Pages

Sunday 18 December 2011

Hi all

These past few weeks I have been putting up my lambing pens. They are brilliant. We have had our friends down to stay. Ian is the farm manger of one of the largest estates in England. Ian helped me to put up the lambing pens.

This week I received a comment from 'Mike' asking me what breed of sheep to buy, how much they will cost and should he buy them in lamb or with lambs because his son wants some sheep. My advice would be to think about these few things: (remember I am only 13 years old so I still need to learn lots!)
Breed Choice:
1. If you live on a hill you probably want to buy hill sheep like a Blackface or a Cheviot.
2. But if you live on lower ground you probably want to buy lowland sheep like a Texel or Suffolk.
3. You might consider the Rare Breed route. I don't know many Rare breeds but I know that you can get Soay or a Castle Morton. If you want to know more about rare breeds go to http://www.rbst.org.uk/.

Price:
1. Hill Sheep
  -Blackface cost about £100(in lamb)
  - Cheviot cost about £120 (in lamb)
2. Lowland Sheep
  - Suffolk cost about £320 (in lamb) but they are pedigree and will need to think if you want to keep pedigrees or do you want to be a commercial sheep farmer.
  - Texel (Pedigree) cost about £450 (in lamb)
  - Texel cross and a Suffolk cross, non pedigree, cost about £150 (in lamb)
3. I do not know how much a rare breed in lamb ewe would cost i'm afraid so visit the rare breed website.
A local auctioneer would also be willing to help.

In lamb or Ewes and Lambs:
If you want to buy them in lamb and have the thrill of lambing then certainly buy them in lamb. If you do chose to buy them in lamb you would have to buy all the lambing equipment needed for lambing. But if you buy them with lambs it would be easier for your first year. People who sell ewes with lambs probably think that the lambs or the ewes are not good enough so you may not get the best qualitiy but some farmers just sell them straight away whatever.

These are a few pics of my pens:



I hope this has helped you. If you need some more advice do not be afraid to leave a comment.

More questions welcomed.

Jack

2 comments:

  1. Hi jack
    Thank you for your advice.
    My son and I have decided to buy 20 Suffolk cross ewes and 25 Pedigree Suffolk ewes that are in lamb.

    Thank you for your advice again.
    Mike

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am hoping to buy some in lamb ewes and I would like you to tell me what the prices is like or should i by ewes and lambs and what the prices are
    thank you
    peter

    ReplyDelete