When you think of Wales it’s hard not to think of sheep. They are a way of life in rural parts and pretty much everyone with a bit of land has some. With the goat having moved on to the Dyfi Dairy it seemed like a sensible thing to get some sheep, to keep the grass down if nothing else!
After some research it seemed like a self-shedding breed would be good for us. These are sheep which shed their own coat gradually in spring time and hence don’t need sheering. It’s a pretty onerous job having to sheer and given the value of wool vs sheering cost it’s a popular choice among many “proper farmers” too.
It all sort of fell into place really. A quick google of livestock for sale amazingly turned up 2 Wiltshire Horns just 15 miles away from us. After a quick trip up to say hello to them and see if they liked us the deal was done and within a few days of saying “let’s get some sheep”, we got some! Okay, so 2 doesn’t exactly make a flock but everyone’s got to start somewhere. They are tagged with Number 1 and Number 6 and they are so far settling in nicely. We’ve decided not to name them for now, feels like it might be a rookie error if the time comes when we need to sell / eat them! They came from another smallholder and are nicely “bucket trained”, that’s to say they come to you when you shake a bucket of food at them! Quite handy as it turns out because we don’t have a dog and sheep can actually run rather fast. It feels like our smallholding adventure has begun!