Breeding a good hill ewe

unlacedgecko

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Fife
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?
I bought my stud ewes from Tom Welsh. Performance recorded easycare flock bred up from blackies. His farm is in Biggar, 1200-1800ft.
 
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Tupper

Member
Livestock Farmer
I bought my stud ewes from Tom Welsh. Performance recorded easycare flock bred up from blackies. His farm is in Biggar, 1200-1800ft.
Yeah I don't like the look of easycares, and you have got to farm what you like looking at everyday haha. Let's stop talking about easycares it's a non starter.. For me there are 4 main hill breeds blackies, swales/dalesbred, cheviots and Welsh mountain. What I want to know is can anything compare or nearly match them for hardiness? Like a texdale or a this innovis highlander or even a romney.. Just after ideas and theories. Iv a Lleyn x texel flock and I need a Hardy Cross haha?
 

Tupper

Member
Livestock Farmer
Love how lairge cheviots have been talked as the hardiest of the lot but then a Welsh man has popped up and said they didn't cut the mustard for him. I did think that might be the case. Different sheep do suit different ground and what works for one doesn't always work for another. This is why we love this sport so much! Haha
 

Top Tip.

Member
Location
highland
Love how lairge cheviots have been talked as the hardiest of the lot but then a Welsh man has popped up and said they didn't cut the mustard for him. I did think that might be the case. Different sheep do suit different ground and what works for one doesn't always work for another. This is why we love this sport so much! Haha
You do know what a Welshman’s definition of over stocking is .it’s when it takes two men to shut the gate. 🤣🤣
 

Alias

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Lancashire
We used gritstone tups on swale ewes about 25 years ago and the first cross were good sheep. The tups themselves were a bit soft, used to hang around the bottom of the hill. We crossed them with the lonk, and they generally came polled which was a bonus. Using a cheviot now, and the first crosses are very good strong sheep, scanned at 174% this year, and the wethers worth a tenner more than the lonk
 

Anymulewilldo

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cheshire
Cant beat a derbyshire shitstone mind
We had a Gritstone ewe reared twins a few years back... mind you she came barren the next year too make up for it! 😂😂

I thought the OP was after a bigger carcasse lamb, hence I didn’t mention the Welshie! Amazing little ewes, the best way too produce maximum kg of lamb-per ewe, we crossed all sorts of terminals with them. In the end though we were getting too many 32-36kg lambs that were fat as butter so we swapped too Mules. We’ve thought about trying some more welshies plenty of times.
 

Anymulewilldo

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cheshire
Have you ever tried Texdales?
Anyone on here any experience with them on hard going ?
I’ve run them on our rough national trust land before now. Good hearty ewes. Rear a pair of texel cross lambs off it no messing. But I found there was too much variation within the term “texdale” too allow active buying of them. The ones we had came as either hoggs with lambs or store hoggs that got served. They last well, but herdwick texel crosses are good at that too.
 

sheepdogtrail

Member
Livestock Farmer
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. View attachment 955013View attachment 955014
Great job selecting for the location. You can't do a better than that with for that locale. They look awsome by the way. Keep doing what you are doing.
 

sheepdogtrail

Member
Livestock Farmer
Yeah I don't like the look of easycares, and you have got to farm what you like looking at everyday haha. Let's stop talking about easycares it's a non starter.. For me there are 4 main hill breeds blackies, swales/dalesbred, cheviots and Welsh mountain. What I want to know is can anything compare or nearly match them for hardiness? Like a texdale or a this innovis highlander or even a romney.. Just after ideas and theories. Iv a Lleyn x texel flock and I need a Hardy Cross haha?
The Clun is very hardy if you can find lines that have been bred for strong maternal instincts. They will be double copy cold tolerance. They have very high butter fat. Brown fat is a strong trait to have. It is passed to the lambs in DNA. I would consider it essential for outdoor lambing. You just so many more options. To me they are easycare. At least mine are. I shear them once per year and look at their feet once a year. They just keep dropping twins.
 

Old Tip

Member
Location
Cumbria
We used gritstone tups on swale ewes about 25 years ago and the first cross were good sheep. The tups themselves were a bit soft, used to hang around the bottom of the hill. We crossed them with the lonk, and they generally came polled which was a bonus. Using a cheviot now, and the first crosses are very good strong sheep, scanned at 174% this year, and the wethers worth a tenner more than the lonk
That scan would be a disaster for me, 110% is the max you want for a hill flock, that’s what’s going to do for the swale. Too many lambs means a lot will die and not enough to go back to the hill
 

egbert

Member
Livestock Farmer
Love how lairge cheviots have been talked as the hardiest of the lot but then a Welsh man has popped up and said they didn't cut the mustard for him. I did think that might be the case. Different sheep do suit different ground and what works for one doesn't always work for another. This is why we love this sport so much! Haha
I was thinking you wanted summat bigger. WM seem to be the toughest, although to be fair, you have to look at WM every day (or at least, your neighbours will ;))
 

egbert

Member
Livestock Farmer
If you want really hardy and prolific Shetland ewes are another option.
I don't know much about them, except that seeing as they've been popular with the smallholders -none intended- the selection criteria will have been down the toilet for years.
(in fact, do I recall aficionados breed certain colours?)
Subsequently wouldn't want unless they were a last resort

(says a man who keeps funny coloured cattle....)
 

Alias

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Lancashire
That scan would be a disaster for me, 110% is the max you want for a hill flock, that’s what’s going to do for the swale. Too many lambs means a lot will die and not enough to go back to the hill
Too high for us really. We have quite a bit of better ground but we will be short of singles for the hill this year. Last year the sheep suffered with the dry weather and lack of grass until they were weaned. Then the grass came and everything thrived. Highest scanning we have ever had and very few geld. Aberfields did 200% and they're usually around 170.
But our ewes are probably genetically no more prolific then yours, it's just the environment
 

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