Baby Sheep....Everywhere
- Thread starter TVC
- Start date
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Noodley
Guest
longers said:
Here's a good starting point about sheep breeds.
http://www.nationalsheep.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=9&Itemid=41
Maybe I should get one of each?
I have told this story before, but it's always worth telling I stayed on a sheep farm in Wales for eight weeks once as the farmer was letting out rooms and he was close to an exam crammer course I was attending. It was actually quite good; nice and quiet and at the weekends I used to spend a couple of hours on the farm helping out, bringing the sheep down from higher ground and shearing which was intetresting. Sheep are incredibly stupid though. Early on in my stay the lambing period had just ended and pretty much on my last night I was studying for a tax exam I was sitting the next day. First off I had to put up with farmer's energetic and noisy lovemaking which was going on. 
And the sheep were making an absolute racket. Making a cup of tea later on I mentioned the sheep to the farmer who had emerged from his duvet (!) "Oh yes" he said "Don't mind the sheep. I took all their lambs to market today". 
I stayed on a sheep farm in Wales for eight weeks once as the farmer was letting out rooms and he was close to an exam crammer course I was attending. It was actually quite good; nice and quiet and at the weekends I used to spend a couple of hours on the farm helping out, bringing the sheep down from higher ground and shearing which was intetresting. Sheep are incredibly stupid though. Early on in my stay the lambing period had just ended and pretty much on my last night I was studying for a tax exam I was sitting the next day. First off I had to put up with farmer's energetic and noisy lovemaking which was going on. And the sheep were making an absolute racket. Making a cup of tea later on I mentioned the sheep to the farmer who had emerged from his duvet (!) "Oh yes" he said "Don't mind the sheep. I took all their lambs to market today". 
Cycling Naturalist
Guru
- Location
- Llangollen
ChrisKH said:. First off I had to put up with farmer's energetic and noisy lovemaking which was going on.And the sheep were making an absolute racket.
Tell us more.
Chromatic
Legendary Member
- Location
- Gloucestershire
They were docking their tails and castrating the little boy lambs at the farm the other day when I was up there to help see to the horse.
Patrick Stevens said:Tell us more.
The farmer was quite young (mid 30's) and unmarried having inherited a huge farm from his parents. Needless to say he was quite popular among the lasses around Conwway and Llandudno; he must have gone through five different girls whilst I was there. I'm surprised I even passed my tax exam tbh, what with the sheep being lambless and the screams of ecstasy coming from the young lady next door. Imagine the "When Harry met Sally" cafe orgasm scene and throw in a few choicer words and that was about the length of it.
ChrisKH said:I have told this story before, but it's always worth telling
i misinterpreted this as... he was out all day at market so his Mrs must have been shagging someone else
Arch
Married to Night Train
- Location
- Salford, UK
longers said:
No. My friend keeps Shetlands, mainly for the fleece (she's a spinner and knitter) but the spare ones (males not destined for breeding and surplus females - 3 last time) go off for meat. The Shetland isn't a modern meat breed, so they aren't big, but they are tasty. She's expecting to be lambing in the next couple of weekends
Commercially, these days it's all down to how fast a breed matures. Meat animals need to mature quickly to give a quick value comeback, whereas you want to keep a fleece animal for a couple of years to get a few fleeces - by which time the meat is less fashionable mutton. In practical modern terms however, fleeces are such a worthless product, I think most commercial flocks are concentrated on for meat. That's a relatively recent thing - it was only in the 18th C that sheep were deliberately bred for meat conformation (as far as we know. See my thesis for updates, if I ever get there).
Some breeds are better known for wool - shetlands, the longwools etc, and their fleeces will have some value, to a specialist market. But I gather that the run-of-the-mill fleece market is not high value.
Shetlands are a nice breed - small and handleable, even with the horns. And the Lincoln Longwools and similar are wonderfully daft looking, with their ringlets.
Arch
Married to Night Train
- Location
- Salford, UK
tyred said:
Exactly, unless you can get a premium for the wool variety.
How sad is that? Wool was once this country's most important export....
Kirstie
Über Member
The leicestershire lambs are very cute but they're too small to eat at the moment. They start looking really tasty late april - early may. mmmmm.
Yellow Fang
Legendary Member
- Location
- Reading
ChrisKH said:And the sheep were making an absolute racket. Making a cup of tea later on I mentioned the sheep to the farmer who had emerged from his duvet (!) "Oh yes" he said "Don't mind the sheep. I took all their lambs to market today".
This reminds me of a song by Kate and Anna McGarrigle called La Vache Qui Pleure from their similarly titled CD. It's written from the view point of a cow who is crying because she's had her calf taken away, presumably for the meat market. An original idea for a song I thought. It's pretty good, although not the best on the album IMO. Check the lyrics if you want a laugh.
http://www.lyricstime.com/kate-anna-mcgarrigle-la-vache-qui-pleure-lyrics.html