🐑 For starters, they are super cute with their gorgeous big black ears, face and legs which are hard to miss in the paddock. Did you know that Shaun the most famous mischievous Sheep, is a Suffolk? What a great poster boy for the breed. We have a few in our flock who could probably rival his antics!
💚 We love that Suffolk Sheep are so hardy and well suited to our little part of the world here at Exeter. They were first recognised as a breed in 1810 in South East England but you can now find them all over the world. Given their British heritage, they’re ideal for wetter climates like ours here in the Southern Highlands of NSW, and their hard black feet help them to resist foot diseases which are more prevalent in the wet. They’re also muscly and sturdy on their feet and seem to thrive roaming about our hilly Woodland Farm.
🐏 Suffolks are gentle and friendly in nature, so our Farmstay guests love meeting and feeding them with us. They can be led quite easily with a bucket of kibble, which makes it easy to move them from paddock to paddock or up to the sheds when they need to be shorn or drenched. They are also very easy on fences and are quite content in the paddock, unlike some other breeds such as Dorpers, which are renowned for rubbing up against fences and being great escape artists!
💚 They’re a large bodied sheep and have a dense down type wool so can be bred for their meat, or wool if combined with other breeds. Our flock is small so we tend to keep them as pets & lawnmowers, and they excel at both these tasks!
🐑 Aside from the maiden ewes, Suffolks often have twin lambs and make great Mums so the size of the flock can increase radically come spring! Like all sheep they have a 5 month gestation so we introduce the ram in April so that the ewes usually lamb at the end of winter and early spring with our next lambing coming up at the end of August. We cannot wait!
📸 And, this gorgeous photo is from when our friends at the Banter Group came to visit us at the farm & meet our woolly crew.