best mules for heathland
- Thread starter greeny
- Start date
- Location
- Dumfries & Galloway
I'd say neither.
You'd be better with a hill breed
You'd be better with a hill breed
- Location
- Welshman living in Nottinghamshire
Why does it have to be a mule??????
- Location
- Dumfries & Galloway
Mules are inbye ewes, run on good grass to milk and rear a high %.
Kick them onto heather moor/heath, they and their lambs will fail unless you feed heavily.
You could try improving your Welsh, or move to a better hill ewe.
- Location
- Welshman living in Nottinghamshire
Do you flush? When I first started buying Welsh drafts I was amazed at scanning how many were carrying twins & reared very well, fantastic mothers.
Are you breeding replacement? I put lleyn over my Welsh, the resulting ewe lambs made very capable mothers.
There the ones.
Woolless
Member
- Location
- Berwickshire, Scottish Borders
When you say heathland, what's actually growing on it?
Norfolk Horn bred originally on East Anglian heathland, I think?
The Norfolk was. The last ram and few ewes were taken to Stoneleigh in the 80s for a breeding program. The ram was a one ball wonder and died in a ditch before he could sire any lambs. They decided to use a Suffolk tup on the ewes and created the “Norfolk Horn” - ironically its one of the most recently created native breeds therefore.
Skintagain
Member
- Location
- Perched on the Pennines
Sorry but if your Welshies aren’t producing the numbers it’s for good reason. Either disease/parasites, stocking density or feed availability they are the most honest little sheep I have ever known and if it weren’t for the jumping ability I would have nothing else. You can run two welsh mountain for every 1 north country mule too so lambs can be got that way.
I agree with this. You are better having 2 Welshies at 1.2 lambs than you are with a mule at 1.9 lambs. The welsh ewe will thrive on poor land and the mules with waste away. Mules are born hungry and need good lowland ground.
Not necessarily. We’ve kept Welsh Mules on Grade 5 land for almost 30 years. One lot was reclaimed open cast land, and more recently on poorly drained peaty ground. They will happily live and rear lambs on grass alone provided your stocking rate isn’t too high. We buy ewe lambs and run them on their first winter. When they lamb they’re well and truly used to our system. I wouldn’t fancy buying shearlings that have wintered in Herefordshire.
We also wintered them away and lambed indoors though, if that’s not your plan then you may find it more difficult. Not necessarily impossible.
Perhaps the obvious is staring us in the face here though, why don’t you buy a BFL tup and make your own? Sell most but keep a small flock of Mules to test your system before deciding whether to switch over to them completely.
- Location
- Welshman living in Nottinghamshire
What's the poor bloke done to offend you??
- Location
- Dumfries & Galloway
The BFL is the Ferrari of the sheep world. Fantastic performance if you have a good driver.
- Location
- Welshman living in Nottinghamshire
Expensive to keep & breaks down in real life.
Bang for buck ratio good, and boring cars can break down.
CharcoalWally
Member
- Location
- West of Scotland
Generally last at least four tupping seasons here I wouldn't call that sheep that "break down." Senior tup that was here last did five seasons and the record breaker from the past did at least six.
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