Rouge sheep/Ram

Oneman37

Member
Would love to hear peoples expieriences, of the Rouge Sheep as thinking of buying in a ram soon. Hear they milk better than the Charollais and aren’t as wild or are more docile. Is this true ? Are they as prolific as a Charollais ?
 
Would love to hear peoples expieriences, of the Rouge Sheep as thinking of buying in a ram soon. Hear they milk better than the Charollais and aren’t as wild or are more docile. Is this true ? Are they as prolific as a Charollais ?
They are all of those things, or at least they were 20 years ago.
They aren't the terminal sire that the Char is though.
I think @glensman crosses with them.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
We used a couple at the same time we tried Charollais, so thirty or so years ago. We found them hard to finish by comparison, but kept them on for a few years to breed ewe lambs, alongside buying in a few hundred Rouge crosses.
Those ones certainly had better lactation persistency than Charollais, but they had softer teats which were prone to damage & mastitis. Prolific enough but didn’t last long iirc.

The breed will have changed in that time, not least with better fleshing as I know several (now ‘ex’) breeders that introduced Charollais blood.
 
We used a couple at the same time we tried Charollais, so thirty or so years ago. We found them hard to finish by comparison, but kept them on for a few years to breed ewe lambs, alongside buying in a few hundred Rouge crosses.
Those ones certainly had better lactation persistency than Charollais, but they had softer teats which were prone to damage & mastitis. Prolific enough but didn’t last long iirc.

The breed will have changed in that time, not least with better fleshing as I know several (now ‘ex’) breeders that introduced Charollais blood.
I don't see the point in that.
 

Oneman37

Member
They are all of those things, or at least they were 20 years ago.
They aren't the terminal sire that the Char is though.
I think @glensman crosses with them.

Thanks. This is what I wanted to hear, always liked the look of them, but was afraid they’d be wild like the Charollais so never bought one. But read somewhere that they were mild. My Charollais Hoggs are really breaking my heart, always stray to neighbours field. Doesn’t ever happen with the Hilltex hoggs they are running with.
 

Oneman37

Member
That's what I mean, I don't see the the point in putting Char into a Rouge

If you want a Char buy a Char.

No offence meant to any breeders, but if a Rouge was to like a Charollais I’d avoid. I like what a Rouge seems to offer on its own 2 feet, without diluting those positive traits.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
There are on the Continent
They're Like Bazadaise cattle, some folks love them, but few try them.

I often wonder how many NZ and inverdale type composites would be around if it wasn't for a company like Innovis pushing them hard.

When they first came over, at a similar time to several other continental breeds, plenty tried them. Few stuck with them though, much like Bleu de Maines, so they didn’t take off in any numbers.

Whilst I get your point on the Inverdale sheep, I’m not sure that Innovis can be blamed for promoting other NZ breeds/composites.
Highlanders & Primeras were here for a good while before Innovis took over the marketing, and they’ve not been pushing them that hard, seeing as they have their own composites to sell.
 
When they first came over, at a similar time to several other continental breeds, plenty tried them. Few stuck with them though, much like Bleu de Maines, so they didn’t take off in any numbers.

Whilst I get your point on the Inverdale sheep, I’m not sure that Innovis can be blamed for promoting other NZ breeds/composites.
Highlanders & Primeras were here for a good while before Innovis took over the marketing, and they’ve not been pushing them that hard, seeing as they have their own composites to sell.
In the grand scheme of things there weren't ever huge numbers of them.

I wasn't blaming anyone for promoting anything, I just wondered how many of the innovis combos would be around without promotions from a big company.

Good point about the Highlander and Primera, no promoting means small numbers.
 

Col555

Member
Location
Cumbria
They used to be as popular as the beltex’s are now back in their day. The annual sale at Carlisle was a 2 day affair to get through the numbers. The breed lost its direction as its evolved over the years, and seemed to breed for stature over conformation, soft coats over tight coats. I think they’re heading back on track as a breed and reverti back it the old traits.

The same could be said for several breeds and how they’ve changed over the last 20yrs tbh.
 

Northern territory

Member
Livestock Farmer
They used to be as popular as the beltex’s are now back in their day. The annual sale at Carlisle was a 2 day affair to get through the numbers. The breed lost its direction as its evolved over the years, and seemed to breed for stature over conformation, soft coats over tight coats. I think they’re heading back on track as a breed and reverti back it the old traits.

The same could be said for several breeds and how they’ve changed over the last 20yrs tbh.
Have they got better feet than texels ?
 

Sandpit Farm

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Derbyshire
i could sell him a 'rogue tup'.....if i can catch it :unsure:

if rouge were that good wouldn't there be more about :scratchhead:

I have often been asked that about the Roussin. In our case there are plenty about but people are happy to use them and market the lambs as 'Continental X' because of the lack of recognition at marts. It is frustrating when you see large batches of good lambs that you know the breeding from get sold without any nod to the breeds. I know of quite a few pure flocks in Scotland that have no pedigree status and they just quietly breed their own tups for crossing onto their Blackie and Cheviot flocks.

Sometimes I think we struggle with some of the French breeds' direction. We misuse them. Charollais were successful because they don't claim to be a maternal breed (though perhaps they are in France, I don't know). We therefore use them as a terminal specialist. With Rouge, Roussin and Bleu de Maine, you see people trying to breed huge great muscular arses and huge sheep when that was never their forte so they would always lose out to our favoured terminal specialists.

For the Roussins (as I believe would be the case for Rouge), we market them as a crossing breed that are easy lambing, will produce a marketable 'supermarket grade' wether and a crossbred ewe lamb with maternal traits. A jack of all trades? Maybe... but in a stratified system where we are encouraged to breed from ewe lambs, they have their niche. Crossbreeding is a British fascination in many French farmers' eyes.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

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

  • 1,292
  • 1
As reported in Independent


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/
Top