Easycare sheep experiment

CopperBeech

CopperBeech

Member
Location
A Welsh man lost in England
CF069234-8A1D-4FA9-87F7-C7B4BABAA81A.png
 
neilo

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Kingcustard said:
Good stuff, I am still all Easycare but keen to try some Exlana, but I reckon I have enough ewes for next year now. Have a 60 acre hill covered in Broom and Gorse that I need to get something on, may wait and see if anything comes for sale in lamb at the turn of the year although you seldom see shedders for sale like that.
Click to expand...

Excellent, I know where some might be available. :whistle:
 
neilo

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
CopperBeech said:
Exlana tup over exlana ewe. I seem to get three cost types in young lambs - curly coated like the one above, cotton coated, like a normal lamb, and then a sort of hair type coat. I’ve always selected for the curly welsh type, in theory it gives more protection. But I’ve noticed that they also tend to grow a heavier fleece in winter and so shed more. We don’t get the same weather where I am now, so don’t need the protection and folk don’t like the wool. So now selecting for a hair type coat. Interestingly these lambs seem to have a thicker skin. But they all do the job, it’s just interesting to mess about with genetics and test what happens.

I’ve got a fair number of lambs that sort of size. That one in the first photo is a single but some cracking twins came down the chute today.
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How are you wintering them, and how will your prospective clients be wintering them?
I have noticed that the shedders here don’t stand the weather very well, out grazing on fodder beet, and run back under the hedge for the day after feeding. Their woolly flockmates graze, lie down, then graze some more.
We’re not high up, of exposed to the wind that some are, so would suggest that wouldn’t be the ideal coat type for a lot of folks, who you will presumably want to sell rams to once you’ve corned the shedding market?

A well grown lamb to be fair, and a million miles in front of what my my ‘top index’ Exlanas are rearing. Their progeny by a top 1% Texel (from @gatepost ) are a massive step up in performance, and have coats like in your ‘preferred’ picture.
 
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CopperBeech

CopperBeech

Member
Location
A Welsh man lost in England
neilo said:
How are you wintering them, and how will your prospective clients be wintering them?
I have noticed that the shedders here don’t stand the weather very well, out grazing on fodder beet, and run back under the hedge for the day after feeding. Their woolly flockmates graze, lie down, then graze some more.
We’re not high up, of exposed to the wind that some are, so would suggest that wouldn’t be the ideal coat type for a lot of folks, who you will presumably want to sell rams to once you’ve corned the shedding market?

A well grown lamb to be fair, and a million miles in front of what my my ‘top index’ Exlanas are rearing. Their progeny by a top 1% Texel (from @gatepost ) are a massive step up in performance, and have coats like in your ‘preferred’ picture.
Click to expand...
The ewes were wintered on a beet crop with bales, and then some point in jan / Feb they were getting too fat so I sent them up on to the top of the downs onto a 400 acre block of rough grazing.

Totally accept what you’re saying. But it’s ok because I’ve got a fell farm to test them on as well. And a variety of other spots.

I think it’s as much to do with brown fat reserves, skin thickness and cold tolerance and of course vigour, as it is coat type at birth which ensure survival. Interestingly those ‘hair type’ lambs have a heavier coat at birth and shed it out between 3-6 weeks to look like they do. If you look at the photo of the lamb I pointed out in the set of three lambs taken from above, you can see that he has shed out a coat already and has a little of it left.

I’ve lambed them in all weathers and as early as January. During the beast from the east lambing on exposed down land, showed up some interesting stuff. We may not be high here but we are very exposed at times.

You have to remember two things - your shedding sheep are shite, and I’ve been breeding mine for about 12 years now, not that long but enough to hve made a few tweaks.
 
Woolless

Woolless

Member
Location
Berwickshire, Scottish Borders
neilo said:
How are you wintering them, and how will your prospective clients be wintering them?
I have noticed that the shedders here don’t stand the weather very well, out grazing on fodder beet, and run back under the hedge for the day after feeding. Their woolly flockmates graze, lie down, then graze some more.
We’re not high up, of exposed to the wind that some are, so would suggest that wouldn’t be the ideal coat type for a lot of folks, who you will presumably want to sell rams to once you’ve corned the shedding market?

A well grown lamb to be fair, and a million miles in front of what my my ‘top index’ Exlanas are rearing. Their progeny by a top 1% Texel (from @gatepost ) are a massive step up in performance, and have coats like in your ‘preferred’ picture.
Click to expand...
My ewes were wintered on an exposed but dry underfoot field with a bracing view of the North Sea on good hay only until five weeks before lambing and they were fit.

Is your top 1% Texel a shedder himself @neilo ?
 
eadiebro

eadiebro

Member
Location
Scottish Borders
ISCO said:
I saw the clips at Scotsheep. The cost quoted was around 33p each which is a lot more than a ring but legal until 12 weeks in Scotland I think. The comparison would be the cost of a ring and anaesthetic against a
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Bill dog said:
I got a trial of them, it was fine on the tails, just currently too slow and a bit of a faf doing the balls .
Two things concerned me. A few of the tup lambs were walking very stiff on their back legs for a couple of days, which I wondered is the clip rubbing their back legs as it is fairly large in width. I didn’t catch any to verify , but I certainly noticed some.
Secondly, when the clip does fall off, it’s many times larger than a tiny rubber ring. If you make hay, or silage in any of those fields, I’d be very concerned by the choking hazard they might cause .
Click to expand...
 
eadiebro

eadiebro

Member
Location
Scottish Borders
I do realise we are off piste with this thread but I wanted to reply to you - sorry to hear you had a faff with the balls - depends a lot on whether you can grab them with your hand easily not before sliding the ClipFitter jaws under them. You can’t pop balls as you do with ringing tool so old habits need to be forgotten I’m afraid. No evidence so far of rubbing causing a problem with any orientation of the clip but stiffness in a few might have been an awkward placement .. on a teat possibly … or maybe something else entirely ? We are making more sizes of clips now so you would choose the optimum size ideally. Silage would actually be a good decomposing environment for our clips with BioSphere additive (accelerates degradation x200), and water soluble plastic is looking hopeful too (like modern shotgun cartridge wadding). It’s also very ‘crunchy’ and food safe. DM me to discuss any missed points if you prefer ? Thanks
 

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