Hardiness of charmoise for outdoor lambing ewe lambs on texel mules

MRT

Member
Livestock Farmer
@MRT has some new french bloodlines that get to heavier weights quote quickly without getting overfat. But the French lines I find aren't as hardy at birth as the older breeding ones he has. When he gets the 2 lines crossed and throwing the best of both worlds it will be a very good sheep. I know he has made progress on that front like I said earlier pick the breeder not the breed.
Progress is solid but not flashy, birth coat wise it is a simple subjective measurement (1-5!) and I wasn't sure that the ram lamb used this year was throwing more coat than his French father due to lack of comparison. The French ram though was used as a sweeper and when they came the difference was remarkable giving me some faith that my simple approach is working!
 

DanM

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Country
Progress is solid but not flashy, birth coat wise it is a simple subjective measurement (1-5!) and I wasn't sure that the ram lamb used this year was throwing more coat than his French father due to lack of comparison. The French ram though was used as a sweeper and when they came the difference was remarkable giving me some faith that my simple approach is working!

As in the French blood had more wool? Or your own bred lamb had more? Would be good marketing opportunity to post a few photos;)
 

MRT

Member
Livestock Farmer
As in the French blood had more wool? Or your own bred lamb had more? Would be good marketing opportunity to post a few photos;)
They are all bred here, the "French" ones from rounds of imported semen. Go to Charmoise UK on facebook
 

@dlm

Member
The ones I had weren’t from anywhere local to here (nearer to you in fact). All the breeders most local to me have accused, pretty well every other breeder local to me, of crossing various breeds in. I found the backstabbing quite amusing at the time.? Having met @MRT a few times, I would have more confidence in his integrity than most of those closer to home. I doubt he has a Berrichon tup.?

I should think you were very pleased with that performance, and with the low assistance rate on all of them. You also did well to get them to those weights too, even their biggest fans locally reckon on selling at 35-36kg or they get into 3H & 4’s for fat. That would be out of hoggs of smaller breeds though, and seem happy enough with that.
Will fully admit thats the top end doing that and not 100% of lambs sadly!! But im not talking 1 or 2 , a complete guesstimate last year but would say 30 or 40 lambs doing that. Didnt overuse rams, as said i was far from convinced they would even tup my hoggs!! Probably had 80 something lambs by them . Fair few twins that i wean young and are never the finest example of things i admit. But without meaning to sound like their breed promoter, i think they helped my hoggs no end. I buy a strong lamb, but think the low birth weight , obviously less draining on hogg late pregnancy and less setback with easy birth helped turn hoggs into some serious sized shearlings. Meant to use them on my smaller cheaper bought hoggs but another job never got around to. They are seriously wild things though. Like their activeness at birth, but moan working with them in next few months!! Tagging them they just jump vertically even when tight, charolais and beltex x just stand there. Other funny thing is get a handful of those loose coated char or beltex that grow similar size but weigh like feathers. Possibly get more of these loose coated charmois that i thought would end up at 20 kilo at best, but whilst look even worse than other breeds they actually weigh well
 

Llmmm

Member
Tried more charmoise this year just to prove i was inlucky with the ones i had tried before these were worse.They have absolutely no advantage over a beltex
 

beardface

Member
Location
East Yorkshire
I use a meatlinc on mine. Up and going within 15 mins and stick to there mothers like sh!t to a blanket. Rarely ever pull one. Always amazes me that if a ewe lamb does it herself she'll be a better mother than the ewes. Always look proud as punch with there efforts and would cross a river to get to them.
 

Wazmos

Member
I have used a charmoise on lambs for the last 3 years. The second the head is out they are shaking all the mucus etc off. As soon as there fully out there looking for a teat and they stick to the mum like glue. Down side is mine certainly aren’t the hardiest lambs and won’t stand much cold wet weather in the first 12hrs.
 

JoeFo

Member
I have used a charmoise on lambs for the last 3 years. The second the head is out they are shaking all the mucus etc off. As soon as there fully out there looking for a teat and they stick to the mum like glue. Down side is mine certainly aren’t the hardiest lambs and won’t stand much cold wet weather in the first 12hrs.

I noticed that with mine, any sign of dampness means trouble
 
I use a meatlinc on mine. Up and going within 15 mins and stick to there mothers like sh!t to a blanket. Rarely ever pull one. Always amazes me that if a ewe lamb does it herself she'll be a better mother than the ewes. Always look proud as punch with there efforts and would cross a river to get to them.
Meatlinc hardly ever get a mention on here. I like the sound of what they do. But I can't forget the shearling they had on their stand at Scotsheep a few years back. The week previously, I had taken a bigger and better (grass-fed) Easycare to St Boswells because he hadn't shed properly.
 

Al R

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Wales
This shows a charollais ewe lambs with a charmoise ram from @MRT on the right, the centre lamb is Chartex x charmoise.
FC81B633-7031-4E83-B96B-3BB1EC4DD505.jpeg

This is the same chartex x charmoise ram lamb, he’d lived on the cliffs for 7 weeks until this point.
41F74A4C-D122-4336-A687-EF79895053FD.jpeg

This is him and his mum 7 days after being on poorish PP. I’m guessing the mother is in the 60-70kg range as a comparison (her shoulders are too wide to go up the combi clamp ramp)
E69B9596-346F-4C40-8434-616A6CEAD10B.png
6CB77492-BE6A-406B-A0E9-86601D4B9C46.png
 

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