ladies in waiting - 28th January, 2012

It is very cold this morning, but incredibly sunny, and not even 9:00am. All the girls are happy in the big barn, and lambing is not far away now. Our very experienced shearer came a few weeks ago, and sheared all our sheep - he leaves just over a quarter inch of fleece on, it makes lambing so much easier and cleaner, and the show team will be just about right for our early shows. They have been separated into early lambers and twins, and late lambers and singles. The camera is set up, the baby monitors have been checked out and I will hopefully set them up today - they are great for picking out "the noises" the ewes make when starting to lamb. Eight lambing pens are now set up and duty shepherds spare bed is made up!! We have bought a whiteboard and all the ewes are listed - don't know why we didn't have one before, much better than my clipboard. I am going to attempt to add two photos to this blog, one of the pregnant girls and one of the recyclable lambing pens we have - ideal for ewe with single lamb - orphan lamb - lamb adopter - we have used these for a few years and are very pleased with then.

Just a little more news.

Welcome to our blog Flynnblob, tried to send you a message, but the site is having none of it!! anyway, hope you enjoy reading about our Ryeland sheep - I try to keep it updated regularly, we are still waiting to have our website updated, must ask our man again. Well, all our sheep have been winter sheared now, and are all cosy in the big shed, the boys have their own shed, and all are settled, they love to be sheared, and are jumping about like naughty kids!! and, of course love to be inside - what is it about Ryelands, or is it just ours!! Lambing should start at the end of this month, and apart from a couple of stragglers, all should lamb in February, fingers crossed.

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year to everyone, and to our new German friends, Astrid, of Nutztierarche Stocksee, and no, Astrid, I am not stopping posting, just having difficulty sometimes putting a photo on with text - put it down to inexperience!! Let us all hope for a good 2012, and happy and successful lambing to everyone. Well, it is very, very wet here on the Staffordshire Moorlands, the pregnant girls are undercover today, to keep them dry - they are due to have their Heptavac P Plus on Monday, and then in a week or so, all our sheep will be winter sheared, the big shed is all ready now for them - very cosy!! I will be posting some pictures in the next week or so.

17th December, 2011

Well, tis the week before Christmas, and all is fairly quiet at Roston ryelands, all the sheep are at home now, the pregnant ewes are very fat, and they have only had grass, they love to be inside - that is - a stone barn with the doors wide open and access to a paved yard - the water and haylage are outside, so they have to come out sometimes!!! well, they are Ryelands. We start lambing around the 31st January, 2012, and they have been scanned (164%), so, after Christmas it will be all go - vaccinations, shearings, lambing pens up, and the big shed fully operational. I will not write any more, I seem to have difficulty putting text on the blog, I can get the photo on easily, but it will not take the text - so - this may or may not get published - we will see - happy christmas to everyone, and a successful 2012 lambing.

One of our ram lambs 2011.

It is Monday, 10th October, still raining!! Not a lot to report, all our ram lambs have gone to their new homes, and fingers crossed, all our ewes are in lamb - we usually have two or three who come over again. We have some of our ewes with Kaspar, some with Nightspeed, and just a couple with our "new kid on the block" Dolwen Pirate - chosen for his blood lines, he is a super chap - his two ladies have both come over, so we will wait and see what happens, if they come over again, Kaspar will be a very happy boy, he would love two more ladies in his hareem!! Well, it is now Thursday, the 13th October, and I have just seen that I have used this photo before -- I must really like this little fellow, so no apologies - hope he is going to be a daddy soon!!

Ashbourne Show August, 2011

Well, not a lot to report at the moment, did forget to show you some of the photos from Ashbourne Show, so, these three, show us winning the shearling ewe class, and taking second as well. We also won the ewe lamb class and our other ewe lamb took fourth. The class winners went on into the final line up. Well, our rams are with their respective females now - all seems to be going fine - one or two have come over this week, but it is early days for Ryelands, we prefer to lamb early February, but our Ryelands prefer mid/late February!! We will see!! Snow is forecast for October, so maybe they will be coming inside sooner rather than later - last year it was the 8th November, and the year before the 13th November.

ram lambs for sale - 4th September, 2011

Well, we had a very successful day at the Ryeland Show and Sale at Ludlow - our ram lamb Pascal was awarded second, out of 33 ram lambs, and we sold the three we took. We have a few booked into Melton Mowbray rare breed show and sale on saturday, 10th September, these photos are of three of them. We bought a new breed line at Ludlow, a ram lamb, called Pirate, hope he manages to cover two of our ewes, giving him the smallest!! then we can have a bit of a rest after Melton Mowbray - been a very energetic year!! Will be nice to meet you at Melton, - its a good day out - the ryelands will not be there on the friday, just the saturday, being judged early saturday morning, before the sale at 10:30am.

Going to the Ryeland Show & Sale

Just been trimmed and sprayed, two of our ram lambs, Pascal and Peppe, and one shearling, Naaman in the third photo, all ready to go to the Ryeland show and sale. The first picture is of Peppe, he is out of Nightspeed, who has won two reserve supreme championships this year, and the second photo is of Pascal who is out of Kaspar, our very special stock ram, who has won many championships, and the third photo shows Naaman in the middle, our shearling ram, who is out of Luciano, who also won many prizes as a lamb, and was sold into a pedigree flock as a shearling.

Burwarton Show 4th August, 2011

What a day, thank goodness we took the gazebo! It poured down during judging, then the sun came out!! I have posted a few photos, we had a good day, winning the group of three and the Malcolm Collins trophy - Kaspar won the senior ram class - and our shearling ewe Nova won the shearling ewe class, going on to win champion female, then reserve supreme champion Ryeland she came home with six rosettes and the Marston Bros. trophy. It has been a pretty good year for us - takes a lot of hard work to look after sheep, and preparing them for show, think we are very tired now! just one more show to do - without Kaspar - he is officially retired from showing - he needs to rest now, he has an
important job to do soon, making lots of babies!! proud of you Kaspar, you are a lovely boy.

Roston Nabil our shearling ram

This is one of our shearling rams, he is very handsome, and has a lovely nature - he is going to his new home on Thursday - we will miss him - have a happy life Nabil and have lots of babies.

RAM LAMBS 7th JULY, 2011

7th July, 2011 - 6:00pm - just been down the field and taken a few photos of our ram lambs - growing well now, the show boys are still separated at home, we have sold one of the show boys, Clint we called him (Clint Eastwood - man with no name!) real name Pino, he has gone with Lotus's boy now called Peppa, to their new home, together with four of our ladies - sure they will be very happy.

Our winning group of three at Cheshire 2011

Our winning group of three at Cheshire County Show, June, 2011. We didn't take Kaspar to Cheshire Show - he was having a rest, and as he and Nightspeed are inseparable at the moment, it made life a little easier to take Nabil instead - sizewise, they matched very well, same size, same heads, same bums - some judges prefer this, some like to see a ram, shearling ewe and a lamb. Nouveau has gone to her new home in Yorkshire already, and Nabil is also sold , and due to go to his new home a week on Saturday - or should we keep him to take to Burwarton and Ashbourne, our other shows - one of our show ram lambs has also gone to his new home, so we are getting a bit thin on the ground with our show team!!! It is raining very heavily at the moment, but when the weather clears, I will take some more photos of the ram lambs we still have available for this years breeding.

2nd July, 2011 - ram lambs for sale

We have had a very busy two weeks - shows, stock going to new homes, hospital visits - both of us now!!! Five of our ram lambs have already gone to their new homes, in June!! We do still have a very good selection - these photos, which I have just taken this morning, are of three that will be available. ~~We bred fourteen this year, and are very pleased with their consistency in type, heads, temperament etc. Prices start at £140.00. upwards, they are all registered, in the heptavac P Plus system, and treated for fly strike and worms. All our available shearling ewes have gone to their new homes, as have four of our breeding ewes. We will soon be preparing for Burwarton Show and Ashbourne Show, - unfortunately we have sold two of our show team - some offers you cannot refuse!!!

Cheshire County Show 22nd June, 2011

We had a good day!!! Our shearling ewe Roston Nouveau won the breed championship and went on to win the reserve interbreed downland breed title. We also won the group of three, but not with Kaspar, who won at Stafford, but one of our shearling rams Roston Nabil, who was with Nouveau and Nova.

some of our shearling ewes June, 2011

We have available a couple of our shearling ewes - can't keep them all!!! They are bred out of our prize winning tups. We have one shearling ram available and a very good selection of ram lambs out of Kaspar and Nightspeed - all the ewe lambs are spoken for. We could part with a couple of our breeding ewes - they are drying off at the moment. Think thats it really!!!

Stafford County Show 2011 -our Supreme Champion Group of three and Steves Reserve Supreme Champion shearling ram

Supreme Championship Group of Three.

Stafford County Show 1st and 2nd June, 2011. Well we have finally done it!!! Our beautiful Ryelands, have only gone and won the Supreme Championship Group of Three, and our friend Steve, who keeps his sheep here with us, has won Reserve Supreme Championship with his Ryeland shearling ram - Steve is pictured here with Greg. What a day for Ryelands!! think we are all still in shock, but so proud - all the hard work Greg and Steve have put into the sheep, they should be proud. - So - if you want a good ram lamb, now is the time to get in touch, dont be shy - come and see us - we do have some stunners, they have been weaned today. We also have a couple of shearling rams available. We are quite happy for you to purchase, and we keep them until you need to use them.