M-J-G
Member
I
I had Char ewes in the past and they made terrible ewes, none of them had a third crop with me.
Thinking of getting a Charollais.........am I completely bonkers?.......
- Thread starter CharcoalWally
- Start date
bean
Member
- Location
- holsworthy
How about a durno hybrid from logie durno hardy lambs with plenty of get up and go
- Location
- N.Lincs
Only used the Charolais tup as a terminal until last year when I kept a few ewe lambs out of Texel x Mules to try..........
@neilo assures me the tup is from a good maternal line, which would, IMHO, be a must. It's early days yet but we tupped some last year with a Beltex............
.........all lambed easy enough. The rest are now running with Texel tups as shearlings.
Your climate would be a lot different to ours though.
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
I’d agree on both those points. Unless you feed them hard, most Charollais have a tendency to milk well, for about 3 weeks ime. Obviously some lines are milkier than others, but even those are totally shown up by good maternal ewes running with them.
I certainly wouldn’t recommend them if you are considering keeping the ewe lambs. They’ll have cracking lambs but the premium just doesn’t come to enough to make up for the extra work ime. I have 50 or so Charollais x Highlanders and I say every lambing time, that I won’t keep any more. Then we get to weaning the twins, could do with a few more replacements, and I do it all again!
The breed generally, is certainly a lot hardier than it used to be (& it needed to be), however, I would say that the years of chasing ever bigger sheep for the shows & sales have meant that birth weight has crept up too. Ok on well grown mule hoggs, but I choose to use a Beltex over my smaller, Highlander crosses these days.
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- Location
- north Wales
The only ewes I've culled that had nothing physically wrong with them, just nothing but trouble at lambing time
Never really rated charly ewes here. The strain I had, didn’t have a maternal bone in their body. Always thought breeders got a premium for their lambs as compensation for putting up with them ewes for the rest of the year. Hard to fault as meat machines thought. Perfect for butchers block.
- Location
- north Wales
What about a chamoise? I know someone who uses them on texel x ewe lambs, says they are born easily and are hardy, and he brings cracking lambs to market at the end of the year.
I use a primera, they lamb OK but are a bit big, surprisingly bare at birth though, but that might just be my ram
I use a primera, they lamb OK but are a bit big, surprisingly bare at birth though, but that might just be my ram
Northeastfarmer
Member
- Location
- Cleveland
I’ve only had char x beltex and they really do well here....I guess you buy what suits your farm
- Location
- Dumfries & Galloway
If you'd be prepared to try a Roussin... I don't see how you could rule out trying Lleyn.
Out of Mules, LleynX do good. Ours slipped away live ring and dead with no complaints from buyers. Nice skinned, white faced ewes if you went on to keep them - and TexX lambs from them looked like they were more than just half Texel (but not 3/4 looking)
Beyond easy lambing, and hardy as hell. Easier gotten as Roussin, too
Out of Mules, LleynX do good. Ours slipped away live ring and dead with no complaints from buyers. Nice skinned, white faced ewes if you went on to keep them - and TexX lambs from them looked like they were more than just half Texel (but not 3/4 looking)
Beyond easy lambing, and hardy as hell. Easier gotten as Roussin, too
Guiggs
Member
- Location
- Leicestershire
I'd have to agree with @Nithsdale Farmer on that one.
If you're looking at keeping some back then lleyn will do the job, also easy lambing on ewe lambs.
Obviously a maternal breed however if you do a bit of research you can buy a tup that will give you a decent prime lamb.
Very happy with mine this year although it's been a kind one.
If you're looking at keeping some back then lleyn will do the job, also easy lambing on ewe lambs.
Obviously a maternal breed however if you do a bit of research you can buy a tup that will give you a decent prime lamb.
Very happy with mine this year although it's been a kind one.
M-J-G
Member
Lleyn or Roussin are what I've decided on for lambing hoggs and gimmers.
Lleyn are easier sourced, however I'd maybe buy a few females too and the Roussin appeals to me more as a pure breed.
Guiggs
Member
- Location
- Leicestershire
What ewes would they be going on?
I'm sure you're all over it but be very careful with your lleyn ewe selection, there's some appalling lleyn ewes out there!
hillman
Member
- Location
- Wicklow Ireland
Firstly when I saw the thread title I thought @CharcoalWally was changing cattle breed and thought wtf ! Has he had a bang to the head or suffering a midlife crisis !!!
2 breeds that have proved popular here more so on the quiet are vendeen and ille de France for those first time lambers , both liveky and hardy
2 breeds that have proved popular here more so on the quiet are vendeen and ille de France for those first time lambers , both liveky and hardy
- Location
- Scottish Borders
Don’t do it,I bought a couple to go on aberdale 2 toothers. To lamb outside in April a few years ago. Disaster.they couldn’t take the cold and rain that just happened that week. Meanwhile the texels being born to Welsh ewes wernt affected at all. If you skin a lamb by a charley and compare it the skin on a texel you’ll see why they can’t take much hard weather
CharcoalWally
Member
- Location
- West of Scotland
You ever tried the Vendeen @Bones ? How did you get on with them?
CharcoalWally
Member
- Location
- West of Scotland
That pretty much mirrors my past experiences with the breed @puppet , although given a little time, they fairly laid down the kilos. I had hoped that the chihuahua thing might be passing out of the sheep, but that's one reason why I put this thread up to the members on here, to find out what the rest of the commercial farmers think.
CharcoalWally
Member
- Location
- West of Scotland
Ok, can the forum rest assured that there will be no Charollais females used in the @CharcoalWally flock..........definitely...........I think..............maybe.........
CharcoalWally
Member
- Location
- West of Scotland
