CharcoalWally
Member
- Location
- West of Scotland
High price rams bad publicity
- Thread starter DrDunc
- Start date
exmoorromney
Member
Bobby Lennox. I bought some rams from him this year. Proper hardy rams that haven’t been pushed and with very good figures behind them.
- Location
- Dumfries & Galloway
In fairness, when this sale is reported in next week's TSF, it'll be full body photos - not just the heads.
156 tup lambs to average £5550. And folks are still adamant the Blackie breed isn't f**ked by chasing these prices.
Guaranteed all those tups have seen a hill... but none of them have been on it!
The hills are too valuable to put blackies on them now.
They're covered in wind turbines earning money.
Where does anyone think the ludicrous money comes from?
Commercially the breed is being destroyed by the select few that are in the big name club.
The Lanark type blackie is now a piddling little carcassed lamb that needs cereal to finish.
- Location
- Dumfries & Galloway
Not all of those 'big' names are land owners though...
But yes, even ignoring wind turbines, lot of big hills are getting more money now they never used to get in form of the current SPS
The hills aren't too valuable for Blackies but the system means you don't need to farm the hills for the money so these boys plough it into showing sheep.
Highcountryshepherd
Member
Woo hoo another breed slagging green eyed monster post
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
If you take the top five funny money tups from the Blackie average what does it then become? I did the same for the Beltex a couple of years ago and it made me realise I wasn't doing too badly.
- Location
- East Ayrshire
Quick calculation for Lanark yesterday-
Top 5 averaged £83k
Other 151 averaged £2,985
Top 5 averaged £83k
Other 151 averaged £2,985
- Location
- Perthshire, Scotland
Take off the top 10 prices from Lanark lamb ring and the average is less than half. £5550 for 156, £2378 for 146.
Aye, but who actually tups heather hill blackie ewes with a lamb?
What were the averages for the previous day's shearling sale, taking off the top ten stupid prices?
Blackies for breeding in general should be a higher price this year. There were so many smothered in snow last winter.
Woolless
Member
- Location
- Berwickshire, Scottish Borders
It's a total bloody joke. I worked with Blackies as a student and my Grandpa had them, so I have a soft spot for the breed. It's such a shame to see the way the breed is heading, led by these 'top' breeders and their obsession with aesthetic irrelevancies. The breed society society should take a long hard look at itself and start to encourage recording, functionality and improving the breed's health status (another major issue).They are getting smaller and the horns are getting bigger making them harder to lamb,so the dearest tups are the smallest with the biggest horns
Woolless
Member
- Location
- Berwickshire, Scottish Borders
Do you think the Blackface breed is headed in the right direction?
Thankfully it's not all of the blackie breed that's heading for extinction. There are still good big carcassed animals fit to live and thrive on her haw but heather.
The worry for the breed is the select few that breed them for a hobby and high prices affecting the majority that still produce good lamb from the hills.
Suffolk's for example used to dominate the terminal sire tups until the cosmetics of heed and big bones ruined them.
Time will tell......
backin black
Member
Just out of interest how many of the people on this thread were actually at any of the sales this year? I've been at the sales over the last week and would say the breed is going the right way the shearlings in demand were large framed sheep with short tight coats and the breeders have realised this, the show of shearlings at Lanark was commercially the best I've seen in years. Unfortunately the lamb day there are a few folk that can't see by a head and there was a couple of 5 figure ones with no commercial attributes at all! But on the whole it was bigger barer sheep that were making the money, a definite improvement on what was making the money 2 or 3 years ago!
Woolless
Member
- Location
- Berwickshire, Scottish Borders
There is no logic, as far as I can see. The shepherds must go through some amount of waterproof trousers!
Woolless
Member
- Location
- Berwickshire, Scottish Borders
That sounds like a step in the direction, led by commercial lamb producers. There are performance recorded Blackie tups available, which should lead to a further improvement in performance:
http://www.maternalsheep.co.uk/
How the hell do you performance record hill blackies? First thing the ewe does when you go near her new born lamb is feck off over the heather.
Presumably these performance recorded sheep live on grass, not the hills?
If I have to lamb a blackie, she's ear notched for culling, and so is the lamb.
Selecting bigger framed tups from hill farms with little in bye over the last ten years has increased the carcass weight of my bound stock heather hill.
Lambs have increased from a 13kg average killing weight to now average 18kg. The majority finish off grass by Christmas with minimal concentrate for the tail enders.
How will buying a softer in bye bred and reared tup with "good figures" help us hill places who still actually farm the heather?
- Location
- Perthshire, Scotland
Quite a number of guys in this area do. There isn’t much in the way of inbye ground in Glen Lyon, Glen Lochy, Loch Tay
They are getting smaller and the horns are getting bigger making them harder to lamb,so the dearest tups are the smallest with the biggest horns
