Daydreaming while waiting impatiently!

[tortoise]

Congrats on getting it figured out. Hope the prices are really good today! How many are you taking?

13 lambs and 1 ewe. We had a low production year, only 1.3 lambs to ewes. We saved 3 lambs for freezer, 2 for us and 1 for another family.

 

[baymule]

Since I now take to auction, I stopped castrating the ram lambs. I used to raise them up to 10 months, then slaughter. Wethers made sense. Slaughter dates got pushed so far out, a year or more in advance, I just take to the auction now. I don't keep them that long any more.

 

[NH Homesteader]

We won’t wether ours, we harvested a 2 year old ram that had been used for breeding and no taint or anything. They definitely grow better just leaving them intact. Part of the reason I chose shetlands is they’re naturally short tailed. Tail docking is a miserable proposition for me!

 

[tortoise]

We won’t wether ours, we harvested a 2 year old ram that had been used for breeding and no taint or anything. They definitely grow better just leaving them intact. Part of the reason I chose shetlands is they’re naturally short tailed. Tail docking is a miserable proposition for me!

Awesome, this makes me hopeful!

 

[NH Homesteader]

Shetlands tend to be super not gamey tasting anyway (not a lot of meat on them though for sure!), I’m curious what you find with your sheep! What breeds do you have?

 

[tortoise]

Shetlands tend to be super not gamey tasting anyway (not a lot of meat on them though for sure!), I’m curious what you find with your sheep! What breeds do you have?

I have white face commercial mix. They are mutts! My ram is half Ile de France. There are Finn, Rambouillet, Boroola Merino, Dorset, Hampshire, more Ile de France and maybe others in the mix.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Cool! I like Finns, they were a breed I considered but I don’t like the multiple birth thing. I love to spin Finn and Rambouillet, never spun Ile de France, not a fan of Merino (weird right?) sounds like a cool mixture you’ve got!

 

[tortoise]

Cool! I like Finns, they were a breed I considered but I don’t like the multiple birth thing. I love to spin Finn and Rambouillet, never spun Ile de France, not a fan of Merino (weird right?) sounds like a cool mixture you’ve got!

The multiples are a PITA when raising lambs for meat. The quads just don't grow as well and some ewes won't feed more than 2 or 3. The farm I bought my ewes from only leaves 2 with each ewe and sells the extras as bottle lambs. Last time I talked to them, they were planning a very hard cull to reduce herd size and remove prolific ewes and those susceptible to hoof rot.

 

[tortoise]

I am painting name and house numbers signs for my family and the neighbor since we share a driveway. We never took down the previous owner's sign. I has been 7 years. I'm bummed I can't share a photo, they are turning out really good!

 

[Cecilia's-life]

I don’t have much experience with lambs- can I ask? Why are they so popular? I’ve only ever eaten lamb maybe 10 times. Yet I see so many at the fair and such. What are you using them for? Or do many people just not sell their lamb meat?