- Location
- Montgomeryshire
PM me if you’re interested in an Inverdale ram lamb or 2
I hope you’ve thought of a snappy name so you can charge double.
PM me if you’re interested in an Inverdale ram lamb or 2
I hope you’ve thought of a snappy name so you can charge double.
What price for an inverdale ewe lamb?
Don’t blame the breed.....blame the management....Not to get away from the original post but When we used to breed own mules I did just that and bought 6 BFL ewes from a farmer who was well known for breeding harder BfLs and out wintered his Leicester’s. After scanning at I think It was 5 twins and a triplet I couldn’t wait for lambing , by weaning there were 4 ewes and 3 lambs left, they couldn’t hack it on the forage system that everything else could, so why would I want to put that into a ewe . Though I will admit that they will put more frame and length into their offspring than a texel ever will .
Don’t blame the breed.....blame the management....
No .. the other badly managed 1400 ewes that weren’t BFL cope fine every year . So I think il blame the breed cheers
You don't half talk some crap!But no sensible shepherd expects the BFL to be hardy in any respect. If it was, it wouldn't be the most remarkable breed of all.
It will cross with any hardy hill breed, and produce crossbred females which are at least as hardy, thrifty and have a stronger constitutional will to live, than its purebred dam.
And fed as appropriate, it will be very much more productive than its purebred dam.
In fact, you can judge a shepherd by how he/she looks after such a valuable asset as a BFL. It's the goose that lays the golden egg, year after year.
We have around 9 Aberdale tups for 800 ewes.
They have a set annual fee which declines with age, starting at £800 but they occasionally have an auction so you can bid for the better rams at a premium price above the annual fee. I try to select the tups I want and am happy to pay a sensible premium for the first year to get the best EBV's and easy lambing tups. They are free for the 5th season and the lease cost goes down every year you have them.
We have customers for all the ewe lambs we can produce now at a significant premium and are usually off the farm in August. It suits us well and a neighbour also uses the tups in an outdoor system.
The Texels they use are mostly good rams so the wether lambs finish easily and at good weights. The Aberdale Romney ewes do need managing so as not to get too many triplets or quads so it is important not to flush the ewes. 200% is normal and if you want can get to 220% plus.
Back this thread up a second.
Are you saying if I go to an Innovis 'auction' sale and buy one of their tups... I don't actually buy it - and will have to pay again the following year to keep it???
They did not make that clear at the sale at Carlisle I went to.
fudge that
Iirc sheep with a Gdf 9 gene will infer a 30% increase in scanning %, with none of the downsides of infertility, midget litters, etc.
Cambridge rams can be sourced tested positive for it I think, and I seem to recall @easyram1 was breeding/testing his NZ Texels for it?
Many simpler, more easily managed, options than paying a fortune to lease an Aberdale ram for a year I would think.
Back this thread up a second.
Are you saying if I go to an Innovis 'auction' sale and buy one of their tups... I don't actually buy it - and will have to pay again the following year to keep it???
They did not make that clear at the sale at Carlisle I went to.
fudge that
You can breed inverdale to inverdale. Just have to accept 50% of ewe lambs will be non breeders.
Plenty of evidence to suggest that the BFL carries an, as yet unidentified, gene very similar to the Inverdale gene (of which there are many similar genes). If this is correct it would explain the variable lambing % of BFL and especially the odd coincidence of BFL flocks with large numbers of litters and large numbers of empty ewes at the same time.Whilst I don’t believe in a lot of the Innovis fads ,this can’t really be classed as smoke and mirrors , it’s a gene that actually exists , not some well sold magic idea / breed .
With regards to putting a bfl on them then a texel , I’d suggest just using the lambs inverdale ram which is just a prolific texel and miss out the BFL and all the problems it brings with it altogether
We've just had a study done on our ewes of which a large number carry GDF9, Finn ewes that were carriers scanned at 5% higher than none carriers. GDF9 carrying Texel and Composite (all from 50-10% to Finn) ewes scanned at 46% higher than none carrier ewes. this would tie in with results from Norway. Likely causes of the low lift in Finn ewes is due to the presence of other fecundity genes in none GDF9 carrying ewes.Iirc sheep with a Gdf 9 gene will infer a 30% increase in scanning %, with none of the downsides of infertility, midget litters, etc.
Cambridge rams can be sourced tested positive for it I think, and I seem to recall @easyram1 was breeding/testing his NZ Texels for it?
Many simpler, more easily managed, options than paying a fortune to lease an Aberdale ram for a year I would think.
This only applies to the Aberdales and not to the other terminal composites they sell.
If you don't like an Aberdale or it dies, it is not your problem.
What we do is very similar to producing a mule ewe lamb but with more genetic science and the ability to keep a highly prolific closed flock if you wish, and a much more valuable wether lamb.
I am told that BFL's tups only have a short lifespan and also can cost a significant amount!!