Sheep

[john87]

1 hour ago, Zaman said:

Can I ask... if sheep are so much work and time consuming and headache to have... then why does everyone have them? 

Ok, my mate with the 130 acres.. As i said, we had about 200 breeding ewes. There was also a market not 4 miles from the farm and he owned several long established butchers shops.. There was a slaughter house about ten miles away..

 

So, we would grade the lambs [they had to be a target weight bracket, cannot remember what it was after all these years] you did not weigh the things though, you knew by feel, and then we would take them to the market and they would grade the things too. My mate was an expert on these things so never ever got it wrong..

 

The things would sell, if they were the right price, he would buy his own sheep back. I know this sounds daft, but you got a subsidy for them, so if they were they right price, it made sense to buy them back, if not, we would buy someone elses..

 

Now, the slaughter house transport people had a presence at the market, so, once bought, you would just go and tell them the pen numbers your sheep were in, and they would do the rest. About a day later, we would go to collect the now dead sheep, and take them to the shop..

 

My friend was very much like you. He more or less inherited the farm, AND, he was from a bit of a farming background.

 

He was basically self taught though.. I asked him how he was such an expert, and he said he was not to start with!!

 

I asked how he learnt. He told me from books and listening to others. I asked, "what you mean?? how did you know when to dip the things and about worming and when to do it and all that sort of stuff?"

 

He said that when you were down the market, you would hear the other farmers talking about the subject of the day. "got to worm the bloody sheep next week" that sort of thing. The others knew he was a new face round there and he would get talking to others and they would all be keen to offer advice..

 

The HUGE advantage my friend had, was that not only did he have the farm, he had the shops too. This meant that he knew exactly what the "end user" if you like, wanted.

 

The other advantage, was that he had a wage from the shops, he never took a penny out of the farm for many many years, and of course, lived there for nothing.

 

The only stuff he had to buy in was fencing materials, the oats and barley, wormers and the like and fuel for the tractors, oh, and straw for bedding. We did our own hay, about 2000 bales at a time. We made about 100 bales of silage too..

 

He had cattle, but only about 15 of them. Like you, i did not like the things one bit!! I used to dehorn calves though, but that was it for me!

 

Now, my friend also rented out space for horses. The one bloke had about eight of them. This bloke was a right pain, and i asked my mate why he put up with it. He replied; "because i make more money out of him than i ever do with the sheep" This gives you an idea how it is, and this was nearly 40 years ago..

 

Now, nearly 40 years later, the market has closed, the slaughter house has closed, and my mate buys in all the meat for the shops from a wholesaler. He says it is cheaper than growing the things yourself..

 

He still has the horses there and rents out about 60 acres to some looney with sheep!!

 

This bloke, [the one with the sheep] does not make a bean, basically because he will not be told, wrong sheep, wrong ram, not a clue and will not be told.. Totally clueless, i could do better..

 

I asked my friend about a year ago about the subsidies. He said it has all changed now, and is so complicated that unless you farm thousands of acres, it is not worth the effort..

 

So, if you want to do it, you will learn the same way, but you will never make any money out of it.. I mean, you need one van to take the things to the market, a different van to get them back from the slaughter house, you will be buying in hay and straw, the list goes on. It is like Gareth said above..

 

Probably better off covering your land with solar panels..

 

What ever you do, please post back, as we are all interested in such things, so would like to see how you are getting on. Others on here know FAR FAR more than me, i was just a sort of amateur at this sort of thing, but believe me, when the owners clear off for weeks on holiday, and you are left in sole charge of 130 acres and 200 sheep [that all belong to your best mate] it concentrates your mind no end!!

 

Good luck with it all though!!

 

john..

[difflock]

Oliver Walston, a very large scale arable farmer, in Cambridgeshire I seem to recall, was once tempted to invest in a flock of sheep, properly, on a commercial basis, complete with shepard, way back, say some 45 year ago, because, "there was money in sheep!".

Anyway, after about 3 years he "divested" and summed up his experience thus; "I should have listened to the local retired shepard who told me, "Mr. Walston, a ewes only ambition in life is to die""

Which actually agreeded with the contemporary rueful observation of a local mechanic with a few inherited acres, who being tempted into owning sheep cos of the money to be made, said, yes, there was money in sheep, mostly his money  .  .  .

[petercb]

9 hours ago, difflock said:

Oliver Walston, a very large scale arable farmer, in Cambridgeshire I seem to recall, was once tempted to invest in a flock of sheep, properly, on a commercial basis, complete with shepard, way back, say some 45 year ago, because, "there was money in sheep!".

Anyway, after about 3 years he "divested" and summed up his experience thus; "I should have listened to the local retired shepard who told me, "Mr. Walston, a ewes only ambition in life is to die""

Which actually agreeded with the contemporary rueful observation of a local mechanic with a few inherited acres, who being tempted into owning sheep cos of the money to be made, said, yes, there was money in sheep, mostly his money  .  .  .

This in a nutshell.

 

Had about 30 ewes some years ago, started of with a couple of orphan lambs.

 

Lovely to be in the lambing shed late at night with soft rustle of hay and little murmurings from lambs.

 

Not so good beiing in Oz when foot and mouth broke out, all pregnant ewes on home paddock, 2 acres, for a couple of weeks which turned into 6 months with nearly 60 lambs then joining the flock. Nightmare, local Lidl were brilliant used to save all their unsold bread and veggies for us which helped us with feeding no end.

 

Happy days

[monkeybusiness]

I’ve got a few sheep, started off letting a friend graze his sheep on my 4 acres at home, ended up buying 10 ewe lambs, started renting land and grazing bits here and there that customers wanted maintaining, bought another load of ewes with lambs at foot (40 odd extra ‘lives’ in total), sold/ate the male lambs, bred all the ewes and kept all the ewe lambs for breeding, ended up with approx 100 sheep/lambs etc a couple of years ago spread out all over Cheshire (which was a major pain in the arse!).

Have wound it back in now to 15 ewes that have all been bred by us along with a ram I bought last year, have just turned 8 of last year’s lambs into approx. 150kg of meat that we will eat and sell (I swap some meat for grazing - FYI 6 butchered lambs just about fit in a chest freezer), have got another 17 lambs to turn into money one way or another before this year’s lambs start appearing in April. 
It’s good fun but there is definitely no money in it if you place any sort of value on your time. It is really nice to know that the meat in the freezer has never seen chemicals/fertiliser/antibiotics etc and had the best life possible. It’s brilliant for my kids to see/do too - both were shoulder-deep lambing during the first lockdown aged 9 and 11 which isn’t something they’d have learned at school! 

[Doug Tait]

I don't keep any but really quite enjoy being around stock of all types, sheep are definitely in the blood. Time off school as a youngster was spent with my hill shepherd uncle, by early teens I was doing lambing etc on various farms locally, then late teens for maybe ten years full time stockman. Loved it all apart from the wages, and although what's been said so far about the difficulties and especially them wanting to die is unarguable, my memories are good ones.

 

Yes they escape but I just remember the feeling of working with dogs to calmly gather back in. Lambing is hard work and can be nasty but my memories are of opening the shed door to let a batch of proud ewes and gangly little lambs out for their first time in the sun, or being swamped by hungry orphans sucking the wellies in the hope of more milk.

Winter is hard but they're so glad to see you when you arrive with breakfast on a beautiful frosty morning, once it's been served it goes quiet except the chewing and the odd kick of a trough and you can wander round in tranquility and see how they are.

 

John87, I can't help but feel you weren't really cut out for herding!

 

Edit. My goodness, the memories of one year lambing when I was helped on day shift by a particularly nice 'lambing lass', some excellent recreational activity in the caravan...

Edited February 22, 2023 by Doug Tait

[Mark Bolam]

How dare you assume her gender, you dinosaur.

[Doug Tait]

No assumption. Be it in the caravan, her stable or even up on the hill, she was definitely a lass!

[topchippyles]

38 minutes ago, Doug Tait said:

 

 

Edit. My goodness, the memories of one year lambing when I was helped on day shift by a particularly nice 'lambing lass', some excellent recreational activity in the caravan...

Done the business did you doug 💪😏😉

[GarethM]

She got on the saddle whilst he wore the raddle.