Sheep

[Tigerhair]

I could have access to a cheap to rent 5 acres of OK land - it can flood, tho'. If I wanted to keep some sheep for food for us, how many would I need, what kind are best, everything really... just a thought...

[Andy Hamilton]

this might help http://www.selfsufficientish.com/sheep.htm

[Shirley]

that's a great article! Ina will no doubt have some good advice too as she looks after sheep - and if you lived closer she'd be offering the lawnmowing services of a young male sheep !!

We had Ryland sheep - we started with 2 ewes.

We also went the bottle-fed lamb route too with one sickly little lamb... it WAS rewarding, but it was hard work too. She turned into a good healthy sheep but didn't get caught at last time of running with the tup (male sheep)

The other two ewes - one had two ear tags and we called her teenage mum (no disrespect intended at all) and the other we rather unoriginally called Dolly... went on to lamb last year. It was wonderful to see the lambing.. Dolly had triplets and lambed through the night, teenage mum had twins, but one died (and had no chance of survival because of twin lamb syndrome (not sure that is true term) and was half the size.

We moved, and left the sheep with a friend in Herefordshire (completed all the essential DEFRA forms that are required) - hopefully we'll have sheep again sometime soon.

The paperwork is an essential part of the process - you will need a holding number to keep sheep and should speak to DEFRA to find out exactly what is required. That said, it's fairly basic paperwork and easy to fill in, so don't let it put you off.

[ina]

I think the article covers most questions - but there's a few things left to consider:
You say you want them for food - meat only, or milk as well? And do you want to use their wool, and if so, for what? Do you have a shed, or a half-open shelter for them in the field, or will they have to be hardy enough for outside all year round? (Believe me, lambing is always more pleasant inside, no matter which breed you've got!)

For milk, the best breed would be Friesians. You can still eat the male progeny.
Wool - you get hardly any money for it nowadays. So if you want to use it for yourself - the hardy breeds like Scottish Blackface have quite coarse wool, suitable for mattresses and rugs, but less for clothing. I'm quite partial to Shetland sheep; they have nice wool, and come in different colours.

Oh yes, and as Shirlz says, we've got a few male Soays to give away... Nothing wrong with them, just surplus to requirement.

Ina

[Tigerhair]

Thanks everyone, I have a book called Small Scale Sheep Keeping and I'll check out the article and if I have any further questions, I'll check back with ya!

[Jessica]

Hi we used to have a pet lamb my sister and i liliy the lamb she would run into the kitchen and eat everything she could get at she was a demon
she would eat my sisters ponies food and would ram the dogs , my sister gave her to a pet farm. i don't like the taste of lamb and would never eat lamb. i have notthing against people who do.

jessie

[Shirley]

I used to HATE the taste of lamb...memories of eating it as a Sunday roast at my grandparents are of it being somewhat overcooked and very chewy - almost like chewing gum in that it lasted for ages and ages and all the taste would go and you would need to find somewhere to spit it out!!

It all changed when (to my mother's horror) I tried a recipe that suggested that it should be pink (of course) and it was delicious and meltingly tender.