aberfield sheep

Al R · May 28, 2017

texelburger said:
Wonder if these Aberfield sheep would suit a lowland Feb lambing system with Texels back on them.Would they tup early enough and have the early growth rates.

Without knowing to much about them we lamb aberfield x welsh mules then crossed with texel's in march and most are 28-32kg twins now. On a lowland farm I would lamb them as ewe lambs to stunt their final mature weight as they are huge if havnt lambed first year, big enough when they've reared as ewe lambs mind.

texelburger · May 28, 2017

Al R said:
Without knowing to much about them we lamb aberfield x welsh mules then crossed with texel's in march and most are 28-32kg twins now. On a lowland farm I would lamb them as ewe lambs to stunt their final mature weight as they are huge if havnt lambed first year, big enough when they've reared as ewe lambs mind.

Interesting,i was just wondering if they could be considered a Maternal breed as well as a Paternal one.I would imagine you would have lovely lambs with that cross,do you sell them dw,ie Merthyr,Dunbia or RPF,or lw.

ford4000 · May 28, 2017

Al R said:
Good price! We find with any of our breeds that if you have something outgrowing the rest of the field by a long way in a twin field, it's got to be a single so are culled. We don't tag record at birth.

Bit extreme culling lambs for being singles in my opinion. ..ewe might well have had triplets the year before or twins 3 years in a row...fecundity has a low heritability without any of the mutant genes such as BMPR or fec for example

ford4000 · May 28, 2017

texelburger said:
Wonder if these Aberfield sheep would suit a lowland Feb lambing system with Texels back on them.Would they tup early enough and have the early growth rates.

I start lambing the Aberfield x Lleyn retained ewes 25th Feb. ..I didn't notice any difference between them and Mules

ford4000 · May 28, 2017

texelburger said:
Interesting,i was just wondering if they could be considered a Maternal breed as well as a Paternal one.I would imagine you would have lovely lambs with that cross,do you sell them dw,ie Merthyr,Dunbia or RPF,or lw.

Aberfield is marketed as a matenal breed, having started off as BFL X Texel. It's a bonus having good fat lambs from them as well [emoji6]

Al R · May 28, 2017

texelburger said:
Interesting,i was just wondering if they could be considered a Maternal breed as well as a Paternal one.I would imagine you would have lovely lambs with that cross,do you sell them dw,ie Merthyr,Dunbia or RPF,or lw.

Yes good ewes, that cross is ear notched differently to the mules and also differently to the TexX and the Aberfield x TexX are notched differently again. You can tell which ones have aberfield in by the size of the ears, and then you see the notches in them. The aberfield TexX ewe is massive, to big to rear twins but second time lambers (24m old) were like caves inside, so much room that 2 Char lambs would come out the same time with ease! Everything is sold DW to RPF.

Al R · May 28, 2017

ford4000 said:
Bit extreme culling lambs for being singles in my opinion. ..ewe might well have had triplets the year before or twins 3 years in a row...fecundity has a low heritability without any of the mutant genes such as BMPR or fec for example

Why did the other lamb die though? With 500 ewe lambs to chose from we can be quite ruthless to keep 200, the first 2-3 fat from a twin field arnt kept as there'd be high chances that their singles but on the better grass that the twins are on. Plus when the price is like it is we've even sent some gingemong Ram lambs we were thinking of keeping to the kill.

texelburger · May 28, 2017

ford4000 said:
I start lambing the Aberfield x Lleyn retained ewes 25th Feb. ..I didn't notice any difference between them and Mules

Would you think their growth rates would be as good as lambs from a Tex on a SuffxMule ewe ?

texelburger · May 28, 2017

Al R said:
Yes good ewes, that cross is ear notched differently to the mules and also differently to the TexX and the Aberfield x TexX are notched differently again. You can tell which ones have aberfield in by the size of the ears, and then you see the notches in them. The aberfield TexX ewe is massive, to big to rear twins but second time lambers (24m old) were like caves inside, so much room that 2 Char lambs would come out the same time with ease! Everything is sold DW to RPF.

RPF ,would that be on the Waitrose scheme ? We sell our early lambs there also,sold just over half so far.

texelburger · May 28, 2017

ford4000 said:
Aberfield is marketed as a matenal breed, having started off as BFL X Texel. It's a bonus having good fat lambs from them as well [emoji6] View attachment 526068 View attachment 526070

Where would i go for Aberfield ewes,Innovis or are other people selling Tex x BFL ewes ?

ford4000 · May 28, 2017

Al R said:
Why did the other lamb die though? With 500 ewe lambs to chose from we can be quite ruthless to keep 200, the first 2-3 fat from a twin field arnt kept as there'd be high chances that their singles but on the better grass that the twins are on. Plus when the price is like it is we've even sent some gingemong Ram lambs we were thinking of keeping to the kill.

fair enough [emoji106]

ford4000 · May 28, 2017

texelburger said:
Would you think their growth rates would be as good as lambs from a Tex on a SuffxMule ewe ?

I wouldn't think the growth rate would be as good, because my ewes would be quite a bit smaller than suff x mules, but they have mostly reared as lambs

ford4000 · May 28, 2017

texelburger said:
Where would i go for Aberfield ewes,Innovis or are other people selling Tex x BFL ewes ?

Many people cross texel with BFL to sell as tups,Logie durno sell some too, called Fronteira.
As far as I know only Innovis are trying to stabilising the cross and using extensive recording (but their own system) with embryo transplants....they don't look as smart as some of the others, but should perform more predictably?

texelburger · May 28, 2017

ford4000 said:
Many people cross texel with BFL to sell as tups,Logie durno sell some too, called Fronteira.
As far as I know only Innovis are trying to stabilising the cross and using extensive recording (but their own system) with embryo transplants....they don't look as smart as some of the others, but should perform more predictably?

Ok,thanks for all the info.

ford4000 · May 28, 2017

texelburger said:
Would you think their growth rates would be as good as lambs from a Tex on a SuffxMule ewe ?

Pictures taken on 9/5/17 so lambs would be around 2 months old. Better shaped lambs generally than from mules, they are not the biggest lambs in the field, but it should be remembered that the ewes are all shearlings this year,and should do a better job as they get older

Al R · May 28, 2017

texelburger said:
RPF ,would that be on the "they who cannot be named" scheme ? We sell our early lambs there also,sold just over half so far.

Hell when are you lambing then? We had 27 go last week. In the next few weeks the march twins will be going and will be on 100-200/ week for a few weeks then.

PS, your not allowed to say who were supplying.. see my edit

texelburger · May 28, 2017

Al R said:
Hell when are you lambing then? We had 27 go last week. In the next few weeks the march twins will be going and will be on 100-200/ week for a few weeks then.

PS, your not allowed to say who were supplying.. see my edit

Started lambing 5th Feb but only sell 500 in total so nowhere near as many as you.

Logie Durno sheep · May 29, 2017

ford4000 said:
Many people cross texel with BFL to sell as tups,Logie durno sell some too, called Fronteira.
As far as I know only Innovis are trying to stabilising the cross and using extensive recording (but their own system) with embryo transplants....they don't look as smart as some of the others, but should perform more predictably?

Yes we have a similar breed called the Fronteira. First crosses were 6 years ago. Since the first cross we have been stabilising them as a breed, with the furthest on in this process being fourth generation sheep as we lamb the ewe lambs every year. I would say the ones that are f3 or f4 are breeding very consistently and not throughing towards either original breed now. They seem to be breeding particularly well with cheviots and Welsh ewes.

beltextexel · Jul 22, 2018

Has anyone had any experience with aberfield x Cheviot ewes? Just wondering how folk found the aberfield x and what the scanning % of the above cross would be like on a lowland farm?

scrubbuster · Jul 22, 2018

@Jim75 bought mine

aberfield sheep

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Up to 25%

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100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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