Blackie Store Hoggs

[mghley]

Where is the best place in the back end to purchase Blackie store hoggs, always been impressed with how good a shape they can come as finished hoggs and thought I might try afew.
Secondly how much of a pain are they to farm especially behind electric fences

 

[Riggy]

Electric fences won’t keep blackies in for sure

 

[MDL POWERUP]

Longtown store or fat ring, make sure you dip them.. And they like to escape!

 

[Guleesh]

Electric fences won’t keep blackies in for sure

Eh, it keeps them fine here, but you need to watch them closely on first day in case any get their horn tangled in the lines. once they've had a belt from it they respect it as well as any other breed.

 

[Guleesh]

the stock fences don't keep them in though....

 

[Alexander27]

You will prob find a few pens at leek stores sales .. every fortnight in winter

 

[Agrivator]

Blackface Sheep Breeders Association | Blackface Sheep Sales, Shows and District Events

The Blackface Sheep Breeders Association maintains a list of sales, shows and district events covering Scotland and the north of England.

scottish-blackface.co.uk

This gives the dates for (expected?) store lamb sales in Scotland. Lanark and St Boswells are usually top quality sales, and the auctioneers could help in a private or remote sale.

 

[Nithsdale]

Go the roads less travelled. For the best potential returns, Oban is the place to buy.

But buy wise, and don't just put them into knee deep grass

 

[Bill dog]

Newton Stewart, or Dalmally also plenty of the wee devils !

 

[Hilly]

Electric nets total no no they act like trawler nets for blackiez

 

[puppet]

Fences, dykes no problem to how far a hill lamb can travel. Only chance of tracing them is to spray your postcode on them.

 

[mghley]

Fences, dykes no problem to how far a hill lamb can travel. Only chance of tracing them is to spray your postcode on them.

Sounds like good sport to me , perhaps I ought to get some !!

 

[puppet]

Good luck and enjoy yourself. Seen them run straight into a gate and drop dead, another leapt up bending my specs and nearly knocked me out. Finaly one with wide horns jumped past me in the race taking the erse out of my leggings. For a moment I thought I was consternated but thankfully everything was still there.
Apart from that they were fine.

 

[defender]

Eh, it keeps them fine here, but you need to watch them closely on first day in case any get their horn tangled in the lines. once they've had a belt from it they respect it as well as any other breed.

Used to hang a few turnip leaves on the wire , they never usually finished them

 

[Bob the beef]

Always thought the Perth type lambs were amongst the best. Much bigger better carcass sheep and not the same predilection with horn shape and face colour that the south type boys play about with.

If you do buy take time to look at the horns , as an awful lot of them now are being bred with the horns growing towards the face and will cause a lot of hassle on a long term Hogg finishing project

 

[Doddsy]

Stirling (UA) sell a lot, from top drawer stuff all the way down. Can be a total pain in the arse to keep/work with, but I find decent, long keep ones work well generally. I personally prefer selling them dw.

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Depends entirely on what you want too work with. I'm quite happy to work with the total nutters from Oban and beyond, start at 25/6kg, leave at 34-38kg. The more south you come the bigger the blackie. I used to buy all mine from Hexham, they did grow well and do. 40-43kg when finished. But it's got now as the blackies around the border are as dear as small texels. Lambs out of Lanark and Stirling are generally bit smaller but full of go. Will be ready to go on real grass after a week of adjustment, but again they draw big buying audiences. That being said I called in at Stirling UA last October on way home from Fort William and bought a decker of right straight long term blackies for £34avg.
Once you get up to the likes of Dalmally and beyond the sheep shrink and they take a lot more farming. Double fluke drenches, every vaccine under the sun and plenty of minerals. I had a fair lot out of the Highlands this time. All straight long term lambs. Lost 6% over the winter, which isn't bad for those little hill lambs. Sent a load Longtown this morning, 34.3kg 246ppk. Pay better than most things. But they knock seven shades of sh!t out of you, your kit, the dog, the trailer/lorry. But I have no more issue keeping them behind electric than anything else.
One did get a full race run up at me ands it me full in the chest on Tuesday though. Christ I was rough for 10 minutes, totally winded me.
As @Nithsdale Farmer says, travel the roads least worn to stand a chance of making them pay properly.

 

[CollCrofter]

If you want the real Blackies and not the pampered ones then yep, head West. I certainly wouldn't rule out Dalmally, I don't think you can go far wrong with Oban, Dalmally, Islay and maybe Stirling if they're from the West

As for the Fluke, that just depends on the year. We've given maybe one more Fluke dose than normal given the mild and wet Autumn/Winter and seem to have managed it fairly well

Any Blackies I still have only get Heptevac P Plus and never had a mineral box under their nose in their life

You just have to make sure you do your homework and buy from a good source, as @Anymulewilldo says, they will pay better than most things but you'll end up with a bruise or two or dose running down the crack of your arse when the hose catches on the horns and then your'e like a dog chasing it's tail trying to get the backpack off