Some of the more stockier breeds will have a bigger fat layer to them, as it is the way they were designed. I hope you find what youre looking for, heres wishing you all the best

[Sbom]

I love the White faced woodlands 

I hope you'll provide pictures aplenty so I can have my fix....

Would love a small flock of them eventually but just trying to build up my commercial sheep first.

Not a big ryland fan myself, they seem to run to fat easily, although they have decent stocky lambs.

[Marches Farmer]

If you put Southdowns on lots of good grass they will get fat.  If a fat ewe has a single lamb we adopt on another lamb to get her weight down.  If you put ewes in good condition on short grass (as on the South Downs) they will be fine.  They are a docile sheep breed that doesn't usually skip around, climb fences to eat the hedge or get restless after a week in the same field, as my Badger Face do.  When in the shed for lambing they eat around 40% less hay than the BF's - they just have a different metabolism and you have to strategise around that sometimes.  Horses for courses.....

[farmershort]

Marches - I've no idea where southdowns came into this, but I do thank you for the knowledge share all-the-same.

WBF - sorry, didn't meant to suggest anything about your lleyns personally, they're just not what we're looking for.

sbom - yes we will post many many photos of the WFW's. I bloomin love them. Our favourite individual sheep of all time (wilma) has been "on holiday" with the in-laws for the past 8 years, waiting for us to find our smallholding. She was from a WFW ewe, and a texel ram... such a pretty cross. I'm pretty tempted to go down that route again, but I'm wary of the terminal sire route, as it feels so commercial.

[wellies]

we keep Ryelands so I can only give our experience of raising these. The majority of our ram lambs go in our freezer or our customers. The meat is lovely but yes agree they can go to fat if not sent to slaughter at the correct time. We have found sending them at about 38kg gives a good meat to fat ratio. I'm not a fan of having no fat on a carcass as tbh you might as well buy from a supermarket one of their ultra lean piece. The fat dose give some good flavour but at this weight we haven't found it to be 'fatty'. Some of our lambs are nearly ready to go now, mainly singles, but others will carry on growing over the summer months and be sent when appropriate. The Ryeland is a dual purpose breed, producing excellent wool & meat, but I have found certain breed lines better for meat production and quicker growth. Others produce excellent fibre but take longer to grow on. I think there will be a Ryeland stand at the NSA this year promoting the Ryeland as a terminal sire so perhaps you could visit there to get more info? If I can help further please let me know. The Ryeland is a lovely sheep & generally easy to manage.

[Marches Farmer]

Marches - I've no idea where southdowns came into this, but I do thank you for the knowledge share all-the-same.

Southdowns are a Down breed the same as a Ryeland  and are almost identical in conformation, temperament, prolificacy and pretty much everything else except colouring, although at Hereford Livestock Market (which is the local one for the Ryeland breed) folks often can't tell the difference when we take our SD's in.