starting out with sheep

leoch

i am thinking about getting a few sheep to start of with i have a 20acre hill that isnt used at all and has great shelter on it and is well fenced and think it would be a good run for 20 to start of with as i am inexperienced with sheep,was thinking about mule or horned ewe lambs something that is hardy and will be out all year i could bring them down to low ground for the winter if need be or if i go down the lambing root, they will have to be very easy lambing breed too ,i keep cattle aswell so have herd number,all advice on hardy breeds etc would be great thanks

docmartin

In my opinion the hardiest breed is the mayo mountain ewe, but these can be difficult to lamb if they're getting fed meal. I farm scotch mountain blackface ewes in the donegal hills, a bit of care and i find them great, mostly easily lambed, good crosses and well suited to the hill.

but everybody will point you in the direction of what they farm themselves. hope this helps

easycaresheep

Hi Leoch,
We are breeders of Easycare sheep. They are extremely hardy, even more so than the mayo mountain sheep. We lamb all outdoors, we feed no silage, hay, or meal, just high energy feed blocks. They require no shearing as they are self shedding, have virtually no foot problems or flystrike. This year I averaged 1.89 lambs per sheep from 400 ewes, and pulled lambs from 6 sheep, the rest lambed themselves. For more info check out our website http://www.easycaresheep.eu/