Easy ram tups

I found these 2 reports on the Inzac Flock in Athenry in the farmers journal

must be pointed out that these are purebred sheep and not commercial flocks



They are fully recorded pure bred flocks run very commercially with all performance parameters recorded at relevant times to be meaningful to the industry.


@sheep breeder Regarding the budget and relevance to industry: It is an insult to those people who have designed these trials so they can get maximum statically accurate data out to industry by rubbishing their results just because of systems required to collect data. Of course these farms are well looked after with fertiliser and good pasture management, but isn't that what we as farmers endeavour to do, as pasture is the "diesel" of pastoral farming?
 

Bones

Member
Location
n Ireland
I t
They are meant to be very good and very prolific . @Mutch has recently established a purebred flock of them. Isaac Crilly who has a monitor farm in N Ireland and runs 500 ewes on 70 acres is a great advocate. Isaac was finalist in 2015 FW Sheep Farmer of the year.
I think he might even cross them with a nz Suffolk and keep replacements
 

Mutch

Member
Location
Dorset
They are meant to be very good and very prolific . @Mutch has recently established a purebred flock of them. Isaac Crilly who has a monitor farm in N Ireland and runs 500 ewes on 70 acres is a great advocate. Isaac was finalist in 2015 FW Sheep Farmer of the year.

@sheep breeder Regarding the budget and relevance to industry: It is an insult to those people who have designed these trials so they can get maximum statically accurate data out to industry by rubbishing their results just because of systems required to collect data. Of course these farms are well looked after with fertiliser and good pasture management, but isn't that what we as farmers endeavour to do, as pasture is the "diesel" of pastoral farming?[/QUOTE]

Been reading this interesting thread and it basically has spelled out my farming policy here in Dorset!
In 2011 we bought some Easyram Suffolk/Sufftex rams to cross with NC Mules and Welsh Mules. We found this a good robust ewe with great mothering ability and able to produce strong fast growing prime lambs. I also liked the slightly smaller muleX ewe from the NZ Suffolk as opposed to some of the elephants I've come across from the traditional Suffolks.
2013 we decided to get a piece of the action and purchased 6 NZSuffolk ewes and embryos from easyram1. Since then with embryo transfer and AI we have increased our ewe numbers to about 100 and are farming them along the same lines as Robyn - 100% grass fed etc.. Rams are being sold through the south although we have got two onto an outer Hebridean Island! ( a friend).
My Nuffield scholarship took me to Ireland visiting Isaac Crilly and Athenry also to the NZ research centre at Invercargill thanks to GO - these small units are showing very high output/ha from combining great grassland management with prolific genetics (Belclare in Ireland) and attention to detail. All this is possible away from the "research" type establishment as Isaac has demonstrated.
We are attempting to move towards a similar management regime on the home farm now and part of this has been importing some Belclare genetics from southern Ireland to breed pure and to cross over the commercial Suffolks and NZ Romneys.
All early days but so far we like what we are seeing. So anyone interested to have a try with a Belclare we can oblige this Autumn!
 
If you Google "Teagasc INZAC Trials " you will see the references to the Irish Farmers Journal Articles by Mr Carty?. You need to be registered to get on the IFJ site and I have currently used my free 10 articles. Real good paper with sensible techy articles that puts some of ours to shame
The IFJ is the best farming publication I've read, I have a subscription and it's worth every penny. It without doubt, makes the UK farming publications look like a pretty poor show.
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
I like your thinking. We could put them on a chiller boat and sail them halfway round the world and back, then sell them as 'fresh'.(y) We'd probably have to do a bit of creative work on the 'carbon footprinting' papers, but I reckon if we all put our heads together we could come up with a story that would convince Joe Public.:)

but that would take weeks.........:eek:


I've got a better idea. a chiller truck, short ferry ride and a day or 2 later be on 'foreign' shelves for sale (y).............:(
- can't claim its 100% grass fed though....:rolleyes:
 
The ''untypical'' client base is growing ---which must mean that the ''typical'' client is reducing? Changing market conditions could well accelerate this (in my opinion )



Your opinion @Tim W is probably shared by many and hindsight shows that this has always been the case when the economic forces change. How all producers and exporters worldwide would now love a crystal ball to see what morphs out of the Brexit developments and Trump's drive to re-instigate protectionist trade policies.

If the economic situation for UK sheep breeders becomes more difficult in years ahead (I have no idea, nor want to be a prophet of doom), the currently "untypical" ram client and modern pasture management practitioner will likely be the change leaders of the new "typical".
Recent posts; @Razor8 #297 (note the pasture management employed) and @Mutch #309 (same pasture management principles) talk about efficient use of our cheapest feed for maximum cost benefit. When times get tough, costs are the only thing we can manage. So farming systems must accommodate reduced costs without reducing output, if prices are reduced. It is not just about getting bigger, but more about getting better at the business of pastoral farming and not looking for irrelevant excuses.

If pasture management (quantity and particularly quality) is improved, sheep genetics most suitable to utilise that feed, will be sought after. And so again the untypical become the typical in time. It is important to watch the "early adopters", not defend the "late adopters" and future "failures" as their future has not been very bright at any stage of historical change.

The more severely the economic challenges impact, the faster the change. If the changes feared by some in the UK do occur, there is hope, because those "untypicals" are developing new systems now.
 
Would you be able to explain your system to me in more detail Easy Rams?
You lamb outdoors in I guess April and then sell ram lambs?

How are you set up for recording outdoors?
Do you have your own recording system other than signet?

Sorry for all the questions, just an old shearer and spent many years in NZ and interested in your system.

Many thanks
 

easyram1

Member
Location
North Shropshire
Would you be able to explain your system to me in more detail Easy Rams?
You lamb outdoors in I guess April and then sell ram lambs?

How are you set up for recording outdoors?
Do you have your own recording system other than signet?

Sorry for all the questions, just an old shearer and spent many years in NZ and interested in your system.

Many thanks
The first 30 EasyRam Lambs were born 10 years ago in 2007. Although we always intended to sell mainly grass fed shearlings increasing yearly demand meant that building up a stock of shearlings has until recently proved quite difficult.
So to have ram lambs strong enough to sell from late July/Early August we lamb about 20% (150 ewes ) inside in early march. The remainder and all the ewe lambs are lambed outdoors in April and during lambing Nick goes round the sheep twice a day and all lambs are weighed and tagged within 12 hrs of birth.
We have recorded with Signet for 40 years but for a number of reasons we are also now using SIL and we will have figures from SIL (NZ) for all rams to be sold this year. The main reason for this is that SIL will allow us to use background data immediately on any new genetics imported directly or indirectly from NZ and will also allow us to compare our 3 "breeds" -Suffolk Sufftex and Texel"- directly with each other, a facility that we have only currently have available on a single yearly analysis from a research project ( normally done in September which is too late for early ram lamb sales ). By including all the background data of our imported rams I am more confident on the future robustness of our figs particularly for maternal and survival traits. Last year we ultrasound scanned about 1000 lambs and CT scanned about 40 ram lambs.
So far as grazing we are trying to use rotational grazing and like most others are struggling to up our game in grassland management and I am sure this is an on going process. We will sell 70% of our rams as shearlings this year and only 30% as lambs and so the day when we only sell shearlings and lamb everything in April is fast approaching.
 
The first 30 EasyRam Lambs were born 10 years ago in 2007. Although we always intended to sell mainly grass fed shearlings increasing yearly demand meant that building up a stock of shearlings has until recently proved quite difficult.
So to have ram lambs strong enough to sell from late July/Early August we lamb about 20% (150 ewes ) inside in early march. The remainder and all the ewe lambs are lambed outdoors in April and during lambing Nick goes round the sheep twice a day and all lambs are weighed and tagged within 12 hrs of birth.
We have recorded with Signet for 40 years but for a number of reasons we are also now using SIL and we will have figures from SIL (NZ) for all rams to be sold this year. The main reason for this is that SIL will allow us to use background data immediately on any new genetics imported directly or indirectly from NZ and will also allow us to compare our 3 "breeds" -Suffolk Sufftex and Texel"- directly with each other, a facility that we have only currently have available on a single yearly analysis from a research project ( normally done in September which is too late for early ram lamb sales ). By including all the background data of our imported rams I am more confident on the future robustness of our figs particularly for maternal and survival traits. Last year we ultrasound scanned about 1000 lambs and CT scanned about 40 ram lambs.
So far as grazing we are trying to use rotational grazing and like most others are struggling to up our game in grassland management and I am sure this is an on going process. We will sell 70% of our rams as shearlings this year and only 30% as lambs and so the day when we only sell shearlings and lamb everything in April is fast approaching.


Sounds good.
Your ewes are run on grass all year round without supplementation? And I take it your rams are grown on just grass? Lowland Shropshire is a fantastic place to grow grass.
Ive spent a lot of time clipping in NZ, the texels out there seemed to have hourendous feet and foot stucture as it was a mostly terminal breed. Have you had issues with this with there being such a small population of them over there?

The selection of your breeding stock must be very high. What % of lambs would make it to sale?
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
This is a question I wish more ram buyers would ask of their breeders

Whilst I agree that culling should be pretty ruthless, does the actual %age figure mean much? After years of such ruthless culling on functional/structural traits, there should be far fewer to cull for those issues each year (that's the point of culling them isn't it?).
If selection and culling is on performance too, as I believe it should, what would be the point of culling an animal in the bottom half of a high ranked flock, who may well be still in the top 10-20% of the breed? He will still be an improver in most flocks and likely has something to offer.

If you're only culling a tiny number, in order to maximise sales numbers and keep the shareholders happy, that's a different issue perhaps.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.1%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 67 35.3%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.8%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

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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