[BenBhoy]

Might not have the novelty, but in terms of animals that tick rest if your requirements id say Lleyn or a Lleyn cross. Yes I'm as guilty as everyone else for suggesting their own breed! We've had first year with lleyn X charmoise hill and produced fantastic lambs.

[Me]

Yes it is a cracking cross

[nutterly_uts]

The ideal sheep therefore will be one that is suited to low lying rich grazing, is easy to work with (for the inexperienced, i..e easy lambers, milky ewes, good temperament), low maintenance (my husband works away and I have 2 young kids), can stay out year round (can provide field shelters) and very importantly, it must taste good!

I'm relatively new to sheep, I've not got any of my own currently, but have helped for several years with lambing and then spraying, vaccinating, shearing and foot bathing etc.

I've "met" suffolk crosses, southdowns and their crosses (these were suffolk cross x southdown), rough fells, cheviots, herdwicks, texels and their crosses (some texel x suffolk, some texel x all sorts) and some generic white sheep.  I didn't find much difference between them all, save to say I am not a southdown fan - too hairy and dopey for me, but any of the others were fine

I would personally say avoid anything that gets a top knot or is very hairy, and when you buy AND keep - be ruthless about feet, mastitis and other problems. Don't buy anything with bad feet or that you can find out has had bag problems and if you have a sheep with bad feet or bag problems, don't keep it. If you aren't aiming to supply huge number's and want to keep girls year after year, don't keep anything that prolapses or is a bad mother, don't keep anything that you have to throw extra feed at etc etc

Rather than worry too much about the type, make sure you've sorted out the basics first - your race and/or where you plan to do any necessary work, how to make your field/s work to make getting the sheep in for vaccination/shearing etc etc the easiest for you - IMO if you have the frame work, the breed of sheep you like will work around you, letting you pick what you like

[AilsavanRooyen]

I think I better step in again and better describe our farm as I think when people think of Scotland they tend to think it is all rather wild and for the hardy only! Our area is in fact very soft, fertile and low lying, with most agricultural land here being used in the production of arable crops, soft fruits and beef or dairy. Sadly indeed it is not as warm as or southern neighbours, but we don't get much snow, if any, and the winters are mild. To this end we are in the fortunate position of probably being able to take pretty much any breed we would like. On a personal level I really like the Soay and Hebridean sheep as I spent a couple of seasons on St Kilda, surrounded by Soay sheep, and my cousin has Hebs and they really are incredibly delicious, and lovely sheep. So to Fleecewife I thank you for you well considered recommendations and advice. However, as alluded to by Porterlauren, these might not be the most economically sensible choice for us since when you factor in the time to mature and fixed abattoir costs, irrespective of size, then I think we may be better thinking of a larger lowland breed. My thoughts are currently on perhaps a small number of multihorned hebs or Jacobs (which sound really good) for breeding sales, some meat sales, our own freezer and undeniable attraction, plus some zwartbles or ryelands for main flock, where they will also perform well on all of the above but perhaps with more productivity. We do need to keep a keen eye on commercial viability as quite frankly we will need the money! But I do not see this as reason to compromise on joy of the job when there are so many choices available, and quality must play a large part in this mix. I have yet to look at all the other suggestions but will certainly do so. Waterbuffalofarmer, good idea and what I had in mind. I just have to get a speed on as sales are happening now! Nutterly_uts, spot on, breed is far from the only priority! Getting a 'sheep head' on might just take time, but good to get have such pointers. Just ordered Tim Tyne's book. having read some others I was not feeling genned up enough. Sounds like that should help. I just wonder if I might be able to find some local sheep hand to turn to as that would be a big help (assuming they were a good shepherd!) Perhaps I put that call out on another thread before long!

[harmony]

When do you want to have lamb ready to sell in your shop?


You could buy store lambs to finish and later some in lamb sheep to give you a crop of lambs next year. If you want to stock your shop all year round you need to think how you are going to achieve that.


Lamb and sheep prices are down at present and it is a buyers market.

[Herdygirl]

Herdwicks - the Queen of meats 

[Anke]

I think it all depends on your customers and what meat they want - lamb (you need a lowland cross like a texel cross to finish quick, but not to leave longer than lamb as they get fat)) or hogget (where the slower maturing breeds come into play) and mutton (where you want a really slow-growing animal that doesn't put down fat - the traditional breeds like Shetlands, Hebs etc come into their own).

But on rich ground Shetlands may do just too well.... they are however a good crossing ewe to something like a texel or Charollais, giving quite reasonable lamb carcasses with easy lambings.

[AilsavanRooyen]

Harmony - sorry I may have confused again, we don't have the farm shop yet. It is only in planning phase at the moment but we hope to have it up and running in 2 or 3 years time for once the kids start school and we have established our red deer herds (another story but that is to be our main focus)  Whether or not we can offer year round lamb/hogget/mutton sales remains to be seen but I believe to some extent one can play around with breed of tup to extend breeding season, depending of course on ewe breed and growing conditions. I cannot see us working an intensive system so it is much more likely we will offer the meat according to the season, or of course frozen. We will also have to determine what sells best, but for that we will have to open first. We won't have so many sheep that a change of mind regarding breed should break the bank, but it would be nice to get it mostly right. And then of course to do right by them, and know how to select well will play a huge part in our success.

[waterbuffalofarmer]

Harmony - sorry I may have confused again, we don't have the farm shop yet. It is only in planning phase at the moment but we hope to have it up and running in 2 or 3 years time for once the kids start school and we have established our red deer herds (another story but that is to be our main focus)  Whether or not we can offer year round lamb/hogget/mutton sales remains to be seen but I believe to some extent one can play around with breed of tup to extend breeding season, depending of course on ewe breed and growing conditions. I cannot see us working an intensive system so it is much more likely we will offer the meat according to the season, or of course frozen. We will also have to determine what sells best, but for that we will have to open first. We won't have so many sheep that a change of mind regarding breed should break the bank, but it would be nice to get it mostly right. And then of course to do right by them, and know how to select well will play a huge part in our success.

I agree about seasonal lamb/hogget, that's what I do with my sheep. I am intrigued to hear abut your red deer, how are you going to have them killed for meat? By bullet or on farm abattoir?

[vkmcc]

Hi I am based in the west of Scotlandand keep a variety of breeds currently have Jacobs, Border Leisters, Zwartbles, Suffolk's, texels and crosses of these breeds I couldn't decide what breed I liked from what you have described it sounds like the zwartbles might be what you are looking we just sent March pure zwartbles to our local butcher for the first time and he was really impressed with the meat and so were his customers. As people have previous said everyone has there own favourite breed I started with Jacobs and just ended up buying different breeds I liked still can't decide what breed I prefer. Feel free to pm me if you would like any further info about any of the breeds I've collected. Good luck on your  new adventure.

[SallyintNorth]

If you want year-round fresh sheep meat for your shop you have three choices that I can think of.

• A slow-maturing animal (eg., most of the primitives) which you can slaughter at any stage once they're ready
• A non-seasonal breeder such as the Dorset Horn / Poll Dorset.  These would do well on the ground you describe, I think, and do taste good.  I helped for a while on a farm which had two flocks of Dorsets, one lambing in spring, the other in autumn, and so they could offer fresh lamb year round.  You can use the same tup on both flocks, I think, but in this system each ewe only lambs once a year.
• Have whichever sheep turn you on, and buy in store lambs to fill in the gaps in your own production calender

On primitives or not, the only thing that has occurred to me is that some primitives have meat that's more akin to venison than lamb, on terms of flavour and leanness.  If you're selling venison anyway, then that may be either a good thing or not so good!

The Dorset Horn / Poll Dorset is a rare breed, though not primitive, so you would still have that angle.  And nice fleeces are good to spin 

[beagh-suffolks]

ile de france sound like the breed that would suit you well, there are very versatility, and adaptable, there meat is high quality, they grow at a good rate and is well graded, lamb out of season(same as dorsets) and need very little help lambing( real milky ewes to) and produce real nice fleeces. thought i would add a few pictures, for ones who havent really seen the before

[Porterlauren]

The only breed thats been mentioned which is really a credible commercial maternal breed is the lleyn. The rest are mostly for novelty.

[Womble]

 They're certainly commercial Porterlauren, but to Joe Public, Lleyns just look like standard white sheep

The reason I thought the Z's might work here is because they are borderline commercial, the meat is a bit leaner than some, and they are also striking to look at and renowned for being friendly (perhaps because of their dairy origins). As Fleecewife says, they are a big leggy sheep. However, ours are so docile, I can walk up to them in the field and tip them, without worrying about my bad back. For me, that makes them far easier than our panicky Manx Loaghtans, even though the Z's are far larger.

So, friendly, milky, easy lambing, lambs finish the same year...... what's not to like?  Well, some keepers on here, myself included, have had problems with bad feet, whilst others have reported that they need hard feed to do well (maybe not for the OP if she's at sea level and has rich grass). They are also neither rare nor British of course!

P.S. Here are a couple of pics to illustrate. I'm sorry - I just can't help myself sometimes! 

[shotblastuk]

The only breed thats been mentioned which is really a credible commercial maternal breed is the lleyn. The rest are mostly for novelty.
'Novelty' Interesting choice of word there. Not a description I would use for the hard work and commitment a lot of folks on here put into keeping pure breed sheep going!
 Commercial breeds / crossbreeds are vitally important to the farming industry we need to supply the conveyor belt supermarket system for bland tasting fast growing lamb .
Smallholders and crofters (That is what this site is all about isn't it)? have an  opportunity to offer something different to the market by keeping some of the more ' unique ' breeds in smaller numbers and offering a better quality product as well as supporting the rare breeds. I am of the opinion that wool will have its day again at some point in the future.
Apologies for digressing off subject .