[noshed]

Build the field and they will come...

[tosca100]

It would be a disaster if I had a smallholding, it would be full of useless animals who need a home!

[John]

What worries me is that I woke up this morning with 5 of 6 cats on the bed.. add in some poultry, pigs and a herd of sheep and I'm going to need a pretty big bed!

Lovely as the new place is, we'll have a mortgage to pay off and so can't just rely on the income from the holding, which I think will be tiny for a year or two at least. So not off the treadmill rodent race yet.

[joyfull]

but you will be able to count the sheep to help you get to sleep whilst you are worrying about the new mortgage 

[madcat]

Poultry ... you are talking chickens and clearly you are going to get 'talked' (should that be quacked?) into ducks.  They will end up as pets.   

 

Geese!  Graze geese on the paddock.  Now there is an income earner!!  With all of affluent posh Cheshire on your doorstep, no trouble to turn into mortgage payments.  And isnt there a forum member up that way with geese??     Michaelmas and Christmas geese, with added burglar alarm potential.  Plus eggs for your  breakfast.  Ching ching!  And you cant take a flock of geese to bed with you!   

[tosca100]

That's done it! I now have a vision of a HUGE bed with an odd assortment of domestic and farm animals cuddled up with you.......................

And I suppose any wild animal or bird who might need to rest and recuperate............

[Iain@JBA]

I have pedigree suffolk sheep but they take alot of handling if you need to do anything with them as they are so big.
Something like a Zwartable would best suit what you are looking for John.

[John]

Thanks Iain - looked at this page: http://www.zwartbles.org/index.php?page=about-the-breed and realised how ignorant I am when I read "Other breeders, aware of the Zwartbles' reputation for rapid growth rate and a low fat carcase, are successfully using the rams as terminal sires."

Now what is a 'terminal sire'? Surely not a dead one

[Paul Plots]

I read somewhere that someone has bred a sheep that doesn't need shearing, and produces decent meat. Sounds interesting.

Was it in Australia - a sheep / roo cross with a woolly jumper?   

[Iain@JBA]

John a terminal sire is the name given to a ram or breed of ram that could be used to produce lambs for the meat market.
They are very quiet and would be ideal sheep for you, unless you want to go all the way and get some proper heavy weight suffolks.

[John]

Thanks Iain - I'll be reading up and going on a hands-on course before taking them on anyway.

[Snoop]

How about coming to an arrangement with the farmer already using the land for his sheep, at least in the meantime while you get yourself settled in? Rent could be a lamb slaughtered and ready for the freezer at certain intervals throughout the year.

The Zwartbles are attractive looking sheep. I wouldn't mind a few of those myself! Anybody any idea how to pronounce the name? They sound like cartoon characters, perhaps living on a planet next door to the Clangers.

[noshed]

I saw some huge sheep in Derbyshire last weekend - there were about four of them lolling about in the shelter of a wall so I assumed they were men sheep. They were about twice the size of normal sheep.

[arugula]

I saw some huge sheep in Derbyshire last weekend - there were about four of them lolling about in the shelter of a wall so I assumed they were men sheep. They were about twice the size of normal sheep.

That sounds like men sheep. Kept in small groups and much bigger than normal sheep. Those boys will be getting ready to go to work soon... possibly are already in some parts of the country.

[Gwiz]

My vet warned me that some sheep are 'designed' for poor grazing and get 'bloat?' if they go onto land that's too good. However, we're going to be at 600 feet so not too lush. Not as bad as at 1000 feet though

When I read your original post I knew, in the back of my memory, that there is a reason why most of the Welsh hill farmers go for the same breed.
I've read in the past how sheep from Wales don't do too well on the lusher pasture on lower altitude fields in England.
I wonder if the reverse is true? Sheep bred in England not fairing too well on the poorer grazing in Wales?
I can't say I know much about sheep, apart from they are expensive wrapped up in the shop.....