This is our Whiteface Dartmoor ram, as yet to be named and actually looking rather grey (due to rolling in the dirt apparently!!) but handsome nonetheless. We picked him up today and as we don’t want lambs till March, we have not yet allowed him to meet his girls… Sheep are pregnant for approximately 145 days (or 5 months) and so we won’t be letting ‘boy meet girl’ till the start of October!! For the next week or so therefore, the cows have the pleasure of his company, a fact which seemed to bother them not at all. There is still masses of grass in the 4-acre field and so plenty of food for all of them.
We are actually in a little bit of a quandary about our sheep. Whilst the Dartmoor ewes have become more friendly we are not actually sure that they are the breed for us! We are VERY taken with the Shetlands and think we would rather pursue breeding these and our Badger Face. We have found a fabulous registered flock of Shetlands with both a ram and ewes for sale and have made a very successful visit.
In an effort NOT to complicate matters, we think it might be better just to have one breeding group of sheep and alternate having a Shetland ram and then a Badger Face ram so each year we can breed some pure!!
As with many of our current ideas, we will continue to mull and think!!!