Sheep for beginners

My grandfather had a saying years ago "a sick sheep is a dead sheep", so you will save on vet bills but a healthy sheep will be dead in an hour from some ailment or other.

Sheep won't be kept in place using cattle fencing.

There was a mix of Suffolk, Rouge and Texel on the family farm here years ago.

The Suffolk and Rouge were the hardiest round here, but it depends where you are from ie hilly West of Ireland ground needs hilly West of Ireland sheep.

It's surprising how much sheep eat, they use their teeth to clip grass so it gets cut to the butt. Grows real leafy after though

My thoughts would be stay away from pet lambs alot of hassel and there costing nearly 35 euro at the minute. Maybe buy ewe with lambs at foot. Once ewe bags alright then not a bad buy if decent land off load the lambs come 42kg and fatten the ewes after or keep if decent stock. Fat ewes going 3.50 a kilo. Main thing with lambs and sheep is fencing and buying the correct stock. Never buy lame, and never buy them if there scratching. Crossbreed type ewe would be fine and hardy, sometimes I find texels can have bad feet and prone to scald and suffolks are usually better that just my experience. Always found suffolk lambs extremely greedy and hence very easy to fatten.

Started out a few yrs ago as a complete beginner. If i was you id buy a few ewe lambs and run them on as hoggets for breeding next yr. By the time you go lambing you will have gotten the hang of handling sheep etc. If you decide they are not for you its easy sell hoggets

You cant feed pet lambs cow milk unless you want to kill them. it's too rich, you'll need to buy a proper lamb milk replacer.

the bucket is also not ideal, they either drink too much or don't drink at all . with one lamb your best bet is bottle feed. 3 /4 times a day but that cant be gradually cut down when the lamb is a few months old.

in terms of hardy-only buy a lamb that got its colostrum. breeds irrelevant but I am a fan of scotch blackface or cheviot. Suffolk are soft. buy a ewe with lambs at foot, save yourself the feeding.

If you're registered on Agfood you can check your movements there.

Oh god ya that is a suitable statement 😂

When we had 500+ewes our losses in the ewes was less than 1% probably nearer to 0.5%. The bad press for sheep is very exaggerated.

My father used to talk about a sick sheep being a dead sheep but management and science has moved on a lot since then

Ya and that is fair enough wrangler I haven't farmed sheep for 30 year's.where the quote rings true is where sheep are in inexperienced hands.

Apart from a ewe putting out her guts, I'd never question getting a vet for a sick ewe if she needs it

I got into sheep 5 years ago, bought 20 Texel cross ewe lambs, put up 4 rows of electric fencing, once they got a rattle off it, they weren't long getting trained, give a handfull of nuts till they settle, it will come in handy when yiu want to move them..

luckily i havent lost any apart from a couple of lambs at lambing time

i had to apply for a flock number, had an inspection before i was granted it but it was no bother, once you have a bit field fenced, you will be grand.

Best of luck with them, but go for lowlands as they will settle in a lot easier to fence with the electric fence

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Similar situation to yourself OP, only ever had cattle and decided to try sheep as the west of ireland land i have is so wet getting sick of cattle ploughing it for months at a time even with them housed for half the year.

What i did was 2 years ago fenced 2 fields for sheep and got 40 store lambs in the back end to get used to sheep and see did i like working with them. They went ok and the year that was in it left a few euro. When i sold them last year i bought a few ewes with lambs (about 6 wks old) at foot. Again just to get used to them and see what work was involved, granted the lambs at that age were nearly strong enough that there was not much minding.

I have now 10 ewes that are gone to the ram, so hopefully lambing for the 1st time at easter. If all goes ok i hope to double the amount each year for the next few years. Plan this year to do some more fencing. Big thing i think with sheep is good fencing and handling facilities.