Explain cheviots to me....

[Coximus]

As it says - Just met a chap running 400 cheviots on a hill farm, formerly a swale/dalesbred farm.

He recons the only difference between them is the cheviots are better escapees and slightly more up their own arses..........

but they have much better bodies, grow about the same on the hill but respond better to feeding and good ground - and the better carcase means 40 quid store lambs to sell and 70 quid fat versus normal swale prices half to 2/3 of that. The other thing being they can rear cracking texel crosses that are always polled so again better prices......


SO why on earth do people keep other hill breeds if a breed exists with an R/U grade carcase that can go onto heather..... THe chap was a member on the other forum but is not on here and wouldnt be named but i guess some may know him....

 

[Bones]

If you want a good ewe, cross a scotch mule with a nnc hill ram , quick and easy way to get good ewes with plenty of lambs and milk,

 

[MDL POWERUP]

Agree with the all of the above, can be a bit wild . Sponged a few this year and on lambing them now, plenty of milk and good mother's.

 

[yellowbelly]

Explain cheviots to me....
Ah, Cheviots, do you mean Southies, Northies, Lairg type, Hill type, Park type, Caithness type, Brecknock Hill............... the list is seemingly endless.......
https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/best-mules-for-heathland.251880/page-2 post#32

You need to talk to someone like @Old Tip or @CharcoalWally to get the proper 'low down' on this very good, but seemingly very complicated breed

PS don't bother @CharcoalWally just yet as I expect he, like me, is trying to get a sneaky look at the racing from Kempton at the moment

A bit more reading here......

https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/north-country-cheviot.184890/
https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/dingwall-tup-sale.143468/

 

[livestock 1]

They can’t count very well at lambing time

Up their own arses yes

Stand bad weather better than a lot

Bit like some people alright when everything is going alright otherwise forget it

Sometimes less is more at lambing otherwise best left to it

 

[Obi Wan]

Hi, the majority of our hill flock are cheviot or cheviot derived and they suit our needs well. We also have several types of blackie ewes running with the hill flock these are good animals but poorer scan % and lower grade at DW. Plan is to gradually replace these with pure cheviots in time. We ran some large hill/park Cheviot tups for replacments and beltex tups for killing the past few years (last year tried a Southdown - lambs never thrived/finished as well) and the lambs are killing out well with little input by Aug/Sept. Ewes resale price will help as well. There good mother and anything that isn't wouldn't get a second chance. I don't find them to get as stressed (jumping gates/fences) as the blackies when handling at clipping, dosing, etc.

As you can see from the other posts there's multiple types and options for crossing etc. It depends on what type or variance would suit your system most. A trip to the breeding sales in Dingwall, Lairg or Caithness would let you see whats achievable.

 

[cheviot53]

All of the above but mine can definitely count above 1 , they are so motherly that pinching at lambing can be a pain and the only breed out of maybe 35 that ive worked with ,that if they have a dead lamb I can just put a lamb in without skinning or restraining and she will take it .

 

[Old Tip]

All of the above but mine can definitely count above 1 , they are so motherly that pinching at lambing can be a pain and the only breed out of maybe 35 that ive worked with ,that if they have a dead lamb I can just put a lamb in without skinning or restraining and she will take it .

You must have a different strain to me, fantastic mothers with loads of milk but some can be an arse to mother on too. Always skin here otherwise it’s a non starter

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Wild

 

[michael N123]

One thing i am noticing is ALOT of people are going out of Swales

 

[Top Tip.]

One thing i am noticing is ALOT of people are going out of Swales

I think this is being driven by simple economics,people can’t afford to produce lambs be it blackie or swale for £25-£30 when they see their neighbours across the fence getting £50 for Cheviots.

 

[Sheepfog]

I think this is being driven by simple economics,people can’t afford to produce lambs be it blackie or swale for £25-£30 when they see their neighbours across the fence getting £50 for Cheviots.

This is it in a nutshell. Plus crossed with a maternal tup they make a cracking crossbred ewe.

 

[cheviot53]

You must have a different strain to me, fantastic mothers with loads of milk but some can be an arse to mother on too. Always skin here otherwise it’s a non starter

I suppose it has just happened over time , the southie's I ran before F&M were ok to foster but not this good , after F&M the new Lairg northies came from many places and were all the things the above posts say but after 17 yrs using a lot of homebred rams / inbreeding and never buying a female combined with 2 strikes and your out , they have mellowed

 

[TexelBen]

As it says - Just met a chap running 400 cheviots on a hill farm, formerly a swale/dalesbred farm.

He recons the only difference between them is the cheviots are better escapees and slightly more up their own arses..........

but they have much better bodies, grow about the same on the hill but respond better to feeding and good ground - and the better carcase means 40 quid store lambs to sell and 70 quid fat versus normal swale prices half to 2/3 of that. The other thing being they can rear cracking texel crosses that are always polled so again better prices......


SO why on earth do people keep other hill breeds if a breed exists with an R/U grade carcase that can go onto heather..... THe chap was a member on the other forum but is not on here and wouldnt be named but i guess some may know him....

Hardy, milky, maternal ewes with superiority complex and homicidal tendencies.

That's mine ewes anyway.

Our tup is a sex maniac with short man's disease

 

[bill.bt]

Always thought north country cheviot ewes and rams tremendous sheep to look at.strong ,heavy, sharp head.was going to purchase a ram or two, but few around me been up north buying rams and kept ewes .poor mothering ability and gone out of them.same as all breeds there must be a very poor milk strain in some,any one else had this problem.im sure 20kg lambs out of these rams would be no problem.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Whatever type of Cheviot they brought down under here was a success story, in one word "vigorous"

(Most other terms used will be multiples of 4 letters, too) .

But seriously.... they do bring a lot to a cross, in my opinion at least, for they seem to have a knack for staying alive and thriving off decent scenery.

My rams will be over a quarter Cheviot, going on for half probably, with a dash of Romney and a quarter Texel, seem to breed quite an adaptable and easy-to-finish lamb in my "let them alone" type of system.

 

[NZDan]

Whatever type of Cheviot they brought down under here was a success story, in one word "vigorous"

(Most other terms used will be multiples of 4 letters, too) .

But seriously.... they do bring a lot to a cross, in my opinion at least, for they seem to have a knack for staying alive and thriving off decent scenery.

My rams will be over a quarter Cheviot, going on for half probably, with a dash of Romney and a quarter Texel, seem to breed quite an adaptable and easy-to-finish lamb in my "let them alone" type of system.

The NZ cheviot is probably the southie type, Ive been told that if the NCC particually the Lairg type had been bought to NZ then there would be no Perendales and very few Romneys in NZ.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

The NZ cheviot is probably the southie type, Ive been told that if the NCC particually the Lairg type had been bought to NZ then there would be no Perendales and very few Romneys in NZ.

I did wonder that. Cheers Dan.

 

[egbert]

Explain cheviots to me....
Ah, Cheviots, do you mean Southies, Northies, Lairg type, Hill type, Park type, Caithness type, Brecknock Hill............... the list is seemingly endless.......
https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/best-mules-for-heathland.251880/page-2 post#32

You need to talk to someone like @Old Tip or @CharcoalWally to get the proper 'low down' on this very good, but seemingly very complicated breed

PS don't bother @CharcoalWally just yet as I expect he, like me, is trying to get a sneaky look at the racing from Kempton at the moment

A bit more reading here......

https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/north-country-cheviot.184890/
https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/dingwall-tup-sale.143468/

you think Cheviots are complicated?
ha, at least with them you don't have to worry about the set of the horn, or whether they're by that £35k GlenMcsporran tup Archie bought 3 years back, or in the case of Swales the colour of the leg, or whether his granddaddy had horns that dived straight into his face nicely.
The Cheviots seem to be free of a lot of that baloney.

Performance wise it's all relative. I keep mine on slightly better ground, (with sight of some feed), than the horned ewes, and they deliver a few more lambs, worth maybe a tenner more apiece.
The blackies would perform better than they do on the cheviots keep,
while the cheviots wouldn't deliver what they currently do if they lived where the horned ewes live.

 

[som farmer]

bought some cheviots out of wales years ago, the only sheep I've ever had that could out run the dog!