Just find the chivs are a bit sticky in the belly wool and a bit wrinkly to shear when they're not trying to boot you in the head ha. But then again iv been spoilt with bare bellied swales and mules probably. Is the Gritstone a non starter then, thought they look a good carcass Hill ewe? Any experience with them?
Breeding a good hill ewe
- Thread starter Tupper
- Start date
Stw88
Member
- Location
- Northumberland
Crossing my swales out here. Was just an experiment last 2 years with a little few but dont think there will be any horned tups going out on the north end this backend. Here are 2 chv x swale shearlings with cheviot lambs. Been very good so far.
Sheepfog
Member
- Location
- Southern England
If it's a really hard hill and traditionally stocked with Swales I'd be tempted to stick with the Swale. You could always put a Scottish Blackface tup across them to improve the carcass - (that's basically the reverse of what many Blackie hills are doing with an occasional(!) cross with a Swale tup).
South Country Cheviot is another option and a very tough sheep. Again, putting the Lairg type NCC across them occasionally would improve lamb values.
If the ground can take Lairg type NCC then that is your best bet. They would give you strong store/fat lamb prices, better than a Swale or SCC. You'd also have a good draft ewe for crossing on kinder ground or selling.
South Country Cheviot is another option and a very tough sheep. Again, putting the Lairg type NCC across them occasionally would improve lamb values.
If the ground can take Lairg type NCC then that is your best bet. They would give you strong store/fat lamb prices, better than a Swale or SCC. You'd also have a good draft ewe for crossing on kinder ground or selling.
If you require a hardy sheep,then smaller sheep tend to be hardier as they need less feed for maintainance. small sheep have less value as a cull true but are more efficient on a per ha basis why not just keep Swales and cross to a large terminal to produce good fat lambs they are easy lambing and easy to manage. My limited experience with Cheviots is they are fantastic all year round TIL lambing when they can be prone to lambing issues and fairly wild
- Location
- Fife
Find a tup breeder you like who had a similar or harder farm. Buy tups from him and breed up.
I don't think you've said where you are?Hi, I'm trying to breed a ewe that is worth more than a swale as a cull ewe, eats less than a mule ewe but still produces a nice solid lamb. We farm at 1500 ft up to 1800 ft on a Hill farm.
I have tried lleyns which I crossed with a texel. I get good carcass lambs but I don't feel the ewe is Hardy enough and the lambs are bare skinned which means keeping them indoors a day or two if the weathers bad at birth. Thinking of using either a Highlander/ Welsh mountain/cheviot or even just trying to find a woolier Lleyn. Any recommendations on a good cross? Also is it possible to use a texdale tup to produce texdales or would I end up with mongrel lambs?After a low cost ewe which produces hardy good shaped lambs, Lets get a discussion going lads?
If I'd moved to a fresh area, I hope I'd have the nouse to go and look over a few gates at what the time served ole fellas were up to.
It's not always gonna be right, but a good guide nonetheless.
I'd avoid lleyns on hard ground. they're simply too prolific, and i found - putting some into my cheviots when I was young and keen- that I ended up with multiples, which were a pain the stern.
If you're in Wales, then there's a tonne of Welsh breeds - some of which have gone up a size using Cheviot blood to make some very good sheep.
Swales and blackies have their merits as outlined above, but both - in my candid opinion- have suffered from fashionable traits not being based on functionality.
Between the mule breeding cult, and the big money tup fetish, both breeds have slipped.
(I'm looking wistfully across the Irish sea at the 'mayos' for some fresh blackie blood, or possibly out on the Islands........)
(Sorry all....I must be feeling spikey today.)
But all round tough sheep with a better body? Cheviots
The Southies are a fair bit bigger than they used to be - (I recall the blessed short legged things which used to bounce along on all four legs at once.....)
But hill norths, al la Lairg types...now you're talking.
Don't be tempted by heavy boned Park sheep, and watch out for one or two rascals introducing some 'foreign' blood to put shape in.
If you want to put in some hybrid vigour, go between the two (NCCxblackie), the downside being a step down on wedder lambs when going back to blackie.
- Location
- Cheshire
Gritstones make Cheviots look hellish prolific... even more gormless and ignorant. Good fleece but that’s all that’s going for them.
2wheels
Member
- Location
- aberdeenshire
good sheep. -6 is one thing but gale force wind and pissing rain is something else which you will have plenty of.
Very true,I prefer the -6.
Can't beat a swale ewe as a mother so I'd guess a cross with a che
Mostly swales and mules, even have a flock of Lockerbie cheviots. Over the last 40 years we have moved from dalesbreds to swales and then kept mules aswell to have a year round lamb to sell. Sheep trends have always changed and the breeds themselves have changed, some breeds don't always get better.. Aswell as stocking and hill payment changes.. I feel the whitefaced and cheviot sheep are trending at the moment, only here for ideas? Not knocking anyone.
I'm from the dales, 5th Generation hill farmer. Lamb quite lot of sheep, probably more than most..
Mostly swales and mules, even have a flock of Lockerbie cheviots. Over the last 40 years we have moved from dalesbreds to swales and then kept mules aswell to have a year round lamb to sell. Sheep trends have always changed and the breeds themselves have changed, some breeds don't always get better.. Aswell as stocking and hill payment changes.. I feel the whitefaced and cheviot sheep are trending at the moment, only here for ideas? Not knocking anyone.
Yeah I agree there, they have floppy ears and look a bit dopey. Never really come across them much, just wondered what they were like. I like sheep to look alert and agile and think a good fleece serves a purpose in winter even though its worthless when we clip it. Feel hill sheep are losing wool and its not always a good thing?
Not much wool on an easycare don't think they would handle our winters and I'm not really after a 200% prolific ewe. Just 160%+ hardy ewe that eats less than a mule but produces a good carcass lamb. Probably looking like cheviots are getting everyone's vote. So much variety in the breed makes it tricky deciding. Are park cheviots generally the softest type producing better carcass then?
Y Fan Wen
Member
- Location
- N W Snowdonia
Dad introduced a lot of Cheviot blood into our Welsh Mountain flock in the 60s and 70s so that they looked more like ch than wm. However, when the climate started to deteriorate in the late 70s and into the 80s we found that they just could not hack it at lambing time. We started breeding back to pure wm using the hardest and kempiest rams we could find. Survivability improved enormously and now, with the steady improvement of breeding wm they are on a par with the ch of that time.
This year, just to cock it all up, I've used one Derbyshire Gritstone to see what happens. The reason is that next door's dg got over to us for a couple of days two years ago and I was rather taken with what he produced. Gawn ni weld, we shall see.
Y Fan Wen
Member
- Location
- N W Snowdonia
I think you need to tell us where you are. What people do on the East coast cannot be transplanted to the West coast with any success.
If you look up Campbell tweed and see his system might be some useful info
Very interesting, I'm in Yorkshire dales on high ground about 1500 to 1800ft of limestone rushy ground. We actually restocked after foot and mouth with Welsh mountain and black ie drafts as a cheap way of stocking farm whilst we bred the swaledale back up. Preferred WM, Always found them to be good mothers and grew stonking Welsh mule lambs. If anything they were just a bit flighty but I suppose they werent hefted. Is a WM x lleyn or texel good ewe or not? Any experience?
JohnGalway
Member
- Location
- Connemara, Ireland
You want to be careful there too, a lot are trending to sending hoggets to dairy grass then feeding when they come home.