roston ryelands

ladies in waiting - 28th January, 2012

2012-01-28T00:49:00.000-08:00

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.

2012-01-08T15:14:00.001-08:00

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!!

2011-12-31T16:24:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-17T04:50:00.000-08:00

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.

2011-10-12T00:46:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-24T08:36:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-04T05:09:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-25T08:41:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-06T05:01:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-01T12:04:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-07T10:17:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-07T00:05:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-02T02:29:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-23T02:45:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-19T11:22:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-06T00:11:00.000-07:00

Supreme Championship Group of Three.

2011-06-04T07:50:00.000-07:00

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.

some of our show team for stafford show

2011-05-30T08:01:00.000-07:00

well, it is showtime again, doesn't seem five minutes since lambing. Here are some of our show team. We are taking three of our ram lambs, who will be available to purchase after the show, why not come along and see all the Ryelands at Stafford - it will be a good day out - terrific show

Some of our 2011 lambs

2011-05-17T11:54:00.000-07:00

This picture got in by mistake - these are are shearling rams - two of these are available for this years breeding programme - they can be purchased and we will keep until needed.

Come to Stafford Show Wed. 1st. Thurs. 2nd June.

2011-05-16T05:33:00.000-07:00

It is 16th May, 2011, and I am afraid, still no photos - I am unable to kneel, or move very quickly, so it is very difficult to take photos at the moment, but will do very soon!!! Our lambs are doing well, we have some nice grass finally - it is Stafford Show on the 1st and 2nd June, so our dear friend Steve is coming to help Greg bath the "show team" on Saturday, it doesnt seem five minutes since lambing, how time goes so quickly when you get older!! Hope some of you will be able to come along and see us, and share in a glass of wine and some nibbles in the show pens, after the judging on the Wednesday, you will be most welcome.

finished lambing!!!

2011-03-12T08:21:00.000-08:00

We have finished lambing, the last lambs were born on the 6th March, 2011 - we have never finished so early, and such a tight lambing period too!! Must thank our dear friends David Belfield and Steve Briggs, without whose help we would have really struggled - my knee replacement has let me down, thought I would have completely recovered by lambing time, but not so - must have drawn the short straw on recovery time, and certainly cannot kneel down, so lambing has been very difficult - but - well worth it all!!! we have 23 beautiful lambs - 14 boys and 9 girls - all very bonny - we have used three different tups, and each one has produced three ewe lambs and Dolwen Kaspar has given us six boys, Roston Luciano four boys and Arberth Nightspeed four boys - I will take some photos soon, waiting until they can all be outside - the weather up here on the Moorlands has been pretty grim, and the ground is still very wet - so - watch this space!!!

our early lambs 2011- under two weeks old!!!

2011-01-29T04:03:00.000-08:00

It is Saturday, 29th January, 2011. How are these for January lambs. They were born on the 11th - we have never had lambs so early before. Their mum is Lotus, our show ewe, who features greatly amongst our photos taken at the three shows we took her to last year. Our main lambing has not started yet - should be 13th February. Fingers crossed for an easy time!!! Things are very busy on the farm at the moment, our stock is getting through more haylage than they normally do, the terrible weather has not helped. I will try and take some more photos later on, and update on what stock we may have available this year. We are rearing on six of last years ewe lambs, they have now been sheared, and are all looking good - I think two of them should go later in the year - every year we say we must cut down, but never like to part with them!!!

two excellent ram lambs!!

2010-10-02T08:37:00.000-07:00

It is Saturday, 2nd October, 2010, and I have attempted to take a few photos of our ram lambs, but they were that busy eating I could only get the rear ends!! It is such a long time since I put anything on my blog, I have forgotten how to use it!! We still have two excellent ram lambs for sale, who will be suitable to use for breeding this Autumn, they are extemely friendly and a delight to be with. Not only are they excellent bloodlines to use on your pedigree ryeland flock, but would also make great terminal sires, producing extremely good lambs. They are weighing around 50Kg each, in the heptavac P Plus system, treated with Clik and wormed, and additionally wormed for fluke, and of course full pedigree and registered.

burwarton show 5th August, 2010

2010-08-11T03:23:00.000-07:00

Our show sheep have been tangoed!!! Someone else prepared our sheep for us for Burwarton Show, and something went wrong with the final spray - could'nt do much about it, but it did make one boy very happy - his father inquired "are your sheep ginger" then his son appeared - he had red hair, and was so pleased that we had sheep to match!! However, we had a glorious day, there were over 130 Ryelands entered, and the standard was extremely high, as it always is at Burwarton. We did very well indeed, our shearling ewe took second in a very strong class and our ram took third. Our shearling ram came fourth, and we gained fourth in the group of three. We are well pleased.

our champion ram at cheshire county show 2010

2010-08-01T07:17:00.000-07:00

It is Sunday, 1st August, 2010 and we are in full swing preparing sheep for our final show of the season. Nocturnal has gone to his new home this morning and we know he will be very happy. It has been very hectic today. The rest of our sheep have now had their feet trimmed and gone through the footbath. I think we will sleep well tonight!!

Our winning group of three at Cheshire Show - June, 2010

2010-07-30T05:47:00.000-07:00

It is Friday the 30th July, 2010, and we are preparing our sheep for the last show of the season - for us anyway!! We brought all the ram lambs home yesterday, trimmed their feet and weighed them all. Even though they were born in March this year, they were weighing in up to 49 kg - we are very pleased with their growth. A few of them are perfect for crossing, and should produce some good lambs next year commercially.

Friday, 23rd July, 2010

2010-07-23T09:20:00.000-07:00

We have found today, that not all our e mails are arriving on the carole@roston-ryelands.co.uk address, so please feel free to give us a bell on 01538 308996 or our other e mail address caroleshw@googlemail.com if you wish to get in touch, and in the meantime we will endeavour to seek out our missing e mails!! I have not been busy with the camera this week, hopefully I will take a few more photos this weekend - we are about to prepare our sheep for our last show of the season - tomorrow is bath day. Perhaps I can find just a small picture for today, to go with this blog.

preparing for Stafford Show 2010

2010-07-15T01:48:00.000-07:00

It is Thursday, 15th July, and I thought I would post these three photos, the first two showing the preparation of our ewe lamb for Stafford County Show (which was held at the beginning of June this year) and the third showing her winning the ewe lamb class, ( and also winning the trophy for best lamb in the show.) The first photo shows her with her brother, who did not get bathed!!!

These are our ram lambs - all born March 2010

2010-07-14T04:56:00.000-07:00

Well, it is Wednesday, 14th July, 2010, and I have just managed to take a photo of our ram lambs, easy to get them together when you put some food in the trough!! Some of these boys will be ready to use this back end, I will keep you posted with their progress and eventually take photos of them individually, and put their names to the photos - we have Roston Narciso - which means 'beautiful one' and Roston Nabil - which means 'noble' to name just two.

Roston Nocturnal

2010-07-12T02:59:00.000-07:00

It is now my third day into blogging, and I thought you might want to see a picture of our coloured boy, he is a star!! We also have a little coloured ewe lamb, who will be available shortly, but I think this fellow is already spoken for, if he is not I will let you know. His name is Nocturnal, and, like most Ryelands, is extremely friendly. Added on 4th August, 2010 - Nocturnal went to his new home on Sunday, 1st August, 2010, and we know he will be very happy

roston leonado born 2009 - out of our Hardgate ram

2010-07-11T09:40:00.000-07:00

This is Roston Leonado and he is a shearling ram, born 25th February, 2009 and he is for sale for this years breeding programme, and available now. - Leonado has now gone to his new home.

cheshire show 2010

2010-07-11T03:13:00.000-07:00

I think!! I am now getting into this blogging, and I have posted this photo, taken at Cheshire County Show this year. (2010) We saw the welcome return of the Ryeland classes, attracting six exhibitors. Here are our two stock rams, Luciano and Kaspar, strutting their stuff in the ram class, which Kaspar won and Luciano came second. Kaspar went on to win the overall Ryeland championship, and reserve champion in the interbreed down, rare breed classes, and our shearling ewe won her class and went on to win reserve champion - we also won the best group of three - we had a good day!!! Kaspar and Luciano have sired all our lambs this season, and although all the ewe lambs are spoken for, we have a few ram lambs from each of these rams. Why not have a look at our website, roston-ryelands, just follow the link or post me a blog (if that is the expression!!!)

9th July, 2010 - our very first posting

2010-07-09T07:40:00.000-07:00

Roston Ryelands is the home of our pedigree ryeland sheep. We have shearling rams and ram lambs available to purchase now and we will keep until needed in the autumn - or take immediately. They are all pedigree registered, and vaccinated - you can view our stock on our website - roston-ryelands.co.uk but I will attempt to add a photo to this blog, so watch this space!! Done it!! this picture was taken 9th July, 2010 - these are two of our ram lambs, who are ready now.