Help...Buying Sheep

[the woolly shepherd]

Where are you barmy? I will help you source/buy sheep suitable for your situation if you are in the south west............over 25 years experience with sheep

[Barmy]

would depend how far SW you are. I am in Surrey nr London

Dont mind travelling a bit if the price is right?

Thanks for the offer of help

[happy place]

barmy dont know much about sheep but am in surrey maybe we could meet for a pint and chat bout smallholding etc i am near junct 9 of the m25 and the nearest smallholding group ive found is in west sussex

[Barmy]

Well you are pretty much in the same place as me but I think my hubby might take umbridge at going for a pint with a fella I met online.

Thanks for the offer though

[ina]

ok now youve confused me. an earlier reply said buy them at two months old having been born between February and April. and then killed at the end of the summer.

Two months is the earliest I would buy them at - you could, for example, get orphan lambs at that age, and then fatten them up yourself. Other lambs are being sold now as stores (for further fattening - our farm manager just got £35 for some Scottish Blackface stores), or as fat lambs for slaughter - that would be cross breeds then! It's not that easy, and I'm sure there are differences within the country, depending on where you live.

And btw - take your hubby along for the pint!

[the woolly shepherd]

I am in Somerset but will always assist anyone to help prevent an expensive mistake

Surry may not be the ideal place to buy some nice lambs/sheep from.......but I may be wrong!

Have you thought of waiting until next spring and then buying a couple of ewes with lambs at foot..........there are some good deals to be had at market around May time. The ewes will then feed the lambs and everyone will eat the grass, you will have a couple of nice fleeces to make something like a pegloom rug with, depending on breed, later some lamb for the freezer and some nice lamb skins and you could then put the ewes back into the market in the breeding ewe section and be sheep free for the winter meaning no expensive winter feed etc...................and start agin the following year!

Just a thought.......

[VSS]

Get hold of a copy of the Farmer's Guardian or the Farmer's Weekly they are full of advert for sales and markets. The difficulty you might have is that sheep are usually sold in pens, abd they might be too large for you. However, there are quite often smaller pens of sheep. Also if yiou get to market quite early, talk to the auctioneer, tell them what you are looking for and they will do their best to help.

It can be a bit daunting at first, but it is all part of the learning curve.

[The Hopefuls]

hi there, sorry to butt in on someone elses thread but we have a 2 acre feild going spare with only 10 geese in, could someone please tell me if this would be possible....

to raise a number of orphaned lambs ( anyone tell me how many on 2 acres) and then sell them when its time for slaughter as LIVE sheep ready to slaughter and let the buyer take the sheep away themselves to the abatoir. ( will want one or two for our own freezer) and roughly what sort of price would we expect to get at this state of growth

(will geese and sheep be alright in the same feild) ?

many thanks brooke and kev