Sheep!

alsxx

alsxx

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I'm getting some sheep at the weekend to mow my field, seeing as I have a cushings pony and susceptible to lami TB (talk about bad luck!!) - temporary loan from a farmer friend.

I'm wondering though, if we all get on :-), about getting a couple of ewes as a permanent feature to keep the grass in check. What should I consider etc? I know you have to register as a keeper etc but what else (apart from the shearing!)?
 
Foot trimming, worming, fly strike prevention (dagging out) and dipping all spring to mind. :D I find it's easier to just borrow some, sheep can be quite demanding care wise, and you have to catch the blooming things first.

I'd also recommend getting some Chew Stop spray - my mare currently has a section of tail chewed to the dock before I started using this as I have a tail chewer sheep. :mad: Luckily said horse has a pretty thick tail so not too noticeable.

They are great for keeping the grass down and weed control though.
 
alsxx said:
I'm getting some sheep at the weekend to mow my field, seeing as I have a cushings pony and susceptible to lami TB (talk about bad luck!!) - temporary loan from a farmer friend.

I'm wondering though, if we all get on :-), about getting a couple of ewes as a permanent feature to keep the grass in check. What should I consider etc? I know you have to register as a keeper etc but what else (apart from the shearing!)?
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Foot trimming, injections, drenches(worming) and keeping ontop of your fly control with regular use of Crovect or Clik 6 weekly thru the fly seasons..lots of health things to look out for fly strike in particular so might be best to get a sheep book and have a read up first,and learning to be hands on & how to handle them.. you may find looking at diff breeds helpful, there is a now well established breed of sheep called "Easy Care" that are as the name implies and would be a great starting point..www.easycaresheeep.com I've got welsh and blue faced leicesters but wish i'd thought of easy care..if i add any more now thats what they'll be..sweet looking too. They will get through considerable grass(any sheep) and they say 1 sheep grazes the same as 3 horses, tho not so wasteful but can strip an area in no time..I'd say if you can, try have three so if something happens to one, you've still got a pair unless they bond particularly well with your horses..but this will be excellent for your grass limiting needs-its how i started off. They ideally could do with some kind of basic shelter (natural or lean to for severe weather hot/wet/snow which will also help guard against foot issues(rot etc). They will need checking daily (not a prob if you have horses obviously)good safe fencing..ear tagging(they should come tagged if legal) and obviously will need hay/feed thru the winter months and please don't take this the wrong way as meant nicely but definite access to fresh water-so obvious i know but I say on a forum the other day someone thought sheep didn't need water:eek::eek::eek::eek: as quote 'you never see them drink as dew off the grass does them' needless to say this is utter tot and I had to re write my reply 9 times to make it publishable!and still got a ticking off from the powers that be!!!:D Oh and they must never have horse feed as it has copper in it..sheep don't do copper in a very big way!!other than that,if you aren't yet put off, you won't look back! You'll need a CPH number and to register them to you & your holding number, and corresponding tags.go on the defra website and you'll get all the links you need from there..be warned sheep are addictive!hope this helps xx
 
I depends on the number of sheep of course. To be honest if you get a farmer to provide a few them this is ideal as they keep worms and pasture under control.
I you must have own sheep get Easycare which don't need shearing, but sheep have a zillion ways to die, best let a farmer look after them.
 
WelshRuby said:
Isn't grass fertilized by sheep very rich?
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I haven't fouind it to be, in fact it has gently fertilised which I prefer as if the grass is really struggling then it is more stressed = more sugars.

I think that much of the grass for sheep is probably heavily fertilised with nitrates which will produce the lush pasture.
 
Thanks all for replies, some great advice! I don't mind a bit of work - generally when keeping any animals is hard work isn't it!!

To answer some specific questions though; no land is rented is this an issue for the registration etc?

I'm actually planning on making a track round the edge of the field for the neds; would love to have the middle cut for hay but because of the acereage I'm to it wouldn't be financially viable hence having something that can safely keep the middle under check. Haha no don't fancy mowing it though!!

Of course I may borrow these and think oh my god get rid of them! But on the other hand I love sheep so if we all get on well it would be nice to have a couple of extra pets.....!
 
They are quite entertaining I must admit, I have eight in and they were all playing like lambs, racing and pinging and bouncing the other night, they looked hilarious with their huge fleeces boinging about!

The only thing I'd say to watch is that they are beggars for stealing the horse's hay/feed - if I turn my back for a minute when feeding hay in the stable I look round and all eight of them are racing full gallop for a bit of hay :D I have to wait until any food is eaten before I can leave the stable open.
They also like to use the stable for shelter a lot and can make a mess of bedding.

If you don't mind the work I think they can be very rewarding, enjoy and good luck!
 
The land needs a holding number - thus is very important whenever you are moving them, even if they are just borrowed.
Paperwork needs to be filled out every time they are moved from one holding to the other.
Ask the person who owns the field if they have a HN - you can get into trouble for not complying!

We have 3 different holdings, even though we own all the land and the sheep, because they are split into different farms. This means moving is a nightmare but you just have to do it :)

Oh and stay well clear of Easycare - as OH is a shearer we are dead against them! ;)
 
. They will get through considerable grass(any sheep) and they say 1 sheep grazes the same as 3 horses,

that's interesting, often wondered how much grass they eat - I have two and am struggling this year for grazing, mainly because I have had to section my field permanently to keep my BOGOf and foal seperate. I was hoping the sheep could stay in with foal and mum as they have more grazing but they are not getting on and afraid the foal may get injured :o

second the bit about them trying to pinch all the food mine are buggers ! I have to stand guard when the ponies are eating as i have no stables
 
Just out of curiosity, what sort of acreage are we talking about?
There are a few points to consider when talking about numbers of sheep. 1 ewe and her lambs is 1/6 of a grazing unit, you need 0.5-1 grazing unit per acre to keep the grass down. Sheep aren't too keen on long grass, they prefer to nibble away at fresh growth, they will eat weeds, though. So if you haven't got enough of them, they will just make a mess of your long grass and poo everywhere :D
 
the only thing i can remember about sheep from my livestock course a zillion years ago is that they escape at any opportunity and die at any opportunity:rolleyes:
 
Acres - about four but they will prob only be on three....

I'm borrowing two ewes and eight lambs.

If I were to get my own though they would have the run of all four! So would three be a good number? Hypothetically at the moment of course!!!

Fortunately I have stables to shut horses and their food away in but thanks for the heads up on this as good to know they will have the feed and it's not good for them!!!
 
We have a running battle with the sheep off the moor, the gorgeous characters are determined to graze where we live with their equally cheeky lambs, our landlord is not so keen, he would rather mow the grounds.
They wait at the gate of the drive, I wag my finger at them, tell them NO, open the gate and it's whose quickest wins, I love them but they can be bolshy and only once in a year have they made it down to our cottage, I loved waking up to seeing sheep in the garden
 
I have borrowed sheep that are being sheared tomorrow. I have some grazing that was full of ragwort, I had it sprayed and then the sheep have cleared it all up. I can not beleave it, I walked the field and could not find one plant. They must really like dying ragwort.
I did look at buying some but the farmer that owns them has all the ag of looking after them and I get the pleasure of looking at them.
 
Really sheep should not be allowed to graze sprayed off ragwort. It is poisonous to them like it is to horses altho they do have a little more tolerance and tend to die of other things eg becoming chops before the ragwort gets them. And wilting ragwort has a much greater concentration of the toxins - not a good idea. Growing ragwort they will eat if there isnt much grass, and putting them on the field in early spring can help to control it, there wont be as much toxin ingested that way.

Sheep are fine with horse licks in fields provided they are not copper ones. eg they are fine with the yellow solid Rockies licks but not the red one as that is for cattle who need copper but it is poisonous to sheep.

One of my horses would kill any sheep in their field so do assess your horses before putting them in together.

The ideal is to separate and rotate them as that clears up a lot of worm burden as almost all horse worms cant survive in the sheep gut when ingested (and vice versa), but I can see that trying to keep the grass down you will want them in there. I have them in a next door field and when pony is off the grass (at night) I let the sheep in to eat any grass growth overnight. As pony is on the same ground, I have to make sure they eat everything down to the ground, otherwise if they didnt eat quite that much I would just have fertilised stressed short grass which is the opposite of what lami pony needs. Cant strip graze or track graze as pony blindly crashes through all electric fencing these days so has to be in perm fenced paddock.

They do fertilise the grass, theres no doubt, although it is more gentle than any artificial fertiliser. ie higher in nutrients than horse manure but lower than catttle slurry or any NPK chemical fertiliser.

BTW you can shear the couple of adult sheep using hand shears, quite doable and the look doesnt matter just welfare, corn rows are in for sheep :-)) But you wont want to hand shear all the lambs next year as that number does get a bit tiring I hand sheared 19 sheep last year :-)))
 
We have 4 pet sheep (ewes) that we hand reared 4 years ago. We got them to keep the grass down due to having a laminitic pony.

They are the sweetest,gentle souls who are devoted to us & the horses & donkeys too. They are easy to care for,but are very wasteful of hay. Any that falls on the ground will not be eaten & gets pooed on so no-one else wants to eat it either:rolleyes:

They all come over to try & sit on our laps when we are relaxing out on the grass, & loved to be petted & cuddled.

I love my sheep & wouldn't be without them now:D
 
Interesting thread.

We've been thinking about sheep for a while. We have about 20 acres that was let out to a sheep farmer before I brought the horses home, and it looked fab! Now we are down to two muzzled horses that hardly get out in winter due to mud rash, so the grass is growing like crazy. We made haylage last year, but it wasn't that good, so won't be doing it this year -especially as more reeds have grown.

We were thinking of getting some sheep - how may would you put on ten acres for example? We were wondering about doing a deal with a local young farmer, where we buy the sheep and provide the grazing, he cares for them, and we go halves on any profit. Does this seem viable? (Not that we've asked anyone yet!) How much does a sheep go for on average if we were to get some?
 
They do seem hell bent on killing themselves(getting head stuck in sheep netting is a favourite!) and escaping. I tried to capture 2 escapees from the moor and use them to mow my paddock....but they escaped. Also the droppings stick to your boots and won't come off or worse still stick to your horse,who cannot avoid rolling in them!
 
Ibblebibble said:
the only thing i can remember about sheep from my livestock course a zillion years ago is that they escape at any opportunity and die at any opportunity:rolleyes:
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Hairy Old Cob said:
Always remember a Sheeps main Ambition in in Life is to Drop Dead for No Aparent Reason:mad:
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THIS ^^ not only that, they will work out the worst place/time to die. We once had such heavy snowfall overnight that the sheep were buried in the snow - woke up to see lots of heads poking out the snow. one in particular was in a deep drift, after much digging we finally got her out, she'd been layed so long it took a while for her to manage to walk. She walked to the furthest point from the gate across the snow and died :mad:

they are very good at weed eating though :p;)
 
Honey08 said:
Interesting thread.

We've been thinking about sheep for a while. We have about 20 acres that was let out to a sheep farmer before I brought the horses home, and it looked fab! Now we are down to two muzzled horses that hardly get out in winter due to mud rash, so the grass is growing like crazy. We made haylage last year, but it wasn't that good, so won't be doing it this year -especially as more reeds have grown.

We were thinking of getting some sheep - how may would you put on ten acres for example? We were wondering about doing a deal with a local young farmer, where we buy the sheep and provide the grazing, he cares for them, and we go halves on any profit. Does this seem viable? (Not that we've asked anyone yet!) How much does a sheep go for on average if we were to get some?
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Sheep are expensive at the moment as a combination of withdrawal of subsidies in New Zealand and the exploding market for meat in the far east which is very handy for NZ means imports have reduced. At the same time costs of inputs for sheep farmers have increased here eg winter feed and fodder, fuel, electronic ear tags etc

So you are having to compete with the high cost of 'cull sheep' going straight off to the abbatoir ; commercial sheep even old worn out ones can go for £70+, breeding ewes over a hundred.
However, rare breeds esp unregistered are still pretty cheap to buy.
If share farming the farmer will want commercial types, mules (hill breed x blue faced leicester or the same crossed with a terminal sire to put the meat on (eg texel, suffolk, charollais)
But if keeping for yourself, the cheaper rare breeds make sense as they are much hardier and lower maintenance, some dont have much meat on them but a Shetland type will have good size joints for a family. Unregistered prob approx £40 even for a young healthy one.

I use sheep in pony's field to eat all of the grass and keep it bare for her (they go in each night when she comes out). But if you do that you have to keep at it and make sure there is no grass, if you allowed it to grow then it would be short rich grass which would be as bad or worse than long grass which would be lower sugar tho more bulk). I know it is working as pony is moaning all the time thats theres NOTHING to eat. Paddock is about an acre, I put 20 sheep on it for a fortnight when first fenced to eat everything and then use 5 sheep as a hoover nightly
Before shearing this week (these are Shetlands)
IMG_2727.jpg

I feel bald!!
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