- Location
- Fife
Loss of BPS well be the end of mules.
Does the hill shepherd get a fair share of the pie?
- Thread starter hill shepherd
- Start date
Try the lairg type cheviot,she will do everything the blackie ewe will,only better . I’ve got the t-shirt to prove it.
As they say horses for courses, our Scottys stay on Dartmoor from end of Nov until the week before they lamb (16th Mar) when they are brought into the fields & left to get on with it, don't think we have touched a lambing ewe in three years
Can you explain why you think this?
- Location
- Suffolk
You don’t have to be FA to send them deadweight... the abattoir I sell to takes non FA. PM if you like?
- Location
- Cheshire
FA doesn’t make a sh!t of difference too cull ewes though...
I sold some Cheviot x Shetland fats the other week (bought because I was getting VERY desperate for sheep by November) thought they looked hellish dear at £53 for lambs that were only up too my knee! 36kg £98.80 38kg £104.50. All in grass then turnips. When I got home the old fella said “well you’ve cursed those lambs ever since they came. Bet you wish you’d bought 500 instead of 120!!”
- Location
- Cheshire
You forgot Blackie x Cheviot = Bombproof, mental and possibly better fleshing than a straight hill Cheviot!
How? They’re the most popular breeding sheep in the country nothing beats them
How are they sh!t, blackies are all horn and belly
- Location
- Cheshire
And generally doesn’t have those bloody horns too take your knees out!!
glasshouse
Member
- Location
- lothians
No different to malt barley growers who get a fraction of the worth of the product.
Barley hasnt risen very much for 40 yrs
- Location
- Cheshire
They may well be but I won’t swap you.
Swales are all leg, hump backed and narrow gutted. The biggest thing about them is the horns!
Why do my blackie wethers make £20 for than the same weight swale? Modern Swales generally have no width, no shape. And they die far worse than blackies when we get them down here too grow. I’m afraid you couldn’t give me swale wethers. But I’ll drive 400 miles too buy blackies all season long.
The subsidy has ruined hill farming really, the payments have led to sheep being to heavily bred on how they look than how they preform, breed characteristics and type are important but narrow white Swales or blackies pumped with feed and huge horns are not profitable without bps. At 120 this year ill happily keep my swales!
CopperBeech
Member
- Location
- A Welsh man lost in England
This is it. It’s only really the mule job that keeps the swale In a job really, so to speak. Swale culls sell for less, in lamb Swales for less to a terminal anyway, same with stores and they take a long time to finish and don’t come to much special. It’s a difficult one I’m sure if you’re reliant on the north country mule gunners. Maybe you just have to work on finishing them yourselves as said.
- Location
- Cheshire
Ahh but remember the odd year when he sells gimmers for £10-£20 more than he paid you. And still has costs of £50/head too get them too gimmers. (Just too preserve my skin I’m not a big fan of the shearling men making too much out of them) when they are a good trade too many sub standard ewe lambs make it too shearlings when they should be culled in spring. This doesn’t do the overall quality of the national flock any favours!
- Location
- Cheshire
If I were a swale man I’d do the same as you, sell everything fat. Swale wethers seem too do alright if they stay close too where they were born! And see plenty of bag...
- Location
- Cheshire
This is a blooming interesting thread!
So you'll be happy to give the breeder a bit more then this year, won't you?
glasshouse
Member
- Location
- lothians
If u were in scotland u would get the hog payment
- Location
- Cheshire
Hopefully no. I don’t intend too buy them ever again!! They have been a nightmare. As I said I was desperate. They paid well but they escaped and arsed about like no blackies or Cheviots!