Sheep Breeding

The Oruveski Flock is made up of Estonian Whitehead Ewes.  The breed is currently being improved by Dala and Texel Breeds. Oruveski Talu will have breeding sheep and rams available every year so please email or call for more details...... 

High Lambing Percentages

High lambing precentages are essential if a sheep flock is to be profitable. Oruveski Talu aims to have a lambing percentage of 1.8 lambs per sheep across the flock. Lambing percentage can be improved through selective breeding and one of our rams kept from our own flock was a quadruplet as well as having high growth rates on grass.

Fast Growth at Grazing

Grass grazed from the field is the cheapest form of feeding sheep, therefore it is imperative that this grazing be fully utilized. Oruveski Talu conducts its own performance monitoring including recording the 100 day weight of the lambs to monitor growth potential from grass and milk. Growth rates between 300-400g per day are targeted in order to finish lambs at grass before the autumn slow down of grass growth. Our top ram lamb this year who was kept for breeding managed a growth rate of 425g/day at grass weighing in just short of 47kg at 100 days with no concentrates!  

Superior Carcase Quality

Carcase Quality and conformation is important for profitability not only by yielding a greater killing out percentage (net weight of lamb carcase after slaughtering and processing in proportion to liveweight) but also in determining the amount and quality of the meat for the customer. Oruveski Talu aims for a killing out percentage of 50% with these qualities mainly being bred from our texel rams.

Health Management

There is an old english saying that "a sheeps worse enemy is another sheep" , many of the antibodies against disease a lamb possesses, are given in its mother's first milk, and are specific to that individual farm. Problems arise when lambs are subjected to new diseases introduced at a later stage from another flock, therefore the less flocks you can buy your sheep from the better disease control. So far we  have only bought sheep from one farm and rams from one other.