Dalesbred or swaledale ewes

[Anymulewilldo]

There are Swales and Swales sold plenty of full mouthed 6 crop ewes for breeding. With regards milkyness they seem to do lambs well there are always exceptions but I find having smaller ewes(ours tend to be around 50kg mark) they are more efficient. Can keep more to the acre and rear there own body weight easily when inbye on grass. They can far exceed it when put to large crossing breeds and on inbye grass. Very efficient sheep that easy to lamb and that can be cheap to buy and produce a premium lamb as well with the right tup.

Better using a Welsh mountain for that job if you don’t want mules… with the added bonus of keeping 4x as many as most of them will be grazing your neighbours…

 

[Fellsfarmer90]

I would like to know which you all would prefer for breeding mules out of a dalesbred ewe or a swaledale ewe. And With the dalesbred being a bigger ewe compared to the modern type swaledale ewe, why hasn't the dales mule ewe become more popular in recent years.
Also would like to see some photos of dales mules if anyone has any.
Many thanks all.

We breed swale mules, dales mules & mashams. The dalesmule seems to be gaining popularity little by little, it’s certainly a slow process. Yes more wool but a better confirmation & potentially a longer lasting lamb.
However both not as good as a masham for starters breeding them doesn’t involve spending your top pen £££ buying an over fed pampered Leicester!

We have been crossing out our Swales ewes over the past few years. We have found aside from having more wool (if viewed as a downside) from a dales you have a far hardier sheep, better confirmation, better mouths, like for like in terms of milkyness & mothering ability. Dales wether lambs have been making £5/10 more sold store over the same weight swale wethers for years.
I think even if the status quo continues the dales & masham breeding folk will be doing very well quietly away.