Lazy suffolkxmules

[paul&mandy]

Every year we end up saying the same thing. WHY?
Its lovely and dry, sunny days but last night must have lost 10 lambs that got cold due to not stimulated enough and with the strong cold wind just perished.
Ive got 110 triplet ewes inside and would possibly bring more in just hell of a lot of work. Just seems so unnecessary.
Im just sick to death of lambing these things, just so much work. The ewes are just sh!t.
With the wind we are putting lamb macs on them even if wet just to hold the heat in. All well and good bring in soon as lamb just you cant catch the buggers.
Am I the only one that has trouble with Suffolk mules outside?

 

[Agrivator]

Suffolk crosses can be very docile or as wild as a Lleyn. I think it must depend to some extent to what type of tup they're off/

One thing they all have in common is that they are greedy as hell.

But they can produce some cracking Beltex cross lambs. Or good Texel cross lambs, which themselves make good breeding sheep.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Thought everyone knew Suffolk’s were lazy...

 

[Poorbuthappy]

When I switched to outdoor lambing, I continued to lamb my remaining suff x mules inside. Mules were ok, but the Suffolks were hard enough work indoors.

That's not to say there aren't exceptions of people breeding more "functional" types.

 

[Woolless]

It's horses for courses, isn't it? And by the sounds of things they are not the horse for this particular course. Are they your sheep @paul&mandy or are you lambing them for someone else?

 

[paul&mandy]

It's horses for courses, isn't it? And by the sounds of things they are not the horse for this particular course. Are they your sheep @paul&mandy or are you lambing them for someone else?

There for someone else. Its really wet here and they do fine in the mud where as a mule would struggle. A Romney ewe possibly got too much wool underneath.
Just driving me mad on a cold day like today.

 

[irish dom]

Suffolk ewes of any type outside fills me with dread. Have used a Suffolk ram for the first time in years on some ewes as an experiment. Won't do it again. Thank god its dry but the wee sh1!s have no will to live compared to my lleyn and belcare lambs. As you say work but it's thankless work

 

[M-J-G]

Had a few years ago but they were the size of donkeys and probably ate more than one!

What are they lambing to?

 

[paul&mandy]

Had a few years ago but they were the size of donkeys and probably ate more than one!

What are they lambing to?

Texels. Shearlings to charosais we lambs 300 shearlings inside 2 weeks before the rest and that's easy with hardly any losses.
Probably brought 15 ewes in with weak lambs today. Even in a pen they just stand there all thick. No licking or talking to there lambs. Drives me insane

 

[Romney SE]

I lamb Romney’s from 1st of April then move onto Suffolk x from mid April..... the contrast between the two is astonishing!!

 

[livestock 1]

Every year we end up saying the same thing. WHY?
Its lovely and dry, sunny days but last night must have lost 10 lambs that got cold due to not stimulated enough and with the strong cold wind just perished.
Ive got 110 triplet ewes inside and would possibly bring more in just hell of a lot of work. Just seems so unnecessary.
Im just sick to death of lambing these things, just so much work. The ewes are just sh!t.
With the wind we are putting lamb macs on them even if wet just to hold the heat in. All well and good bring in soon as lamb just you cant catch the buggers.
Am I the only one that has trouble with Suffolk mules outside?

NO!!
They are shite!!
Last year I set more lambs onto the dam things than anything else!
Lazy can’t be arsed to push lambs out, no end of them stuck I even lost some ewes.
Don’t mother lambs properly don’t twin as well so more likely to get stuck bloody things.
I gave my father a lot of gimmers one year to help him restock after f and m and he played hell with me about how bad they were!!

 

[Agrivator]

It's still a fact that of all the British Down breeds, the Suffolk is the only one with any commercial relevance. It is used from Shetland to to whatever place in Cornwall starts with a Sh. Both as a terminal sire and as a Maternal sire.

Sheepwash in Devon is near enough.

The only other widespread equivalent is the Texel - noted for MV, bad feet and throat abscesses.

 

[neilo]

It's still a fact that of all the British Down breeds, the Suffolk is the only one with any commercial relevance. It is used from Shetland to to whatever place in Cornwall starts with a Sh. Both as a terminal sire and as a Maternal sire.

Sheepwash in Devon is near enough.

The only other widespread equivalent is the Texel - noted for MV, bad feet and throat abscesses.

Do no other breeds get Mv then??

I very rarely see a Suffolk lamb in the market these days, or at any point for at least the last decade. They are way behind the Texel on rams used now, probably as a terminal & a maternal sire.

 

[Agrivator]

Do no other breeds get Mv then??

I very rarely see a Suffolk lamb in the market these days, or at any point for at least the last decade. They are way behind the Texel on rams used now, probably as a terminal & a maternal sire.

The Texel is credited with bringing MV into the UK.

 

[Hummin-Cummins]

We lamb mainly suffolk x mules and find the yerlings are a bit of work to be honest but after that the older ewes as a rule are great mothers and with texel lambs at foot I wouldn’t be afraid to lamb them outside but for the fact the tups throw to many monsters that need pulling

 

[neilo]

The Texel is credited with bringing MV into the UK.

But that was approaching 40 years ago wasn’t it? It’s a disease, and certainly not breed specific. I know of a 2000 ewe mule flock that was killed out because of it, the source being traced back to non-Mv Suffolk tups bought through a local mart. Is the Suffolk breed a problem, or the unscrupulous breeder?
I also know of a few flocks where the Mv has been traced back to using non-Mv Mule ewes as ET recipients. Are mules a problem for Mv, or just that nothing matters other than a Bonny head?

It’s just plain daft to suggest that Texels (or any other breed) are somehow more likely to bring Mv to you.