Crossing over to the dark side!

[Estate fencing.]

This is my lleyn tup. As you can see I don’t think it should take a lot to get his offspring to shed.

 

[Guiggs]

My Shetlands arrive on farm at £20/hd, which includes £8 haulage. I suspect I can get 5 or more Shetlands for the price of an easycare 2 tooth.

You would get 7.5- 8 Shetlands for the price of a 2 tooth easycare!!

 

[pgk]

I would really like to try a few, has anyone got any ewe lambs for sale in the Gloucestershire area? I like to try before I convert to tupping the lot.
Iv got a flock of 100 lleyns that I shepherd bred up from Texel cross ewes, they shed there tails and necks, how many generations would it take to fully shed if I put exlana on them?
Also how are people getting on selling store lambs out them? all the wether and reject ewe lambs are sold in September as store lambs and would like to continue doing this.

We originally had a flock of pure lleyns, I hated shearing their bellies as always claggy, selected for clean bellies and this came along with them opening up early around neck and dock. Many of the f1 to our first easycare ram were full shedders, probably 50% f1 fully shed.

 

[pgk]

I wanted large critical mass of stock straight away.

How much for exlana or easycare ewes?

Loadsamoney!

 

[Cvx1170]

Its cheaper to shear them

 

[yellowbelly]

Its cheaper to shear them

Maybe but it's not just the shearing, it's doing something with the wool, fly sprays, getting farwelted, etc, etc. It all adds up in money and work.

 

[Guiggs]

Its cheaper to shear them

Nothing cheap with wool, apart from what you get paid for the fleece

 

[Estate fencing.]

Maybe but it's not just the shearing, it's doing something with the wool, fly sprays, getting farwelted, etc, etc. It all adds up in money and work.

And who’s going to shear them in 20 years time. Very few young shears coming along, far to hard work to start out.

 

[MJT]

Stud tups

View attachment 968499

Inverdale from @MJT. Bare belly and breech, so his daughters should produce clean shedding tups.

View attachment 968500

Performance recorded easycare from @Woolless
Double myomax. Chosen on figures and for his hair type coat. My most expensive sheep

Does this mean I didn’t charge you enough

 

[unlacedgecko]

Does this mean I didn’t charge you enough

When you breed me one with double myomax you can charge more

 

[Northern territory]

And who’s going to shear them in 20 years time. Very few young shears coming along, far to hard work to start out.

Wools got to come back in vogue with all this environmental crap. Surely

 

[DanM]

View attachment 968503This is my lleyn tup. As you can see I don’t think it should take a lot to get his offspring to shed.

we’ve been putting Exlana tups over Cheviot ewes. The off spring 50% full shed 25% part shed. Lleyn would be very similar.

 

[DanM]

I would really like to try a few, has anyone got any ewe lambs for sale in the Gloucestershire area? I like to try before I convert to tupping the lot.
Iv got a flock of 100 lleyns that I shepherd bred up from Texel cross ewes, they shed there tails and necks, how many generations would it take to fully shed if I put exlana on them?
Also how are people getting on selling store lambs out them? all the wether and reject ewe lambs are sold in September as store lambs and would like to continue doing this.

I’ll happily buy the store lambs if you need a customer! Finish well on winter crops.

 

[CopperBeech]

Out of curiosity where did the idea with the shetlands come from?

Very good system. But do you think you will get £50 as a store regular without using a terminal? Or will gone hybrid vigour still give enough of a lamb to give a healthy return as stores ?

And for anyone else - I’ll buy as man shedding lambs as stores as you have to sell .......

 

[unlacedgecko]

Out of curiosity where did the idea with the shetlands come from?

Very good system. But do you think you will get £50 as a store regular without using a terminal? Or will gone hybrid vigour still give enough of a lamb to give a healthy return as stores ?

And for anyone else - I’ll buy as man shedding lambs as stores as you have to sell .......

Scouring the internet for cheap sheep, they came over as the cheapest draft ewe of choice. The year (2017?) I sold you a packet of terminal lambs I had planned to run 400 Shetlands.

My farm study tour of Scotland in 2018 confirmed that Shetlands were the way to go.

Stores were sold last year due to concerns over post brexit lamb price. The intention is to finish from now on.

 

[ISCO]

Wished we were further on our journey to the dark side this morning. 120 in this field to shear and 1 lonesome shedder.
Got puncture in alligator on way there needing new tyre, then with 25 left, inner drive on clipper broke. If only they were all shedders!

 

[Boso]

They're a good base ewe for my breeding program. They're scab and MV free.

How can they be mv free, specific gene?

 

[yellowbelly]

How can they be mv free, specific gene?

Probably don't have it on Shetland?

 

[Ysgythan]

Wools got to come back in vogue with all this environmental crap. Surely

got a couple of golden oldie tups’ semen in the pot for this contingency.

 

[jendan]

They're cheap, so cheap I can cull very hard and not worry about the cost. I buy out there cull ring so they're cheap. I also buy the ugly stock, so they're even cheaper. Horns, coloureds I don't care.
They're generally good on their feet.
They have good maternal abilities.
They have high levels of intramuscular fat, so are good eating.
They partially shed already.
25-35kg lw I can stock them at 2-4 times that of "proper" sheep.

Last year stores went in Nov for £50/hd.

4 mules/ac weaning 7 lambs, each going fat for £90 = £630/ac income.

13 Shetlands/ac weaning 15 lambs, each going store for £50 = £750/ac income.

They're a good base ewe for my breeding program. They're scab and MV free.

Downsides are low litter size and poor shape. I'm breeding in inverdale and myomax to mitigate both of these.

I would think another downside is you never know which part of the countryside they will be in the next morning.