Lambs - steep learning curve

[Elizabeth]

Looking to have lawn mowers and for the table.

We will have 3/4 of an acre which we will divide up and rotate sheep and chickens on. We also have grazing and rights of way onto the moors straight from the land. I'm thinking maybe three lambs one to fatten for the table, other two we'll put to a borrowed ram in the autumn.

Have read lots of the useful previous posts.

Anyone recommend an easy to use book, website for a complete beginner?

Anyone have a favorite breed? - no horns thank-you and would quite like to support RB. Have started to look into Greyface Dartmoors and Whiteface Dartmoors.

[red]

sounds like you are coming from the same place as we did.

well as you know we have Devon closewools - and we really like them. They are not considered a RB - but I still like the notion of having something particular to our area - and the advantage of that is you are likely to get something suited to your conditions.
Devon closewool assn - we approached someone from there and bought three hoggets. we really like them, only disadvantage is they are large and heavy to turn, but the upside is the lambs get to killing weight quickly... the wool is lovely and white and we find easy to spin.

I have heard the dartmoor breeds tend to be more escapologists.. certainly smaller... if you are on moorland though... it could be good to get a breed suited. (the closewool is associated with Exmoor though.. so prolly is suitable too) i prefer the whiteface to the greyface.. the Dartmoor whiteface is a nice looking sheep, Paula at Locks park keeps them - might be worth making contact?

The ram we borrow is a polled Dorset, they seem like a nice breed too.

Can't particularly recommend a book, we have a few, and they differ - perhaps borrow some from the library and see how you get on.
Do suggest joining DASH - they run courses pretty cheap and useful. we went on the lambing course.. run by a vet, got to handle sheep and practice lambing with dead lambs. sounds grim but was very useful.


hope that helps!

[Davy]

hi my dad farms sheep and he has 3 different breeds which are Crossbreads, Suffloks and Texals. i like them all but to be honest if you're looking for a few lambs go for the Crossbread and i would advice a suffolk ram and for fatten for the table i personally would go for the texals to a texal ram and they would be likely to have 2 lambs each year. the suffolk would have similar lambs to the texal but they are more likely to have smaller lambs. i hope this helps

[Elizabeth]

Thanks for the info above.

I'm in Scotland at the mo but when I get back I'm going to join DASH and book on a couple of courses.