Easycare sheep experiment

[Bill dog]

This is her !

 

[exmoor dave]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/PAQT34FjbzMiSGqg9

One of present aims is to breed shorter/cleaner tails ---(by short i mean 20 to 30cm in adults)
This is done by the usual measure and select process we all use for every other trait want

Here's one of the shorter tailed lambs showing up at the moment

Out of interest Tim, what's the thinking behind breeding shorter tails?

Since leaving tails long I've really noticed just how much the ewes use their tails to (I assume) swish flies,
Is there not a risk of taking away some nature provided for a reason? (I don't know the answer BTW)

 

[unlacedgecko]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/PAQT34FjbzMiSGqg9

One of present aims is to breed shorter/cleaner tails ---(by short i mean 20 to 30cm in adults)
This is done by the usual measure and select process we all use for every other trait want

Here's one of the shorter tailed lambs showing up at the moment

Shetland F1s with short undocked tails. F2 myomax lambs at foot.

 

[Woolless]

Easycare cross Cheviot ewe lamb with a beltex lamb. Great mum, but woolly. Hopefully should shed if crossed with another shedder tup
Hoping to source from a coastal based ram breeder . Know any @Woolless ??

I'll have a think

 

[Tim W]

Out of interest Tim, what's the thinking behind breeding shorter tails?

Since leaving tails long I've really noticed just how much the ewes use their tails to (I assume) swish flies,
Is there not a risk of taking away some nature provided for a reason? (I don't know the answer BTW)

I think you're right re-nature
I want shorter tails ---that means i want to get rid of the tails that drop below the hock
I think that naturally sheep probably have tails that reach to the hock (-ish) to swish away flies etc?
So the lamb in the video may have a tail that's just on the short side of what i want? We will find out in a few months when she grows into it?

 

[Guleesh]

I think you're right re-nature
I want shorter tails ---that means i want to get rid of the tails that drop below the hock
I think that naturally sheep probably have tails that reach to the hock (-ish) to swish away flies etc?
So the lamb in the video may have a tail that's just on the short side of what i want? We will find out in a few months when she grows into it?

Do you ever get over enthusiastic ewes taking a bit off the end of a lambs tail when they're cleaning them as newborns? Or even heard of the phenomenon for that matter?

 

[exmoor dave]

Do you ever get over enthusiastic ewes taking a bit off the end of a lambs tail when they're cleaning them as newborns? Or even heard of the phenomenon for that matter?

Used to see alot of that with exmoor mules, had forgotten all about it, can't remember when we last saw a ewe do it

 

[exmoor dave]

I think you're right re-nature
I want shorter tails ---that means i want to get rid of the tails that drop below the hock
I think that naturally sheep probably have tails that reach to the hock (-ish) to swish away flies etc?
So the lamb in the video may have a tail that's just on the short side of what i want? We will find out in a few months when she grows into it?

Will be interesting to see

 

[Tim W]

Do you ever get over enthusiastic ewes taking a bit off the end of a lambs tail when they're cleaning them as newborns? Or even heard of the phenomenon for that matter?

I've seen it occasionally ---not sure of the cause but must be hormones/over anxious ewes/maybe even pain induced?

 

[Guleesh]

I've seen it occasionally ---not sure of the cause but must be hormones/over anxious ewes/maybe even pain induced?

Only seen the shortened tails when marking blackface hill lambs, in one flock I reckon there will be 2 or 3 for each each hundred lambs.

 

[Guleesh]

Are you also breeding towards a greater area of bare skin under the tail? or just length? and which one do you think is most important?

 

[Welshram]

I’d say bare skin under the tale the ring will sort the length out of you

Are you also breeding towards a greater area of bare skin under the tail? or just length? and which one do you think is most important?

 

[Tim W]

Are you also breeding towards a greater area of bare skin under the tail? or just length? and which one do you think is most important?

In the shedders it's not too important but in my terminal sire flock (Chartex -ish types) i am recording tail length, dag scores and also noting clean /bare skin at the tailhead
Most important is just a clean tail with no daggs/dirty areas --to get this i think you need to work on tail length/tail area wool covering /FEC /dag scores---& use all of the information to work towards your goal
Most of the terminal ewe lambs don't get their tails docked now ---i dock most of the ram lambs because i don't think ram buyers can get their heads around long tails ---but i'll start getting braver soon i think

 

[CopperBeech]

I’d be surprised if they don’t make some rapid genetic progress, taking what is supposedly the best from both shedding camps, then testing and recording progeny in large commercially run flocks.

Time will tell no doubt.

 

[neilo]

View attachment 1031842View attachment 1031843

You’ve got another knackered one?

I had another rarity that stayed near her own lambs while I rung & tagged them this morning too. I’m now up to 9 recorded as ‘good mama’, out of 43 remaining Exlanas.
I haven’t managed to get the numbers of the three (so far) that had ‘double deads’, having dropped and run. I’ll record them when I round up the culls at the end of lambing though.

Maternal sheep, my arse!

 

[Kingcustard]

Half way through 240 easycares to the NZ Suffolk. Cracking lambs and not too many problems, mainly thanks to the weather. The lamb size had been increasing steadily though and had to pull a single with a leg back and a ewe stuck with 2 big lambs today.

It's probably worth pulling a few to get the benefits of the NZ Suffolk, can't belive how quickly the lambs grow in just a few days, but to be honest I am thinking of just putting all 370 to the EC ram next year and save the stress and work when lambs start to get too big and the ewes need checking more often.

What do EC farmers reckon is the easiest lambing tup. Heard of people using NZ SuffTex????

Do other farmers have to pull lambs as well?? I haven't lambed any to the EC tups in the last 2 years, but always had a few when using the NZ Suffolk.

 

[CopperBeech]

You’ve got another knackered one?

I had another rarity that stayed near her own lambs while I rung & tagged them this morning too. I’m now up to 9 recorded as ‘good mama’, out of 43 remaining Exlanas.
I haven’t managed to get the numbers of the three (so far) that had ‘double deads’, having dropped and run. I’ll record them when I round up the culls at the end of lambing though.

Maternal sheep, my arse!

knackered ?

Im so glad that the dams to the hundred odd sets of lambs I tagged and recorded the last couple of days weren’t like your sheep, it would have made life unpleasant. Mind you I did need to tie one single lamb up, leave the stick reader by it and walk 15 yards away.

Also glad that the 1000 ewes my girlfriend is shepherding (she’s a police woman not a shepherdess) aren’t like that or she’d have had a right mare as well. She did have to pick up one quad lamb today though and put it in the pet pen.

The sheep you’ve got are absolute shite, that’s quite clear. I’d get shot of the lot, if I were you, you’ve been sold someone culls.

 

[neilo]

knackered ?

Im so glad that the dams to the hundred odd sets of lambs I tagged and recorded the last couple of days weren’t like your sheep, it would have made life unpleasant. Mind you I did need to tie one single lamb up, leave the stick reader by it and walk 15 yards away.

Also glad that the 1000 ewes my girlfriend is shepherding (she’s a police woman not a shepherdess) aren’t like that or she’d have had a right mare as well. She did have to pick up one quad lamb today though and put it in the pet pen.

The sheep you’ve got are absolute shite, that’s quite clear. I’d get shot of the lot, if I were you, you’ve been sold someone culls.

You might be right of course, but I would sincerely hope not. However, as they were all top index females from one of the main nucleus flocks, it doesn’t instil confidence in the genetics from rams that can be bought from the same base…

Having a liking for ‘projects’, I’m still torn between continuing down the road towards shedding sheep (obviously most of those purebred ewes won’t see rams again though), or stick with what I have, and accept shearing and a dose of Clik as the cost of ewes with decent functionality.

 

[Welshram]

How do you get them to keep cow tags in I can’t get them to keep small ewe tags in without ripping them out or loosen them

View attachment 1031842View attachment 1031843

 

[Woolless]

Half way through 240 easycares to the NZ Suffolk. Cracking lambs and not too many problems, mainly thanks to the weather. The lamb size had been increasing steadily though and had to pull a single with a leg back and a ewe stuck with 2 big lambs today.

It's probably worth pulling a few to get the benefits of the NZ Suffolk, can't belive how quickly the lambs grow in just a few days, but to be honest I am thinking of just putting all 370 to the EC ram next year and save the stress and work when lambs start to get too big and the ewes need checking more often.

What do EC farmers reckon is the easiest lambing tup. Heard of people using NZ SuffTex????

Do other farmers have to pull lambs as well?? I haven't lambed any to the EC tups in the last 2 years, but always had a few when using the NZ Suffolk.

I've had a bit more lambing difficulty than usual this year. The ewes lambing to the new Beltex/Texel tup have largely lambed away alright. A handful of big singles to pull but you can get that with anything lambing singles out to a greater or lesser extent. Have used Hampshire Down tups previously (still using to chase up) and found them to be fairly easily lambed and lively. A bit of a struggle to sell stores, though. I would have thought NZ Suffolks would be as good as anything terminal for your job?