Asking for Trouble

[Sheepshape]

That's what OH says about my collection of 'write offs'

I have Longface....aged 10.....heavily pregnant....scan says 'three or more' lambs.

I have Daisy....gangrenous udder last summer.....only one side of the udder remains......expecting triplets.

I have Hapus.......fracture dislocation of hip as a lamb.....extreme bow leg on one side......expecting twins.

I have Little Willie.....a tiny little Blue Faced Leicester....weighing just over 20 Kg...... 'No good for meat nor breeding' according to OH.

I have Minnie......minute Beulah......tiny but VERY vocal.

I have Angeline....tiny and pregnant.

That's 20% of my flock.

I'm expecting problems, but I love them all. Anybody else hang on to their 'rejects'?

 

[Bossroo]

NOPE !!!! costs toooooo much TIME and M O N E Y .

 

[bonbean01]

We did a hard cull last fall...and that was so hard

But...we both agreed to keep our sweet ewe Jess...she's a hairsheep and does not shed off well and needs me to take scizzors to her now and then...also she has weird and terrible feet and needs to be trimmed 3 times more often than the rest...and she has four teats...two working, two blind, but that has never been a problem with kids nursing.

On the plus side...besides being so sweet and friendly, she lambs with no problems and even with twins her lambs were bigger than the others with single lambs...she has an impressive udder and feeds her babies well and they grow the fastest.

So...yes...we have one that most people would consider a cull...and she is going nowhere....she stays

 

[BrownSheep]

Henry that ornery son of a gun...We keep him around. Does that count?...He has a "rejectable personality".
We have a ewe that has never been bred and can jump any fence on the place....part deer, I swear!...We keep her around because she's my sisters ewe.
Besides that our sheep tend to plug on with out any issues.

Like my dad told the people we bough our new bull from " It will be years before we ever get a calf out of him that they'll let me eat." That's pretty true. We've never butchered a ewe lamb. We do butcher our wethers but when you consider the fact we always get about twice as many ewes....well we really only butcher enough for us.

 

[Sheepshape]

It always seems to me that the sheep with the problems also somehow manage to have personalities that make them endearing. (Yes I do believe they have personalities.....every one of my 55 sheep is different). I'm a bit of a sucker for a lost cause.

On the plus side with my motley crew....Longface delivered quads overnight last year quietly in a lambing jug havind wandered up to me after the late feed and having made it clear something was amiss. All 4 survived (two on the bottle).

Angeline is daughter of Longface....so her fertility is probably inherited.

Hapus is an excellent mother....her lambs can get to her udder SO easily!

Daisy is a very robust ewe now.

Minnie and Little Willie are just delightful.....maybe I'll put them together next tupping season.....instant micro-sheep!

We get about 50/50 ewe to ram and have to get rid of some of the rams......but we're veggie so no lamb chops for me!