Swaledale Ewes @ What Breed of Ram?

Ysgythan

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Ammanford
Did same for first time this year, those not good enough for pure or crossing or had been lame.
Lambs are brown faced, few with wooly top knots, not as much as a Hampshire.
Been run on rough ground with fell twins, mid April born, prob all go in run up to xmas

can’t be doing with top knots.
 

andybk

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Mendips Somerset
In my case its budget 100%
youu cant buy on budget , thats how you get suckered into that fed trimmed one in mart , that said have never paid more than a v good commercial price for any stock ram since the 80s (inc my french ones ) , theres plenty of commercial rams for sensible money thats where the the research comes in . Find your seller first , market chatter will give you best inclination
 

unlacedgecko

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Fife
The charollais you put up pics of were not scrap, quite the opposite.
No they weren’t. I was very happy with them, especially at £185/hd. I think I should get an average of 2 years from each, with each tup serving 100 ewes. At 10% empty and 120% lambing, each tup should sire 216 lambs over his working life.

That’s a sire purchase cost of 86p per lamb, ignoring any salvage value from the tups.

This is what I mean by budget.
 

unlacedgecko

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Fife
youu cant buy on budget , thats how you get suckered into that fed trimmed one in mart , that said have never paid more than a v good commercial price for any stock ram since the 80s (inc my french ones ) , theres plenty of commercial rams for sensible money thats where the the research comes in . Find your seller first , market chatter will give you best inclination

It was pretty tongue in cheek. My budget varies depending on the job.

I don’t blink at spending money on maternal tups I want @Woolless.

selection was figures/key traits, then visual inspection (including temperament). The best looking animal in the world is no use to me at all if he lacks the key traits I’m after.
 
We’ve had Slater tups for 20 years now. Between 1 & 4 per year depending on requirements. We’ve never had one melt and die on us. He feeds beet pulp, not high protein concentrates. Unlike texels we buy in the sales of which 1 in 4 will shrivel away too nothing in the first year! My main issue with Slater tups is they are total tw*ts for fighting!! I’ve had more than one pasting from a slater tup. Bloody things.
I’ve tried pretty much every combination he does, all for various different ewes and jobs. Apart from the price (everyone else has clicked on he’s got the goods now, look at his production sale averages) I couldn’t be more satisfied.
I’ve never had one of his tups. As you say they used to be reasonable when he sold them at Penrith or Cockermouth but they seem a hell of a trade now. If they work and aren’t inclined to die then that’s the reason.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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

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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/
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