Draft Welsh ewes
- Thread starter Sheep135
- Start date
I believe so. Classic all on all off system. With current cull prices they will give you a lamb and a half and most of their purchase price back in the cull section and with the right tup you'll have got most of the lambs away before tupping the next lot.
Pro's -
Cheap
hardy
Plenty to choose from
surprisingly if you have a decent amount of grass they wont escape to regular.
Cons -
low lambing % as a rule
small ewes
the breakers will continue to get out no matter what you do.
put a Suffolk tup over them lamb outside in march and check twice a day, 97% will lamb them selves if the tup selection is correct.
Cheap
hardy
Plenty to choose from
surprisingly if you have a decent amount of grass they wont escape to regular.
Cons -
low lambing % as a rule
small ewes
the breakers will continue to get out no matter what you do.
put a Suffolk tup over them lamb outside in march and check twice a day, 97% will lamb them selves if the tup selection is correct.
- Location
- Fife
That's my plan for this winter. I'll be selling couples come May as the HLS ground I'm lambing on just be sheep clear May-Sep
Its a plan that works, i cant take credit for it as i guess people have been doing it for many years before i was born. But it isn't a huge outlay to start of with. one thing i would recommend and i only stumbled across it was the Nz suffolks. might not make such a difference if your selling as couples but get no problems with dopey lambs at birth. I understand you can find good British Suffolks also but i cant comment on that.
Sheep135
Member
How many ewes would you keep to the acre on reasonably good ground?
- Location
- Fife
My (very) rough rule of thumb is 4/acre for wintering.
I have thought about lleyns but reading about the variation in the breed concerns me so im just going with the suffolks.
- Location
- Fife
Fortunately I happen to know of a very good flock of Lleyns. There will be a production sale in a few weeks.
http://www.bankfarmlleyn.co.uk/on-farm-sale.html
I wouldn't know!
At the moment i have about 110 ewes and lambs on 100 acres.
some of the ground is very poor some is okay and half of it gets mowed for hay.
- Location
- Ceredigion, wales
Agree with everything apart from the Suffolk tup. From my experience of (North) Welsh Mountain ewes I'd recommend a Charolais ram any day. Easier lambing, quicker on their feet and to suckle and the ewe lambs won't get too fat at low weights.
Think youll struggle to find tidy ones at that price this year
- Location
- Ceredigion, wales
Dolgellau but for that money they will be improvers straight off the hill. You won't recognise them in a month.
Interesting, I like the sound of char but I lamb outside in march. Don't believe they'd do to well when things get wet and cold? Not sure though haven't tried. Do you lamb then outside? Maybe in April you might be better but still a slight gamble, just need a wet week at the wrong time.
You can find them at that price, but like said above straight of the hill. These are the best in my experience, just my opinion but if you buy big strong ewes of good ground someone has had the best out of them already. If you buy of the hill they sell them because hill life is hard, if your going to bring them in to nice push field they will let another year and fill out real well and probably be worth more after a year.
- Location
- Ceredigion, wales
We did lamb them outside in the past. Char x lambs out of (North) Welsh ewes have a good coat tbf. I think we lost less Char x to bad weather than big boned Suffolk x due to lambing probs and being too slow to get up and suckle.
- Location
- Ceredigion, wales
Yes, only advice I'd give is don't put them straight onto lush grass. The shock will be too much for some of them.