South Country Cheviots

[dogandstick]

Anyone on here have experience of these? They look solid, hardy animals. What are their pros and cons?

 

[Dyffryn]

Rubbish lambing %. And when they did have twins they would f**k off with one lamb! And they were not the best at lambing. That was my experience anyway! Great looking and bloody good lambs but just not enough of them.

 

[Bones]

Depends on your ground, get your self a ewe with a bit of Cheviot blood ,maybe half Cheviot .

 

[dunk999]

Give them plenty space at lambing and don't overfeed and they are brilliant. Amazing converters of poor pasture into kilo's of meat. Not enough lambs for arable land admittedly.

 

[NZDan]

Rubbish lambing %. And when they did have twins they would f**k off with one lamb! And they were not the best at lambing. That was my experience anyway! Great looking and bloody good lambs but just not enough of them.

Interestingly all the cheviots in NZ a SCC and the one thing they excell at is NLB and mothering, the two flocks I scan normally do 180-200% and they regularly attack the man tagging the lambs at birth, they are small sheep mind, probabaly only 55-65kg compared with suffolks on the same farm at 90-100kg.

 

[Old Tip]

Like the man says, leave them well be don’t overfeed them and they will produce cracking lambs that fatten well. Sort of gone out of fashion a bit as folk have gone for bigger sheep. The Lairg type Cheviot is basically a Southie crossed with a Park type, some breeders will use a Southie on there flock every few years. The Brecknock Hill Cheviot is also Southie based and the lads from Wales go up to the main sale every year to buy to add new genes to their flocks

 

[Macsky]

Interestingly all the cheviots in NZ a SCC and the one thing they excell at is NLB and mothering, the two flocks I scan normally do 180-200% and they regularly attack the man tagging the lambs at birth, they are small sheep mind, probabaly only 55-65kg compared with suffolks on the same farm at 90-100kg.

When would these flocks have been established Dan?

 

[yellowbelly]

Where would be the best place be to source some draft ewes?

Looked on the Cheviot website...
https://cheviotsheep.org/sales
......there's a sales page, but it does,'t say where they are

 

[Macsky]

Where would be the best place be to source some draft ewes?

Looked on the Cheviot website...
https://cheviotsheep.org/sales
......there's a sales page, but it does,'t say where they are

Get to Dingwall or Lairg for the Lairg type, all the benefits of the Southie, with a bit of added size, coming in many cases off quite hard ground way up north, rather than the ‘hills’ in the borders.

 

[cheviot53]

Main sale's for Southies are Lockerbie & Longtown 'don't know about welsh sales . Ran a large hill flock up until they were killed F&M year then replaced with hill northies as southies were hard to source . Lambed circa 120% pure with not many problems older ewes crossed BFL . Off the hill onto decent grass they put condition on very quickly so a bugger for getting cast

 

[unlacedgecko]

Depends on your ground, get your self a ewe with a bit of Cheviot blood ,maybe half Cheviot .

Improved Welsh (Cheviot x) ewe lambs for sale. 60 lambs, some runners some tuppers. Been clipped, wormed, fluked, dipped and 1x hep p. £50/head.

Based South Wales, between Merthyr and Brecon.

 

[NZDan]

"The Cheviot breed was first introduced into New Zealand in 1845 further importations arrived in 1857, 1890 and 1937.
In 1857 Thomas Murray imported into Otago some Cheviots from Peebleshire and farmed these near Milton until selling the flock to Matthew Holmes in 1865.
Holmes became the first successful breeder and over the following years imported several more ewes and rams from Scotland. Matthew Holmes was a large landowner in Otago and later owned Castlerock Station at Lumsden. He soon recognised the hardy qualities of the breed."
There will have been no new importations since 1937 and I think that was only an animal or two.

When would these flocks have been established Dan?

http://www.cheviotsheepnz.com/articles/

 

[Bob the beef]

Get to Dingwall or Lairg for the Lairg type, all the benefits of the Southie, with a bit of added size, coming in many cases off quite hard ground way up north, rather than the ‘hills’ in the borders.

We do have proper HILLS in the borders!!! My northies graze at 1000-1200 ft all the year round and can often spend 4 months grazing through snow in the winter.

But to be honest Lairg or Dingwall would be a better bet for draft ewes than Lockerbie

 

[yellowbelly]

But to be honest Lairg or Dingwall would be a better bet for draft ewes than Lockerbie

Just a lot farther for us to go

 

[Hilly]

Southies, for the dedicated, beautiful little bad tempered hooors lol

 

[@dlm]

Anyone going to Longtown Tuesday? Come say hello if you are. Will be stood in the aisle where lambs exit. Or pm me and make contact details

 

[dogjon]

Interestingly all the cheviots in NZ a SCC and the one thing they excell at is NLB and mothering, the two flocks I scan normally do 180-200% and they regularly attack the man tagging the lambs at birth, they are small sheep mind, probabaly only 55-65kg compared with suffolks on the same farm at 90-100kg.

We got to spend a week in Wales year before last and spent a day looking at a large Easy Care flock. Very impressed and thought crossing a hill sheep with a Wiltshire Horn to make a shedder was genius idea. Unfortunately, importing Easy Care semen while possible carried a financial risk I wasnt willing to deal with. Looking at what hill breeds were available to me here I decided to put some NZ Cheviot semen over 10 of my best high percentage Wiltshire Poll ewes. I suspect that the Kiwis had improved the wool (because that's what Kiwis do) as none of the first cross showed much shedding but the 4 ram lambs and 3 ewe lambs I got were amazing animals. We had that AI group up by the house where we could watch them lamb out the window and they were amazing. The lambs basically dive out, grab a tit on the way down and were ready to move out at a trot within a couple hours. Not sure how you would band and tag those little buggers without a good dog. One thing that I found interesting about the two rams I had to choose from was that they both had incredible loin eye scores as well as great prolificy numbers behind them. Never seen loin eye scores on anything but terminal breeds in this country. Might mention that some of that semen was used on granddaughters of a Wiltshire Poll ram that NZ Dan had collected when he was young and hip.

 

[dogandstick]

What weights would wethers get to in unimproved upland situation? Not too concerned about lower end lambing percentage as our hill land is unsuitable for twins. Looking to improve the quality and weight of carcasses. Will they outwinter on feggy unimproved grassland with just blocks and some hay in severe weather?

 

[Ysgythan]

Coaty

 

[dogandstick]

Coaty

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