Sheep

For a few years we had merinos, but by far the best sheep we have ever had are Wiltshires. They are so easy to manage because they don’t need shearing, crutching, feet trimmed and seem very resistant to worms so don’t need regular drenches.

Our very first flock consisted of some ewes (one black) …….

Gladys Knight and her twins

….and a Dorper ram.

Satchmo, the Dorper ram

It was great to get to know the breed, but then we sought out better quality and are currently switching over to Wiltipolls (polled meaning no horns) because they are much less destructive to the ringlock fences.

The ram shedding his fleece

We invested in a polled ram, ‘Donny Brook’ (220 for short as on his ear tag), and have kept the female lambs that did not have horns, gradually replacing those that do so we have an entirely polled flock (if you can call under 10 sheep a flock!!).

twin lambs

Another benefit of Wiltshires in general is that they often have twins and triplets, so with only a few ewes and one ram, we can produce quite a few lambs.

Let me whisper in your ear....

We supplement their feed with sheep cubes, mainly to keep them tame and able to come at our call (see Handy Hints). Otherwise they are rotated through the paddocks to eat down the weeds (we also sow the very back paddock with wheat to provide summer feed for them, but they eat it down before the seed heads develop and potentially spread in the bush).