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Writer's pictureMichael Hemming

Shepherding - The Derbyshire Gritstone



Every single farmer will tell you that the best sheep are the ones they keep. In reality all farmers are suffering with stockholm syndrome. Sheep are always a challenge but if you keep a good stock of animals the hassles are much less.


We chose the Derbyshire Gritstone as our first sheep, as it was essentially nice to look at. If you are going to have to have to sort all manner of problems with the sheep, you might as well like looking at them. Plus they originated from the Goyt Valley not far from us so it was a natural choice when looking for local breeds. There is an active breed society, which can be contacted here: https://www.derbyshiregritstonesheep.com/


The "Grits" were also added to the Rare Breed Survival Trust (https://www.rbst.org.uk/) watchlist in recent years as their numbers have declined with the advent of breeds giving a greater ratio of twins and weighty lambs.


There are a number of reasons we love the Gritstones, these are listed below.


The BIG floppy ears on the lambs

The great motherly instinct


The amazing tasting hoggett


We have also found that the Grit makes a great cross with a Suffolk tup for large carcasses with little fat and great flavour. This advice was given to us from a farmer who used to use the Gritstones in this way, and they are not wrong!


As we have evolved our flock we have learnt a lot of the years but there are some great rules we have learnt along the way that apply to anyone keeping a flock:

  • RIRO - Rubbish In, Rubbish Out - For too long modern medicine has been used to cover for poor animal genetics. If you keep your flock strong and look to improve, your management time reduces. This goes all the way from the attitude of the sheep to persistent foot problems. Breed resilience and easy management and your sheep stress reduces.

  • Learn from everyone - every farmer will give you a different piece of advice about what "they" do. This may not apply on your farm, but use it and adapt to make the best flock you can.

  • Keep watching - small behaviour changes and hint at an issue, trust your gut and make sure you are monitoring your flock.

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