A new hybrid

glensman

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Antrim
Just to create more controversy here's a new hybrid we're developing, they are rouge✖ Texel /charollais (50% rouge 25% Texel, 25% charollais) second from the left in the first pic is a Texel✖ charollais. They are all march born and completely grass reared.
 

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glensman

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Antrim
Look smart lambs, what are you hoping to achieve from the cross ? What do you see each breed bringing to the party ?.
To answer the last part; Texel for carcase, constitution and hardiness with some maternal ability; charollais for weight, skin and length, also vigour at birth and lambing ease; rouge for frame size and conformation with maternal ability and further lambing ease. We added the rouge blood after working with Texel ✖ charollais and realised that it wasn't going to work the way we wanted on the maternal side in terms of milk and mothering ability as well as ease of lambing. We are happy with the combination of the three breeds, all the lambs pictured have been sold to regular customers.
 

Guiggs

Member
Location
Leicestershire
Are rouge very maternal then?
I thought they weren't very milky or particularly good mums and quite soft?
Not having a pop, I might be completely wrong but I've got that in my head for some reason!
 

glensman

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Antrim
Are rouge very maternal then?
I thought they weren't very milky or particularly good mums and quite soft?
Not having a pop, I might be completely wrong but I've got that in my head for some reason!
I had done my research before buying one they are known for being good milkers. Iambed a bunch of ewe lambs this year some Texel cross char, some char out of Texel/lleyn, and rouge out of Texel/char, the rouge hoggs were by far the better milkers and mothers. As for hardiness it probably depends on what they are crossed with. I'll take a picture of our rouge ram tomorrow and put it up.
 

Man_in_black

Member
Livestock Farmer
I had done my research before buying one they are known for being good milkers. Iambed a bunch of ewe lambs this year some Texel cross char, some char out of Texel/lleyn, and rouge out of Texel/char, the rouge hoggs were by far the better milkers and mothers. As for hardiness it probably depends on what they are crossed with. I'll take a picture of our rouge ram tomorrow and put it up.

Yeah they are renowned for their good milk. But I have heard horror stories regarding their hardiness... Considering charollais get plenty of that criticism levelled at them, but most (commercial minded) char breeders have moved away from the ultra fine hair red headed types...
 

glensman

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Antrim
Yeah they are renowned for their good milk. But I have heard horror stories regarding their hardiness... Considering charollais get plenty of that criticism levelled at them, but most (commercial minded) char breeders have moved away from the ultra fine hair red headed types...
The rouge itself is certainly not an outdoor lambing breed neither is the charollais although they can be in the right circumstances but this is the point of a hybrid you can combine breeds to get the traits you want while getting rid of some of their less desirable traits. If you look at the pics you can see that those lambs don't look anything like purebred rouge they have more bone and denser coats from the char and Texel.
 

liammogs

Member
What do you put back over the rouge x (tex char) ewes?? Bet they be good ewes to put a beltex to? Tight skins, full of shape and a good growth?

Not having a go but its all well and good if you can get the desired points of each breed, but when they start showing the scary, nasty points it puts a damper on it, use one of these tups for arguments sake to find the lambs soft(char), bad feet(tex) and poor finishing(rouge)? Thats the only thing i question when it comes to hybrids!
 

liammogs

Member
I seen a ripper of a tup last year! Tight skin, full of shape ticked all the boxes!! Asked the guy his breeding to find out he was 3/4 beltex 1/4 blue demain!! Tup came in the ring made fair money but went to dear for me but was always in the back of my mind the chance of having the tup throwing a blue demain type lamb
 

glensman

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Antrim
What do you put back over the rouge x (tex char) ewes?? Bet they be good ewes to put a beltex to? Tight skins, full of shape and a good growth?

Not having a go but its all well and good if you can get the desired points of each breed, but when they start showing the scary, nasty points it puts a damper on it, use one of these tups for arguments sake to find the lambs soft(char), bad feet(tex) and poor finishing(rouge)? Thats the only thing i question when it comes to hybrids!
I take you're point I could put beltex to the tex/char and breed the best lambs possible but it would fall down when it came to the maternal side( keeping a closed flock using three breeds while maintaining maximum carcase quality) I couldn't do this with Texel /beltex/char but I can with rouge instead of beltex.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Yeah they are renowned for their good milk. But I have heard horror stories regarding their hardiness... Considering charollais get plenty of that criticism levelled at them, but most (commercial minded) char breeders have moved away from the ultra fine hair red headed types...

Admittedly 20 odd years ago, but the Rouges I used certainly didn't have any better milking ability (or persistency) than the Charollais we used at the time. They were also thinner skinned and less easily finished. Perhaps they've changed since then?

The lambs certainly look well enough @glensman , but can we really be judging a sheep's genetics from a picture (not having a pop at you) these days?:scratchhead: I'd suggest it's almost as poor a measure as the placing order in a show ring, even though I suspect most of us will still get swayed by looks.
 

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