Maja Posted January 3, 2011 Report Share Posted January 3, 2011 Has anybody had some experience working border collies on these tiny sheep? Are they any way different from other breeds? Maja Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maja Posted January 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 I guess not. We are selling our Cameroons and want to buy ouessants: the Cameroons are too heavy for me (I have increasing back and joint problems), and without wool to grab onto, they are more difficult to handle during maintenance work. I had thought about skudde sheep but they seem as big as the Cameroons, and ouessants are really small. Maja Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliepoudrier Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 I had never heard of the breed. A couple of things come to mind. What do you raise sheep for? Would you have a market for these sheep (meat, wool, breeding stock)? Would they hold up to being worked by dogs? If you have markets for any of these then I think you'd want to look at sheep that could meet your size needs but also meet your market needs (unless, of course, market isn't a concern). For example, I have karakuls, a rare breed that I love and that is smaller and easy to handle in general, but I have *virtually no market* for them. Meat buyers don't find them big or meaty enough. Their wool is carpet quality. I got into the breed because I am interested in rare breed conservation, but raising them is really more a labor of love than a means to make money. You can sell hair sheep (for meat) and fast-growing wool breed market lambs all day long, but the karakuls not so much. I looked around and read a little on the breed, but I wonder if you couldn't find a slightly larger breed (like the Shetland) that could be more marketable? I know you said sources for sheep are limited in Poland, so I have no idea what's available to you. But just thinking out loud here.... P.S. Though I do grab wool on occasion, if you are selling sheep for meat, you need to be aware that aside from grabbing the wool being painful, doing so also can bruise the meat under the area you grab, thereby lowering its quality. J. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tea Posted January 4, 2011 Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 What Julie said The sheep I raise sell to a certain niche meat market. I process their wool myself and hides and also sell them to the sheep dairies. My sheep are not that big, bigger than shetlands, kinda medium sized. But they have a tremendous ability to survive on forage. BTW Your sheep are so tiny I can't even see them in the photo Wait I can't even see the photo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maja Posted January 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 I had never heard of the breed. A couple of things come to mind. What do you raise sheep for? Would you have a market for these sheep (meat, wool, breeding stock)? Would they hold up to being worked by dogs? Julie, The Cameroonians are raised mostly for small flocks for agri-tourism as attraction and small farms. Unlike katahdin, they are are not attractive for people who want typically meat breeds, they are too small. The sheep were also to supplement our diet, but we always ended up selling the young ones except for one lamb recently butchered. It also seems that we could sell hides at a smallprofit. The ouessant would be for a very similar market, except we would also have wool which I would like to experiment with. I actually like working with meet sheep, sometimes they seem less of a handful than some of the smaller breeds, but the meat market for lamb is pretty bad around where we live, and if you don't sell it in time you're stuck with a huge hay-munching monster and soaring costs. As for your last question, that's what I was hoping to find out. Our sheep are not worked heavily by our dogs, who may be a bit on the fast side but they are gentle, and Bonnie is very controllable. There is one more dog that comes to practice herding 2-3 times a week - Bonnie's brother, and Kelly's son, and the handler makes sure he is not hard on the sheep. I looked around and read a little on the breed, but I wonder if you couldn't find a slightly larger breed (like the Shetland) that could be more marketable? I know you said sources for sheep are limited in Poland, so I have no idea what's available to you. But just thinking out loud here.... It seems like the shetlands are the size of cameroonians. I considered the skudde breed which is also smallish, but they have the same weight too, it seems. P.S. Though I do grab wool on occasion, if you are selling sheep for meat, you need to be aware that aside from grabbing the wool being painful, doing so also can bruise the meat under the area you grab, thereby lowering its quality. I don't mean grabbing and pulling on wool or any other obnoxious behavior . I meant something as in this movie: After watching it, I thought "ok, now please, ma'am, do this with a cameroon". When I worked with the woolies, I was surprised that you can calmly walk over to them (this I can do with our sheep too of course) and calmly take hold of them and they go, well, quiet as a lamb wherever you want them to . The Cameroons are very sleek, there is nothing to hold onto, and I don't like the shepherd's crook. We've had Cameroons for five years now. Tea, you have my type of sense of humor . Here are photos with people in it : http://smallholdinginsomerset.blogspot.com/2008/09/national-ouessant-sheep-show-2008-took.html Thank you for all your input. It all does take a lot of thinking and planning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maja Posted January 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2011 I found a movie with a BC and ouessants: And a website in Germany where they have Bcs and ouessants: http://www.fieldrunners.de/ Maja Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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