NATIVE tup for large flock

MDL POWERUP

Member
NC Cheviot, use a good tup and you'll hit R3L in spec lambs but don't expect the speed of growth like continentals or them black dosey floppy eared things!
 

Agrivator

Member
You live in Nottinghamshire. There’s more distance in geography, history and culture between your place and Caithness than there is between it and Holland. NCC is less native than Texel would be, by many measures.
But the NCC isn't native to Caithness. It originally came from the Scotland/Northumberland Border, which is possibly as close to Nottingham as it is to Thurso. ;)
 

waterbuffalofarmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Penzance
If you were to start a large commercial fat lamb producing flock from scratch (1,500+) but had to chose a native tup to sire the fat lambs ( I am not going to go into reason why, so don’t ask ;) ) what would you chose and why?

Obviously first which came to mind was the Suffolk, however I am not a Suffolk fan at all and I would always go for continental tups, so finding this one hard :confused:

Also I am still unable to work at the moment and I am bored so I don’t care how many cans of worms this may open :):):)

Thanks

Cheviot are pretty good or border Leicester. I would always go for Lleyn TBH, but that's on personal preferences
 

Nithsdale

Member
Livestock Farmer
Need a hell of a shed for 1500 ewes!


Why??

image.jpg



Beast from the East last year, -5 at nights for a week and 0 through the day. The Suffolks never needed to come in.
 

hendrebc

Member
Livestock Farmer
Why??

View attachment 766186


Beast from the East last year, -5 at nights for a week and 0 through the day. The Suffolks never needed to come in.
Don't use them anymore but I always found half cross Suffolk lambs to be very good. It was when you went to 3/4 Suffolk we started to get suffolkey problems :stop:
 

Nithsdale

Member
Livestock Farmer
Not specific to breed of ewe, could be mule/lleyn/Romney

In or out, I guess what tup would you use on a large flock regardless of in or out, just asking what native tups are most commonly used or considered on a large flock

Other information is not important at this time

From my experience I just prefer a continental or white faced tup, due to many reasons, it would take an awful lot of research to find one I liked before going back to a suffolk but I am open to anything anyway

@scottish-lleyn is using Dorset's on Lleyns IIRC.

Native ewe, native ram (y)
 

Sandpit Farm

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Derbyshire
I would put a vote in for Hampshires. You can finish from around 36kg (sometimes a bit less) up to 42kg... any heavier and they would be too fat. Finishing on grass works very well. Just send them dead weight. I can give you some breeders names who I would recommend - just go and have a look.

I think management of the 'ram breeding' flock is so important. If you get something from a show flock that feeds a lot, you can end up with problems as you know. The trouble with Suffolks is there are a lot of these flocks and sheep that are portrayed as 'good' are used in the commercial environment - they fail - and then the breed is judged on this performance. If you investigate, you will find some excellent commercial Suffolk breeders... happy to give you some names if you are interested.
 
Woolly heads not a problem, do Hampshire’s mature at lighter weights than say a Suffolk?
I do know that Southdowns tend to mature on the lighter side just due to overall mature size being smaller

I honestly don’t know an awful lot about Dorset Downs, what are they like compared to a Hampshire?

Basically looking for a breed that could be a little bit special, but still 100% commercially viable and able to produce a mainstream saleable product, whilst being able to carry a little bit of a “story” and be native without going as far as into rare breeds.....

Do many use a NCC as a terminal? In a hill flock I am guessing so, and yes I have seen lleyns and lambed lleyns who could basically be dual registered ;)
I've used Hampshire tups on my Easycares as a terminal sire for the past four years. Pretty easy lambing and tough lambs that want to get up and suck. Carcass weights won't be as heavy as Texel x lambs and possibly Suffolks but my reasoning is that you get more lambs to compensate and less work. There is a small discount for store sales. I am careful to buy from a select group of commercially-focused breeders.

Sounds like there might be some direct selling or similar involved in this plan of yours? If so, Hampshire lambs will take a bit of beating as @Coximus I think will confirm.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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