Jesus I wouldn’t put that fella in charge of kittens.
Fences, fences, fences. Proper fences.
You’ll need a ram to have lambs.
Dogs are also an issue in certain areas.
You’ll probably need a shed for lambing as foxes or pine martins are a scourge for killing new borns.
Sheep need to be shorn once per year.
Lambing is generally straight forward but you need to plan for vetinary assistance too. A lot cheaper if you can drive to vet with sheep in trailer*
You’ll need a herd/flock number
Look, you’ll make fuck all but you’ll have a lovely pastime and always have a freezer full of meat.
Edit: You’ll prob need a chest freezer too
*or car boot
Would you have to be present/supervising/participating in all lambing? Thereby having to go in and out watching them at night. Or are they usually fine lambing on their own? And how do you stop the foxes coming in getting the lambs in the field, same question if you’ve chickens?
80% could be grand, it’s the other 20% that will catch you so you need to keep an eye. Check before bed and once during night during lambing season if you want to mitigate risk somewhat but even then you could miss something
You can’t. Once lambs hit a few weeks they’ll be grand usually. It’s new born ones are the high risk
Did you ever have to go at a sheep in the height of summer with jeyes fluid to kill maggots?
They’re a bloody nuisance. Fencing has to be perfect, shearing… and you’ll have as much work, if not more with one sheep as you will with a bullock - for less profit
But it’s nice to have them I suppose. You’ll need to be there for lambing… Intercoms, middle of the night etc. The kids like them and it’s safe for them to help.
Is there not some sort of app you could get for that? Lambstagram or something
@smark , you’d buy half a lamb off a butcher for 50 quid. Leave the hardship to fools like myself and @KinvarasPassion
Maybe get a few goats. They’d eat a pallet if they were hungry.
I forgot to mention you’ll need a ram- unless you have a better idea
You’re wasting your time @Smark.Too much work getting set up.There’s a butcher in the Well that’ll sell you a fully butchered lamb for E150.
Where is the fun in that? Imagine the life that would be breathed into the Nightwatchman thread if @smark follows through
I don’t buy em myself.Mine comes straight off aftergrass above at home every September. Smark would be some farmer alright I’d say.
It would be fascinating to guide him through the process of cutting out a massive dead lamb with the wire, and he puking from the smell of it.
what guide?
Rotten smell out of a lamb thats dead for a few days and the legs coming clean off if you apply any pressure to the pull at all…
It’s a nuanced operation all right
Or him finding a ewe with the lamb bed out
Jesus, torture. My auld lad was telling be about that happening with a cow twenty years ago, it was out about three foot and had filled with blood. Himself and the vet were two hours trying to put it back in. I’d shoot the bitch if I found that waiting for me in the morning.
Impossible job, risk of infection afterwards is very high too.
I had to stitch a ewe a few times that would have the ‘bearing’ out.
And trying to keep the grey crow away from her