Maternal sheep

irish dom · Aug 14, 2017

Good recorded lleyn hard to find over here. Lots of small hobby flocks making a balls of the job blowing them up with feed. Guy I buy lleyn ewes off runs them hard. Real good sheep but his rams look awful beside a pampered specimen so there lies the problem. Only a few people running them commercially as pures. They are just very variable and it's hard to buy with confidence

hendrebc · Aug 14, 2017

irish dom said:
Good recorded lleyn hard to find over here. Lots of small hobby flocks making a balls of the job blowing them up with feed. Guy I buy lleyn ewes off runs them hard. Real good sheep but his rams look awful beside a pampered specimen so there lies the problem. Only a few people running them commercially as pures. They are just very variable and it's hard to buy with confidence

Your much better off buying a rough looking one than one pumped with feed. The fed ones would look just as bad as a fed one without the feed. They might look worse even! At least with one that hasnt been fed you know what your getting. With all this variability in lleyns find a breeder that is doing what you want to do and stick with them. Thats what ive done. If they are good breeders then they are making progress you will too. It just takes time. Better that than try and buy a fed ram that does nothing but give you crap ewe lambs. Ive been there

Joe · Aug 14, 2017

irish dom said:
Good recorded lleyn hard to find over here. Lots of small hobby flocks making a balls of the job blowing them up with feed. Guy I buy lleyn ewes off runs them hard. Real good sheep but his rams look awful beside a pampered specimen so there lies the problem. Only a few people running them commercially as pures. They are just very variable and it's hard to buy with confidence

This is so very true, I have about 150 Lleyns here decided to keep the pure as have plan to run separate flock of about 300 from rest of the flock and Lleyns fit the bill perfectly. Finding rams has proven difficult and really only 2/3 breeders I d buy off after 8 years of trying different strains. Had to pay near top price in Ireland last year for a ram to get one I wanted and I don't even sell pedigree Lleyns so was investment for my own flock. Have kept a 100% grass fed hogget ram this year that I put through inspection who caught my eye as a lamb, and have a ram lamb this year will do same with next year hopefully.

Green farmer · Aug 14, 2017

Seperate from breed standards etc , What would ye look for in a good Llyen ?

Joe · Aug 14, 2017

Green farmer said:
Seperate from breed standards etc , What would ye look for in a good Llyen ?

Length, find they can go short easily and length is key in ewes to produce fat lambs from grass I find. After that think I go for the 3rd type you outlined somewhere, they big leggy show types with huge heads I avoid like the plague.

hendrebc · Aug 14, 2017

Joe said:
Length, find they can go short easily and length is key in ewes to produce fat lambs from grass I find. After that think I go for the 3rd type you outlined somewhere, they big leggy show types with huge heads I avoid like the plague.

Hit the nail on the head! Stay away from big leggy showy ones

If i go look for a ram at a sale i always ignore anything with a bucket in the pen too. Me and dad always go round the rams at sales seperatly. He asks what theyve been fed in first says they look well and acts like an old fashioned farmer who likes a bit of feed in things. Then i go round and slag off feeding rams and see what they say. You would be suprised how many breeders tell ys dfferent things depending on what they think we want to hear

if they dont both say they dont feed rams we wint buy from them. Sneaky but so is lying about feeding rams!

Yale · Aug 14, 2017

Our initial observations with our Aberfields is they like to jump and are not that quiet,definitely wilder than their dams.

The jury is out.

We'll wait until after next lambing to see if the underperformance we have experienced was more than a one off.

MRT · Aug 14, 2017

Green farmer said:
Seperate from breed standards etc , What would ye look for in a good Llyen ?

Another 100 good Lleyn stood in the field behind it

pgk · Aug 14, 2017

irish dom said:
Good recorded lleyn hard to find over here. Lots of small hobby flocks making a balls of the job blowing them up with feed. Guy I buy lleyn ewes off runs them hard. Real good sheep but his rams look awful beside a pampered specimen so there lies the problem. Only a few people running them commercially as pures. They are just very variable and it's hard to buy with confidence

Speak to Ivan Belton in Wicklow should be able to point you in the right direction for a Lleyn.

beardface · Aug 14, 2017

Green farmer said:
Seperate from breed standards etc , What would ye look for in a good Llyen ?

My preferred type are the long low wedge shaped ones with a little more flesh on the shoulders. The leggy narrow ones are crap and usually wild as hell. Also ones with more long type wool a little more open on the back, again tends to be the more rounded shorter legged types. If there too tight in the wool I find they get struck as early as first week in may. Part of the reason I went from breeding sufftex x lleyn to romney was to open the fleece more along the back and increase staple quality and length.

pgk · Aug 14, 2017

beardface said:
My preferred type are the long low wedge shaped ones with a little more flesh on the shoulders. The leggy narrow ones are crap and usually wild as hell. Also ones with more long type wool a little more open on the back, again tends to be the more rounded shorter legged types. If there too tight in the wool I find they get struck as early as first week in may. Part of the reason I went from breeding sufftex x lleyn to romney was to open the fleece more along the back and increase staple quality and length.

Spot on about the fleece, we got our lleyns to the point where their fleeced were that tight they look trimmed, on water meadows and alongside woods we couldn't keep up with the amount of clik needed. First cross to easy care rams much more open coated n fly strike massively reduced.

Green farmer · Aug 16, 2017

Lads in relation to tipping the lleyn ewe lambs, what would the minimum weight you could chance putting to the ram be ?

hendrebc · Aug 16, 2017

Ive gone down to 35kg and maybe a bit less one year when i was short of ewes. I wouldnt go down that low again they lambed fine and did their lambs ok but they never really grew as much as i would have liked. I think the sum is 60% of mature weight at tupping but you need a bit of common sense with that. A bigger framed lamb that weighs a bit less but is just a bit scrawny is.better than a young looking fat thing that has no frame but just fat and heavier. I go for 40kg now which is a bit heavier than the 60% i need for a 60kg mature ewe. They do much better that way.

Green farmer · Aug 16, 2017

40kg is what I've been aiming for as well, but found them stalling at 35kg. Giving em plenty of good grass at the moment, so hopefully they'll turn inside enough ahead of breeding season

hendrebc · Aug 16, 2017

The most important thing if you tup them at that weight is that they keep growing while pregnant and after lambing. Wean really early and give them good ground after they dry up too. Theres enough time for them to grow till tupping if theyre 35kg now. 3 or 4 months they will be different lambs

Green farmer · Aug 16, 2017

[QUOTE="hendrebc, post: 4158074, member: 70166" if theyre 35kg now. 3 or 4 months they will be different lambs

[/QUOTE]

Unfortunately 35kg is what the last batch were last October. However as farmers we're a forever optimistic bunch, so hoping to make changes and pushing now to make sure they don't end up the same come this oct.

hendrebc · Aug 16, 2017

If your pushing them now hopefully they will do better this year. At least your doing something about it a lot would just complain and do nothing

Bury the Trash · Aug 16, 2017

Green farmer said:
40kg is what I've been aiming for as well, but found them stalling at 35kg. Giving em plenty of good grass at the moment, so hopefully they'll turn inside enough ahead of breeding season

Makes sure they get good keep from now on .... and their mins and vits status is ok

The theory on 60 % could be bit lightweight at times ...imo. .

edit.: to show ...Global Ovines 's post .. # 9.
https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/age-weight-to-tup.31635/

unlacedgecko · Aug 16, 2017

irish dom said:
Good recorded lleyn hard to find over here. Lots of small hobby flocks making a balls of the job blowing them up with feed. Guy I buy lleyn ewes off runs them hard. Real good sheep but his rams look awful beside a pampered specimen so there lies the problem. Only a few people running them commercially as pures. They are just very variable and it's hard to buy with confidence

Joe said:
This is so very true, I have about 150 Lleyns here decided to keep the pure as have plan to run separate flock of about 300 from rest of the flock and Lleyns fit the bill perfectly. Finding rams has proven difficult and really only 2/3 breeders I d buy off after 8 years of trying different strains. Had to pay near top price in Ireland last year for a ram to get one I wanted and I don't even sell pedigree Lleyns so was investment for my own flock. Have kept a 100% grass fed hogget ram this year that I put through inspection who caught my eye as a lamb, and have a ram lamb this year will do same with next year hopefully.

If either of you gents, or anyone else from Ireland, would like a SIGNET performance recorded Lleyn tup, give Marcus a call.

http://www.bankfarmlleyn.co.uk

There is a tup going to Ireland in the next week or so and it would be possible to share transport. PM me if you need any help.

Green farmer · Aug 19, 2017

would ye prefer the llyen Rams with the long narrow faces or the ones with the shorter wider heads ?

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