My hill ewes are ou peforming my xbreds

[gwi1890]

Being treating lambs with pour on recently and noticed my hill ewes rearing texel and lleyn lambs are heavier than the texel lambs out of texel mule ewes although on the same holding the welshies are runing much tighter and on poorer pasture lamed a week later than mules 20th march and have 30kg lambs , the mules scanned at 160% and welsh on %150 so there is bugger all difference, I hate choping and changeing but can help but think why do I bother with a 90kg ewe when a 50 kg ewe can do the same. Any thoughts?

 

[gatepost]

Are you talking about the heaviest lamb, or have you weighed the lot, It sounds like the mules aren't milking as well for some reason, Did they all get exactly the same treatments? only you know if flock ages and condition are all similar, or were in run up to lambing, I am keeping away from BFL blood, every time we have had any one way or another, it has been a problem, on our poorest ground ewes taking a lot of feed and or not milking because of difficulty maintaining condition on a big plain frame, then leaving a lamb with frame but no meat and difficult to finish in spec. My daughter has some welsh badger face, lambs shoot away as ewes very good milkers and have condition to milk off , but lambs never get that big and growth almost stops after weaning.

 

[neilo]

Assuming the same rams are used, will the 50kg hill ewes get the lambs past 35kg without going overfat though, whereas the bigger sheep will get them up past 40kg?

But yes, the cheaper, smaller ewes could be kept at a higher stocking rate so output per acre will likely be higher, given the small difference in lambing %age. Are the mules suffering from a shortage of something, as that's a low %age on mules I'd have thought.

 

[MJT]

I'd say from you're scanning and what you say about the lambs growth your ground isn't good enough for mules , had same problem here with them at around the 165% scanning and our hill breeds performing better. Got rid and got some sheep that would perform on the ground .

 

[gwi1890]

Most last year graded at r3h out of the welshies had some U,s the mule lambs where U and E 20kg dead, ground is 200 feet above sea level, half the farm is reeseeded. Yes the mules scaned low will do bloods this time.

 

[gwi1890]

Assuming the same rams are used, will the 50kg hill ewes get the lambs past 35kg without going overfat though, whereas the bigger sheep will get them up past 40kg?

But yes, the cheaper, smaller ewes could be kept at a higher stocking rate so output per acre will likely be higher, given the small difference in lambing %age. Are the mules suffering from a shortage of something, as that's a low %age on mules I'd have thought.

Do yo think going over fat is a big problem ? Most lambs sold live are overfat tbh,

 

[gwi1890]

I have no difficulty keepin body condition the tex mules are home bred all quite young, mules are run on better ground welshies are squeezed to poorest ground .