Romney Sheep and general info please

5 posts
Mon, 12/19/2016 - 22:44 #1

Member for

5 years 11 months
Anonymous (not verified)
Last seen: 01/01/1970 - 10:00
Joined: 12/07/2018 - 14:58

Romney Sheep and general info please

Hi all,

We're interested in starting our own small flock of Romnies for our own meat supply in the near future and have a few questions. 1. Can anyone recommend anyone selling Romney lambs in southern NSW or north VIC?  2. How many sheep per acre? research is producing conflicting advice.  3. for a reasonable supply of meat per year for two people (alternating with chicken etc) what is a good quantity of ewes to keep and how many rams would we need to service them?  4. At what age / weight is good for a lamb to be slaughtered, and how much meat would we get out of each one?  5. How much does it cost on average to have the lambs slaughtered and butchered?

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Tue, 12/20/2016 - 18:16 #2
GandR (not verified)
Last seen: 01/01/1970 - 10:00
Joined: 01/01/1970 - 10:00

Okay, change of mind... smiley

We've done some more reading and as they have great qualities and seem to be much more available we've decided to go with the Dorper. So, can anybody answer the above for Dorpers?

Thanks.

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Wed, 12/28/2016 - 12:58 #3
charlie
Last seen: 12/26/2018 - 09:21
Joined: 05/31/2011 - 09:44

Hi G&R,

Welcome to the forum, to answer your questions:

1) If you are only looking for a small number of Dorpers you might find some for sale in your local newspaper or you could try http://www.onlinelivestock.com.au/
otherwise the saleyards are a good place to visit for a larger number.

2) Carry capacity is highly variable and will depend on a number of factors including pasture type (improved or native), use of fertiliser, rainfall and soil type. Below is a link to a useful carrying capacity guide based on DSE (dry sheep equivalent), a female dorper sheep will be approximately 1.5-2 DSE.

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture/budgets/livestock/sheep-gross-margins-october-2015/background/dse

3) At a guess I would say 1 x 50kg lamb per quarter/6 months, the key will be utilising the lesser cuts. One ram can successfully mate 80-100 ewes at a time so you will only need one ram. Maybe you could share a ram or hire one from a neighbour?

4) 9-12 months of age, 45-55kg liveweight is a good average weight for slaughter

5) Depends how you do it, some butchers will offer the complete service on farm where as others require the animals to be sent to the local abattoir and then returned to their shop for cutting up.

I hope this is of assistance.

Charlie

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Wed, 12/28/2016 - 20:37 #4
GandR (not verified)
Last seen: 01/01/1970 - 10:00
Joined: 01/01/1970 - 10:00

Thanks so much Charlie,

 

This info is greatly appreciated and will be really helpful when we get started up.  We will only be aiming for 1 Ram (now we know 1 will be enough) and about half a dozen Ewes so this helps us decide on where to look and gives us an idea on how long we will need to suppliment with bought meat untill we're stocked up.

Do sale yards ever sell small quantities or do they only sell in bulk?  Also, are there any bad points to look out for in Dorpers? Because what we've read has only been pretty positive.

 

Again, thanks a lot.

 

GandR

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Thu, 01/26/2017 - 16:40 #5
speleomike
Last seen: 03/08/2018 - 21:05
Joined: 09/23/2011 - 16:27

Hi GandR

For any breed of sheep or cattle or alpaca contact the breed association for that type. So for Dorpers there is the "Australian Dorper and White Dorper Association Inc" and the "Dorper Sheep Society of Australia Inc". They will have lists of reputable breeders for each area in your state. Just search on the internet for their websites.  They will have a lot of information on finding the right breeder to buy from and what to look for. The same goes for cattle, goats, alpacas etc.

Mike

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