Easycare sheep experiment

[Woolless]

i dont really see how it can work when the best ewes are a 1st cross. cheviot beulah is my personal choice for hill sheep. is the idea you use a blueface ram and breed easycare mules? but then you dont have the wool shedding? doesnt make sense to me

I see my flock as being self-replacing and so to an extent dual purpose. I have also included some shedding Texel genetics to increase the frequency of the Myomax gene and a splash of hybrid vigour without compromising too much on woolshedding.
Using hybrid vigour in a first-cross ewe is another approach. No reason of course why both sides of that equation couldn't be performance recorded and get the best of both worlds.

 

[Woolless]

not the first time its been mentioned but a new breed name would help.
especially for what sounds like an 'elite group' for want of a better way of putting it of yours.

As you say, you're not the first person to say that! The boat has sailed with the name, I think.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

I must be getting past it but why would Charley come under easy care not having a go but just interested

They don't. I am using them as terminal sires over easycares

But being easy is not just the mother it's the baby as well , like a Hardy Welsh will lamb unaided in bad weather on an open hill

 

[Ffermer Bach]

No better advert for racial segregation than sheep, IMHO

I can't remember where I read it, but I read that a ram would rather tup ewes of a similar breed as a first choice!

 

[Ffermer Bach]

And catching

at the lairage with Dunbia in Llanybydder , they say Easy Care are the worst lambs to unload, they said they had a lorry where the driver had to individually pull out each lamb!

 

[Fendt516profi]

at the lairage with Dunbia in Llanybydder , they say Easy Care are the worst lambs to unload, they said they had a lorry where the driver had to individually pull out each lamb!

Don't think I'd be in a rush to get off wagon either to be fair.

 

[Bury the Trash]

I must be getting past it but why would Charley come under easy care not having a go but just interested

But being easy is not just the mother it's the baby as well , like a Hardy Welsh will lamb unaided in bad weather on an open hill

his lamb ( should) slip out nicely is his 'easy' for a terminal breed addition to the mix for more meat .

 

[Johngee]

at the lairage with Dunbia in Llanybydder , they say Easy Care are the worst lambs to unload, they said they had a lorry where the driver had to individually pull out each lamb!

Sign of intelligence maybe?

 

[Ffermer Bach]

Sign of intelligence maybe?

I don't know, but I am changing from Easycare to Exlana now (having bought an Exlana tup again this year), so I am hoping as well as improving the growth rate/worm resistance etc I will also make the lambs easier to load/unload, ask me this time next year! I look on with envy every time someone opens the tail gate and the lambs run out, but I don't envy the shearing!

 

[neilo]

but they (usefully) (and surprisingly you might say) have wool at birth unlike Charolais lambs

And yet I had far, far higher losses in my pure Exlanas in this year’s frosty April than I did from my Charollais crosses…

 

[SR7]

And yet I had far, far higher losses in my pure Exlanas in this year’s frosty April than I did from my Charollais crosses…

From what out of interest? Mismothering?

 

[Tim W]

I don't know, but I am changing from Easycare to Exlana now (having bought an Exlana tup again this year), so I am hoping as well as improving the growth rate/worm resistance etc I will also make the lambs easier to load/unload, ask me this time next year! I look on with envy every time someone opens the tail gate and the lambs run out, but I don't envy the shearing!

My new assistant says she has not seen sheep load/unload as easily as mine (Exlana)
It is of course because they are used to it not because they are any particular breed type

 

[neilo]

so they are trying to compete with north england mules and they start with welshies? wouldnt fancy my chances on that one

I don’t think they are trying to compete with mules are they? They are bred, and selected to a degree, for a different system. One where inputs are far lower, so output can be lower too.

That said, according to John Vipond I understand there are some large Easycare flocks that are housed on TMR all winter and showing some cracking margins. They do seem to be his most recent favourite breed.

 

[Tim W]

Observations so far-
- I expected feet to be better than mules but haven't seen much difference so far which is a little disappointing.

Will update this as I go, any advice welcome.

Sheep going to a new farm sometimes have to adjust to different bacteria/conditions?

I bought in 21 ewe lambs this year, all bar 2 were badly lame within 10 days of arriving (and needed treating)
If it was 1 or 2 had gone lame i'd have culled them but as it's almost all of them i presume its just new bacteria that they aren't used to?

 

[neilo]

From what out of interest? Mismothering?

Lack of mothering was the problem here.
If they’d been better mothers I’m sure they wouldn’t have succumbed to the cold any worse than anything else. Most of them are relatively thick skinned, which I identified with my skinning knife plenty of times.

 

[Johngee]

I don't know, but I am changing from Easycare to Exlana now (having bought an Exlana tup again this year), so I am hoping as well as improving the growth rate/worm resistance etc I will also make the lambs easier to load/unload, ask me this time next year! I look on with envy every time someone opens the tail gate and the lambs run out, but I don't envy the shearing!

But they’re very similar genetics. I’ve used rams from both breeds and haven’t really seen any difference, for performance or unloading.
To be fair the old unloading bay at Dunbia was pretty awful, steep and dark. They seem to unload much better in the new bay.

 

[andybk]

And yet I had far, far higher losses in my pure Exlanas in this year’s frosty April than I did from my Charollais crosses…

would agree, i lamb pure charollais ewe hoggs in april , outside (sheltered ex railway sidings ) mainly for indoor disease issues cocci / orf etc , they mother lambs well if left alone , rarely loose one even in that cold weather last spring , checked twice a day , wouldnt have done it with the poll dorsets, or the suff x shb we had, lazy bggrs would lie in the bag, or get heads stuck

 

[steveR]

I don't know, but I am changing from Easycare to Exlana now (having bought an Exlana tup again this year), so I am hoping as well as improving the growth rate/worm resistance etc I will also make the lambs easier to load/unload, ask me this time next year! I look on with envy every time someone opens the tail gate and the lambs run out, but I don't envy the shearing!

I would suggest a couple of minutes extra unloading some lambs, pales into insignificance compared to gathering and shearing the adult flock...

I will be fascinated to see what the progeny look like late next Summer, as the girls have gone to a couple of EC tup lambs with the myomax gene. Chunky lads.... If the "love affair" with the small flock persists, then I may well look at an Exlana for 2024.

 

[M-J-G]

How bad a frosts were you folks in the south have that it was killing lambs?
I would usually class frosts in April to be just about perfect for lambing in compared to a normal April.

 

[dave mountain]

I don’t think they are trying to compete with mules are they? They are bred, and selected to a degree, for a different system. One where inputs are far lower, so output can be lower too.

That said, according to John Vipond I understand there are some large Easycare flocks that are housed on TMR all winter and showing some cracking margins. They do seem to be his most recent favourite breed.

i dont know what they are trying to do, all a bit of a mystery to me. ive a lowland flock and a hill flock, i tried a few easycares a few years ago and they definitely wouldnt stick being left in the hill flock. which surely means they are going to be competeing with mules as commercial lowland sheep? i do see your point about them being lower input, but if your on good ground anyway (which you need to be for easycares) i would be going for high output instead. maybe i just had some particularly soft easycares (they werent registered so who knows) but im not gonna rush to get any more.