CharcoalWally
Member
- Location
- West of Scotland
Same story here with the Cheviot Mule. To be honest, I don't really remember much about them, and I always remember everything about stock bred on this farm , so they were a bit nondescript. What I do remember though is how thin skinned they were, and so were their lambs. Not what you want on a cold , wet lambing day.Hope I'm not just repeating things - not had time to read all the other replies yet.
15/20 years ago we ran half Scotch (blackface) mules and half cheviot mules. The Scotch were definitely hardier. The cheviot crosses needed more help in every respect - at lambing & more feed. We moved over to all Scotch mule.
HOWEVER we're now struggling to buy good Scotch Mules. The ones we can buy up here are smaller than they used to be, with much worse feet & don't lamb themselves as often.
I'd say that rather than looking at a breed as a whole , you need to look around at where/who you get them from. A GOOD mule would be unbeatable for your job but there's a lot of rubbish about.
(and please, if anyone wants to sell me regular small numbers of the old type, do get in touch!
Hang on, here's @CharcoalWally snr in for his tea. .... .
What were the Cheviot Mules like Dad?
"Mmm, big soft things, not up to much. Not as many lambs as the Scotch Mule. ..."
And with that, back to his coffee. ...
I concur.