Blue-faced/Border Leicester hybrid

Agrivator

Member
I absolutely agree, but has anyone ever done a study on how much influence face colour has on number of lambs sold?


Yes they have. I spoke to the late Ian Cunningham not too long before he died, and he recounted how he compared dark-faced and lighter-faced Mules at Edinburgh, and found no difference. I think Redesdale EHF might have obtained the same results.

Most wise shepherds would agree, but it is a fact that good stockmen will much prefer to work with stock with a pleasing phenotype, so long as it doesn't detract from their productivity.

And the fact that well-marked darker-faces bonnier Mules make a significant premium over their lighter-faced cohorts is testament to that.

But I suspect that breeders of Mules who can produce those with good heads, are also able to instill more productive traits into what they breed. Other things being equal, the rams from breeders of Bluefaced Leicesters which pass on both bonny-heads and good productive traits to their offspring will invariably sell at a premium over rams that pass on plain colourless heads to their offspring.
 

Nithsdale

Member
Livestock Farmer
Im thinking of trying this cross and throwing him into a few draft nc Cheviots next year. What’s the worst can happen

I think we are talking about Mules from Blackface or Swaledale ewes. So it they were white-faced they wouldn't be Mules. They would probably be Cheviot Mules.

Well, if you read the thread - it is Cheviots the OP would use them on...
 

Ysgythan

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Ammanford
Some capital point missing going on here gentlemen and ladies. The men buying the ewe lambs to run are buying what is marketable as shearlings. It’s the shearling trade that drives their choices, not vice versa.
 

Nithsdale

Member
Livestock Farmer
Some capital point missing going on here gentlemen and ladies. The men buying the ewe lambs to run are buying what is marketable as shearlings. It’s the shearling trade that drives their choices, not vice versa.

The capital point being missed is that if you're crossing the BFL and Border, to then use on the Cheviots (or any other breed)...
You're not going to do it with the intention of selling the ewe lambs as Mules... You're doing it to keep them for your own flock
 

GSJC1960

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
UK
The capital point being missed is that if you're crossing the BFL and Border, to then use on the Cheviots (or any other breed)...
You're not going to do it with the intention of selling the ewe lambs as Mules... You're doing it to keep them for your own flock
Yes, my intentions would be to keep them in my own flock... however the intention in the long run would be to cross these with a Suffolk and sell ewe lambs. What would that make them? Suffolk Cheviot mule/scotch half bred? I wonder would there be a market for them?
 

Ysgythan

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Ammanford
The capital point being missed is that if you're crossing the BFL and Border, to then use on the Cheviots (or any other breed)...
You're not going to do it with the intention of selling the ewe lambs as Mules... You're doing it to keep them for your own flock

maybe not, unless you give it a whizzo brand name, produce 1000, kill 500, sell the rest off farm as “grass fed” and performance recorded (on an index nobody else uses) and send a lorry of the didn’t reach the reserves off to an abattoir in the dark of night.

(I may need caffeine)
 

Paul E

Member
Location
Boggy.
Yes, my intentions would be to keep them in my own flock... however the intention in the long run would be to cross these with a Suffolk and sell ewe lambs. What would that make them? Suffolk Cheviot mule/scotch half bred?
Mongrels.
No, sorry "Hybrids"

Depends if they were decent sheep or not.
Personally, keep the faces and legs white, then there is no inclination to keep a Bonny faced 'un. :banghead:
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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