- Location
- Welshman living in Nottinghamshire
Either that or an own goal!!
We're all waiting with baited breath mate & you know I'm hoping its a winner for ya.
Earliest lambing outside
- Thread starter jemski
- Start date
Either that or an own goal!!
We're all waiting with baited breath mate & you know I'm hoping its a winner for ya.
- Location
- Dumfries & Galloway
Doesn't matter which goal it goes in, I count it as a score for me
5 days to go. Excitement is building
- Location
- West Wales
Do you find them dopey? We had to cross the Suffolk gene out with something for more will to liveIsn't that a hat-trick I've scored?
Just Suffolk tips, not ewes
- Location
- Welshman living in Nottinghamshire
Doesn't matter which goal it goes in, I count it as a score for me
Aye, years of tartan army will do that to a man!!
- Location
- Welshman living in Nottinghamshire
does yours have a bit of nz genetics ?Doesn't matter which goal it goes in, I count it as a score for me
5 days to go. Excitement is building
- Location
- Dumfries & Galloway
- Location
- Dumfries & Galloway
As @Man_in_black says there's a whole thread on this subject...
These are the first Suffolks I have used since 2000, so I can't comment on what they are like... yet.
They went to TexX ewes (out of Scotch Mules) and are due to start lambing on the 1st. There's 70 of them. The other 230 commercials are Lleyns lambing to Texel tups, then there's 250 pure Lleyns lamb which will lamb 20th onwards
No - full blooded Doonhamers (name for someone from Dumfries)
will be fine.
plenty of native suffolks round here rams and x / mules in fact a resurgence if anything may be a bit of nz floating around though ,,,,,,,
- Location
- West Wales
@Al R you must be only person in western world not familiar with the "which tup on tex X ewes"
Although I've been a member here for years, and 1 of the first 10 on BFF I haven't really posted much until recently as not much sense is spoken about in the cropping and machinery sections and that's what I've been in for 10 years but just moved home and joined dad on the sheep so only recently been on the Livestock part!
Brilliant to share ideas/methods and banter with people who have sheep and arnt stuck to a 4 teated udder like everyone else in this county!
We put Char and suffchar's on texX ewes and never keep anything from them for breeding! Well over 75-80% gone in 12 weeks with no creep.
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CharcoalWally
Member
- Location
- West of Scotland
Late April into May was a nightmare in 2015 , but it was absolute heaven in 2016 , you just never know what you're going to get no matter what time of year you lamb.
@jemski , it's not something you can over-think , because at the end of the day it's a complete gamble. Thankfully I've always enjoyed a flutter.
I used to lamb here on the West Coast from March 20th onwards. Stupidest thing I ever did. No grass , not a blade if the weather was wrong , which it invariably was , lots of rain , milking ewes requiring trough feeding 'til the grass finally came , so ewes clattering over troughs while lambs ran amok. No thanks , never again.
Back to April , then back and back to April 25th onwards. Much better. Ewes do get to lamb when the grass comes and the difference it makes to their workrate is well worth it.
Not sure what you mean by no option to bring them in? An option to bring them in in an emergency is a worthwhile option to have if you need it. We have had falls of snow here on May 15th in the past. I was still lambing the gimmers and I took them in PDQ. Better safe than sorry.
Where are you anyway?? Dorset. Dorset??? Isn't that like France???
- Location
- Scottish Borders
Hope nobody got much lambing out in this tonight! Baltic and wetter than a nursing home couch !
Hope the lambing gods dry things up asap!
Al R- do you breed ur own suff/char? Or have neilo and mr Easyrams come up with a combined tup combo!
Hope the lambing gods dry things up asap!
Al R- do you breed ur own suff/char? Or have neilo and mr Easyrams come up with a combined tup combo!
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
Hope nobody got much lambing out in this tonight! Baltic and wetter than a nursing home couch !
Hope the lambing gods dry things up asap!
Al R- do you breed ur own suff/char? Or have neilo and mr Easyrams come up with a combined tup combo!
Don't be silly, my sheep can't walk on water and would clearly dilute the genetics that can do so.
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
will be fine.
plenty of native suffolks round here rams and x / mules in fact a resurgence if anything may be a bit of nz floating around though ,,,,,,,
Yes, but your 'round here' is a long way removed from where @Nithsdale Farmer chooses to attempt the impossible.....
- Location
- Dumfries & Galloway
Yes, but your 'round here' is a long way removed from where @Nithsdale Farmer chooses to attempt the impossible.....
The impossible would be using a Charollais...
- Location
- West Wales
Hope nobody got much lambing out in this tonight! Baltic and wetter than a nursing home couch !
Hope the lambing gods dry things up asap!
Al R- do you breed ur own suff/char? Or have neilo and mr Easyrams come up with a combined tup combo!
Have a look at this, read all of page 2.
https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/the-happy-lambing-thread.159128/page-2#post-3529852
About 15-18 years ago we bought a good beltex, a texel, Suffolk, Charolais and BFL Rams and mated them with females that looked similar to them but weren't full pedigree as they'd be expensive so they'd be 13/15th of their breed.
We were finding the suffolks were bad mothers, bad feet, bad milk, good diers, low vigour, you name it it was bad for. Except they grow like mushrooms after 2 weeks and can be ready in 8-9 weeks when crossed with mules - which is 2 weeks earlier than the texel and the Charolais.
Texel's were good, sometimes not enough milk, problems lambing from big shoulders etc.. vigour was ok. Main problem with them apart from the eyes have to be watched in the first 24hrs, they are very big on the ground to for commercials just to get 2 lambs off, they are 2 weeks later at kill than Suffolk at a time of year which 2 weeks can lose 40p/kg/week.
The beltex was good, I can't remember now if they actually got near the commercials as they were the most recent (10 years ago) and the 2 of them were only used on the already crossed sufftexchar ewes. They arnt nice to look at walking sometimes and were sometimes born huge with 2 people pulls on singles and twins if crossed with pure texel's. But they did put tremendous shape on all the other breeds!
The Charolais were bought from a nearby breeder who's got the woolly faced type. Very good breed and we haven't found many faults, they have lovely narrow shoulders so are superb to lamb from texX commercials as hardly pull any of them! some can be a bit thin coated when crossed with mules and texelX. The ewes are a bit clean off when crossed with TexX in the commercials, kept 10 and they were sold after their lambs we're weaned when they were only 17month old - they head butted everything - the limo of the sheep breed. They are also 2 weeks later fattening when crossed with texX.
BFL are bred by themselves and arnt crossed out in the terminals. They go on the welsh and glamorgans and give us the welsh mule (50% of commercial flock) this is then crossed with texel's and texbelt to give us the 50% commercial of the texX.
I know it's taken a long time to write this, yes I know it may be long winded but gives you an idea into the breeding we're trying to achieve to find a good animal for our farm which even though quite flat has a lot of coast land so we're effectively a hill farm, an upland farm and a lowland farm. We're also organic!
@Man_in_black @neilo @Nithsdale Farmer
fair pointYes, but your 'round here' is a long way removed from where @Nithsdale Farmer chooses to attempt the impossible.....
but we/they all need luck with the weather - can be vile here at times - exposed to s.westerlies or s. easterlies
do have plenty of hedges and small fields though
- Location
- Scottish Borders
Blimey! Good on you, it must take a bit of time keeping tabs on all the x breeds. If it works in your set up then I say bloody well done
Another very important point for lambing ---I lamb in 60+ acre flat fields with no shelter (often no hedges anywhere) and this usually means less lambs than when lambed in small 10 acre fields with lots of places for the ewes to hide away