Hampshire Down- tell me about them

[Guiggs]

I'm toying with the idea of trying a hamp ram on some lleyn and lleyn cross.
I'm hoping what I've heard about being fast growing and easy lambing is true?
I'm slightly concerned I'll get punished selling live with their Woolley heads/ faces, will I?
Are they ok to put on ewe lambs?
Interested to hear peoples experiences!
Cheers

 

[Enfoff]

We do this - about 75 Lleyns go to a Hamp Ram. They do grow well on grass but I wouldn't say they where any better or worse lambing than the pure Lleyns. More have singles.

Several years ago I was at Melton standing near a pen of my Hamp and HampX lambs and I spied a chap and his small son looking at lambs - I recognised him as the owner of a local abattoir and a big buyer. His son said 'these look good dad' - and they were cracking (even if I do say so myself!) - the chap replied 'too much wool son' and walked away without putting a hand on them.

I want to move away from this cross and will be exploring other breeds for crossing this year but I am keeping the ram and my few hamp ewes to pure breed.My partner wants to use them for a small box scheme.

 

[GreenerGrass]

Someone trying to sell a couple of these tups on Facebook today, they were about the size of a bloody horse!!

 

[clod hopper]

We do this - about 75 Lleyns go to a Hamp Ram. They do grow well on grass but I wouldn't say they where any better or worse lambing than the pure Lleyns. More have singles.

Several years ago I was at Melton standing near a pen of my Hamp and HampX lambs and I spied a chap and his small son looking at lambs - I recognised him as the owner of a local abattoir and a big buyer. His son said 'these look good dad' - and they were cracking (even if I do say so myself!) - the chap replied 'too much wool son' and walked away without putting a hand on them.

I want to move away from this cross and will be exploring other breeds for crossing this year but I am keeping the ram and my few hamp ewes to pure breed.My partner wants to use them for a small box scheme.

The single lambs are down to the ewes (1 egg 1lamb unless it splits).
Early lambs have less rejection for wool.
Good sheep which can be used more in my opinion.

 

[Al R]

Dense wool that’s prone to sweating and fly strike on the shoulders/backs I’ve heard but know of people using them and they do very well and finish quick

 

[Guiggs]

We do this - about 75 Lleyns go to a Hamp Ram. They do grow well on grass but I wouldn't say they where any better or worse lambing than the pure Lleyns. More have singles.

Several years ago I was at Melton standing near a pen of my Hamp and HampX lambs and I spied a chap and his small son looking at lambs - I recognised him as the owner of a local abattoir and a big buyer. His son said 'these look good dad' - and they were cracking (even if I do say so myself!) - the chap replied 'too much wool son' and walked away without putting a hand on them.

I want to move away from this cross and will be exploring other breeds for crossing this year but I am keeping the ram and my few hamp ewes to pure breed.My partner wants to use them for a small box scheme.

I sell at Melton and what you say is exactly what I'm worried about, that said a friend says he gets good prices there and at Newark for Hampshire x lleyn lambs!

 

[Guiggs]

Someone trying to sell a couple of these tups on Facebook today, they were about the size of a bloody horse!!

I saw them, ram lambs I think that looked like fully grown tups!

 

[Woolless]

I use them over the non-recorded Easycare ewes here. I find them pretty easy lambing and tough lambs lambing outside here and they do well on pretty ordinary grass. They can run to fat a bit early (they dominated this trait in the last Ramcompare results) but their ease of finishing has to be counted as a plus. That said, you won't get them as heavy as Texel lambs and there may well be a penalty selling live, fat or store. @Enfoff has done right by retaining them for boxed lamb sales as they eat very well. You need to buy off a breeder with a commercial outlook, not an overfed show pony but that goes for any breed.

 

[Cab-over Pete]

We keep a small hobby flock, 20-25 ewes. We are not breeders of super sheep, nor are we MV accredited, it’s just a hobby.

That said, we take it reasonably seriously. We buy the best rams we can afford. Two years ago we bought a ram on figures alone, even though we really didn’t like the look of him. His figures were excellent and he was in the top 10% of rams recorded in the country that year. We got him home and whilst I didn’t think he would look anything special when next to our old lad, he looked like a goat. However, he throws good shaped and fast growing progeny, some of which ewe lambs we have kept and we have sold some ram lambs locally.

One local farmer has bought several rams from us and I asked him to honestly rate them. He’s pleased but thought the last two weren’t as impressive as previous rams.

With that in mind, last week we went and bought a really impressive looking lad. He’s a monster with an arse like the back of a supertanker, beautifully balanced. We’re really pleased with him. His only problem is that he makes the high EBV ram look the worst we’ve got now! The new lad won breed champion at The Royal Welsh last year.

So we are poised to compare the best figures against the best looks next year. I’m pretty sure what will win out.

We cross them with some Lleyn ewes and the lambs grow well. It’s rare they are still here over 16 weeks of age unless they are triplets. They nick very well, get up and suck quickly and are generally no bother. In fact we get very little bother with the pure breds either. They look a bit comical and dipsy at birth, but are keen to get up and get on.
We sell them straight to Farmers Fresh and usually grade at good Rs with an occasional U grade. Those that we sell in a box aren’t fatty and customers keep coming back.
It’s no secret they can run a bit fat, but we don’t get that at all. They run fat when they get big. Don’t keep them until they get big.

By purchasing a Hampshire Down ram you’ve asked for a ram to knock out fast growing lambs. He will do that and if they’ve been allowed to run fat I would suggest that’s the farmers fault. They grow, so get them gone. The ram has done all you’ve asked.

We have never had maggots on a Hampshire Downs wool, only once in a foot. We have had several little patches on the cross breds and a couple of Lleyns have had them over the shoulder. We now shear in mid May and have no bother.

They’re good on their feet, only ever suffering a bit of scald. It’s nearly always just scald if we catch a lame one, which is rare. The ewes are usually milky although we have had two, mother and daughter, who didn’t milk so had to go.

We have two shearlings for sale just now. I’ll be honest from the outset, they are left from four ram lambs of last year. The one lacked a bit of shape but grew very well being one of the fastest up to 40kg. He just looked a bit plain. They’re not the biggest but have not been fed. We rarely creep them except for exceptionally wet and miserable spells and they most certainly have not been fed big rations to bulk them up for sale. I took my eye off the ball with them a bit during this last wet winter. They weren’t on the best of paddocks and they went back a bit, so they had 1/4 kilo per day of a 19% nut for a couple of months. They look good now, on grass and hay with 1/4 kilo of 16% coarse ration, which will stop if it ever rains. For various reasons they’re not on good grass. If they were, they would have nothing else.

Give us a shout if you want to try one.

 

[M-J-G]

We have 2 Hampshire rams, I find buyers don't care about the wool, and the same couple of butchers buy quite a lot of our lambs at market.

They are easy lambed, lively at birth, fast growing, easily finished off grass.

They are a bit more prone to flystrike than others.

 

[Cab-over Pete]

Just to say, I do actually remember seeing a small patch of maggots on one of our rams back end. Caught early, maybe the patch was the size of a 50p. That’s the only case we’ve had in HD wool.

 

[clod hopper]

We keep a small hobby flock, 20-25 ewes. We are not breeders of super sheep, nor are we MV accredited, it’s just a hobby.

That said, we take it reasonably seriously. We buy the best rams we can afford. Two years ago we bought a ram on figures alone, even though we really didn’t like the look of him. His figures were excellent and he was in the top 10% of rams recorded in the country that year. We got him home and whilst I didn’t think he would look anything special when next to our old lad, he looked like a goat. However, he throws good shaped and fast growing progeny, some of which ewe lambs we have kept and we have sold some ram lambs locally.

One local farmer has bought several rams from us and I asked him to honestly rate them. He’s pleased but thought the last two weren’t as impressive as previous rams.

With that in mind, last week we went and bought a really impressive looking lad. He’s a monster with an arse like the back of a supertanker, beautifully balanced. We’re really pleased with him. His only problem is that he makes the high EBV ram look the worst we’ve got now! The new lad won breed champion at The Royal Welsh last year.

So we are poised to compare the best figures against the best looks next year. I’m pretty sure what will win out.

We cross them with some Lleyn ewes and the lambs grow well. It’s rare they are still here over 16 weeks of age unless they are triplets. They nick very well, get up and suck quickly and are generally no bother. In fact we get very little bother with the pure breds either. They look a bit comical and dipsy at birth, but are keen to get up and get on.
We sell them straight to Farmers Fresh and usually grade at good Rs with an occasional U grade. Those that we sell in a box aren’t fatty and customers keep coming back.
It’s no secret they can run a bit fat, but we don’t get that at all. They run fat when they get big. Don’t keep them until they get big.

By purchasing a Hampshire Down ram you’ve asked for a ram to knock out fast growing lambs. He will do that and if they’ve been allowed to run fat I would suggest that’s the farmers fault. They grow, so get them gone. The ram has done all you’ve asked.

We have never had maggots on a Hampshire Downs wool, only once in a foot. We have had several little patches on the cross breds and a couple of Lleyns have had them over the shoulder. We now shear in mid May and have no bother.

They’re good on their feet, only ever suffering a bit of scald. It’s nearly always just scald if we catch a lame one, which is rare. The ewes are usually milky although we have had two, mother and daughter, who didn’t milk so had to go.

We have two shearlings for sale just now. I’ll be honest from the outset, they are left from four ram lambs of last year. The one lacked a bit of shape but grew very well being one of the fastest up to 40kg. He just looked a bit plain. They’re not the biggest but have not been fed. We rarely creep them except for exceptionally wet and miserable spells and they most certainly have not been fed big rations to bulk them up for sale. I took my eye off the ball with them a bit during this last wet winter. They weren’t on the best of paddocks and they went back a bit, so they had 1/4 kilo per day of a 19% nut for a couple of months. They look good now, on grass and hay with 1/4 kilo of 16% coarse ration, which will stop if it ever rains. For various reasons they’re not on good grass. If they were, they would have nothing else.

Give us a shout if you want to try one.

Good self promo' ??!

Nice to have a honest up front sales pitch Pete

 

[Nithsdale]

The single lambs are down to the ewes (1 egg 1lamb unless it splits).
Early lambs have less rejection for wool.
Good sheep which can be used more in my opinion.

Not strictly true.

If the ram has poor fertility, the ewe can produce multiple eggs but the tup may only fertilise 1... that therefor is the rams fault for lower prolifacy.

I do remember reading a piece which showed rams born from a litter, instead of a single, can increase lambing % just as ewes from litters as its all about increasing genetic fertility and verility in your sheep.

 

[neilo]

Not strictly true.

If the ram has poor fertility, the ewe can produce multiple eggs but the tup may only fertilise 1... that therefor is the rams fault for lower prolifacy.

I do remember reading a piece which showed rams born from a litter, instead of a single, can increase lambing % just as ewes from litters as its all about increasing genetic fertility and verility in your sheep.

The ram would have to pretty poor/almost infertile to only fertilise one egg. It only takes one sperm and the average ejaculate contains millions.

There was some research several years ago that showed that high libido rams (in this case Charollais) could increase scanning %age, thought to be because a ewe served more times had abetter chance of the sperm getting to the right point at the best timing. Mob mating vs single sire mating is supposed to have the same effect, for the same reason.

That said, I’ve never seen any particular problem from experienced Highlander rams running at 1:100, who were very efficient in that they would often serve a ewe once, then move on to the next.

 

[Nithsdale]

The ram would have to pretty poor/almost infertile to only fertilise one egg. It only takes one sperm and the average ejaculate contains millions.

There was some research several years ago that showed that high libido rams (in this case Charollais) could increase scanning %age, thought to be because a ewe served more times had abetter chance of the sperm getting to the right point at the best timing. Mob mating vs single sire mating is supposed to have the same effect, for the same reason.

That said, I’ve never seen any particular problem from experienced Highlander rams running at 1:100, who were very efficient in that they would often serve a ewe once, then move on to the next.

Yes, higher verility - which is what I said

8 out of the top 10 prices at Lanark Texel sale turned out to be firing blanks/sub fertile. That will always effect the laming %

It isn't all down to the ewe

 

[neilo]

Yes, higher verility - which is what I said

8 out of the top 10 prices at Lanark Texel sale turned out to be firing blanks/sub fertile. That will always effect the laming %

It isn't all down to the ewe

libido is a very different thing to fertility though. I maintain that a ram would have to be almost a Jaffa in order to effect scanning %age.

 

[M-J-G]

libido is a very different thing to fertility though. I maintain that a ram would have to be almost a Jaffa in order to effect scanning %age.

I suggested the same thing on a thread years ago, but was corrected by @NZDan saying that the ram had quite a bit of influence.

 

[Cab-over Pete]

Good self promo' ??!

Nice to have a honest up front sales pitch Pete

???

I hope it’s seen as honest. No point in saying he’s the best ram I’ve ever seen then a disappointment to an onlooker.

We love them and they’re very useful sheep, but nobody could claim they are all things to all men.

Hopefully the OP will at least try one and then make up his own mind.

 

[clod hopper]

???

I hope it’s seen as honest. No point in saying he’s the best ram I’ve ever seen then a disappointment to an onlooker.

We love them and they’re very useful sheep, but nobody could claim they are all things to all men.

Hopefully the OP will at least try one and then make up his own mind.

I was honest too Pete, truly not having a go.
I like hearing the history of a prospect ram, "warts and all".

 

[Cab-over Pete]

Ok, no problem!!!

I am going to talk up our new lad though. He’s tremendous and I’m hoping for good things from him.

He’ll be sharing his love with our best ewes this season and I might step up our efforts a bit and take things a bit more seriously.
I’ll be changing our feed suppliers this winter after having had a play blending our own with wheat, barley, oats, soya, peas, maize, sbp and molasses. They loved it and they turned from being very plain and dull to thriving even during the horrendous wet feb/March. That was just a means to an end though because, for several unavoidable reasons, they weren’t on the best of grazing.

I’m also going to spread a bit of slag and maybe some fibrophos on our paddocks. pH is all good. I’ll be putting a bit of multi species seed on too, having spent a couple of years getting rid of rushes, buttercups, dandelions and nettles. I’d like to see trefoil, sanfoin, chicory and white clover in the mix.
After five years we are getting somewhere and I hope the new ram is just at the right time to inject a bit of new vigour.

My aim soon is to keep the sheep with no hard feed. We don’t use much now, very little in fact, but I’d like to get them thriving on grass, hay, fodder beet and herbal leys.

I want fit, not fat, thriving not just surviving. The biggest challenge will be weeding out the low performing sheep with a daughter who thinks they can all stay and enjoy a long retirement!!

It just started as a bit of fun and although they’re not to everyone’s taste they are a useful sheep that I think deserves a place in modern multi-ram systems even if you only have one amongst many others.