TexX ewes - which Tup to use?

[Guiggs]

This is the picture I didn't post...
View attachment 838284

That's the £250 one nearest camera. LONG!!


You're right, thicker head and a little heavier boned - but not much. Good tup for breeding females, IMO... and he is growing on me a lot

That's long!!
When you're lambing do you know which tups have fathered which lambs or will the rams be in together?
I'm just wondering if you will know if the ewe lambs you retain will be 250's or one if the others?
Do you retain from all of your breeding groups?

 

[Nithsdale]

That's long!!
When you're lambing do you know which tups have fathered which lambs or will the rams be in together?
I'm just wondering if you will know if the ewe lambs you retain will be 250's or one if the others?
Do you retain from all of your breeding groups?

They all go in together... I'm keeping all females from all tups so I'm not worried. But there's a harness on the £550 tup and I'm hoping that will be enough to know which ewes he has served... I'll then pick his ewes at lambing time and decide which I'd want to keep rams out of. When the lambs are born I'll evaluate each ewe as to whether I should keep her son's.


Very primitive, but it's how I've done it any time in the past and it seems to work OK

 

[Nithsdale]

Were you wearing a mask when you stole that one for £250? ....................View attachment 838289

I take that as a great compliment, sir! You obviously value him much higher... good job you weren't at the sale to bid against me



I'm sure I said when I first put pictures of the tups up, if he had been turned out a bit better (maybe shorn a bit later so as to have a tighter skin and maybe fed a bit more hard feed for a week for 2 before sale) and had came from a more notable breeder I'm sure he would have made twice as much...

 

[firther]

all good tups but I do like your home bred 1 and grass reared at that

 

[Gator]

Very primitive, but it's how I've done it any time in the past and it seems to work OK

That's how I do it, and if they dont make the grade there freezer bait ??

 

[Bill dog]

For @nithsdalefarmer!
Charollais tups, and showing a bit of face cover !

 

[Nithsdale]

View attachment 838378View attachment 838379For @nithsdalefarmer!
Charollais tups, and showing a bit of face cover !

Looking good! That's some length on them! The one I told you I saw didn't look like them - he was a lot squarer/blockier, but he did have the covering on the face. My resolve is weakening on Chars, I can see me buying one... but I await your feedback first

 

[Nithsdale]

So after months putting it off, then ordering the stuff... back at the site of the buchts this afternoon.

First batch of cattle are coming in end of next week, if we can keep them out that long! So I've got a deadline to work to

That's it, they are no more. Felt very strange looking at it tonight...
The dipper, race and drying pens to the left - I'm leaving them for right now. If I can get the large area site scraped down and the new perimeter up, it will be big enough to work with the fat/store lambs this winter then I can bugger about with the last wee but in my own time.

There's a bit of banking to dig out beside where the digger is, and a bit of grading to do on most of the site... but I'm not sure yet how straightforward this will be as the area behind the fire is down onto a seam of rotten rock. It could cause a few headaches. If it's dry tomorrow, I'll make a start

 

[Nithsdale]

Just managed to find this... The pens in their glory days. That's dad and I dosing and sorting out Scotch Mule ewe lambs. The first Lleyn rams were bought in 2005, so I'd guess this is from 2003 or 2004 - I'm just a young pup at 19 or 20.

Also found this, I must've been proud of her...

(Back when I used to wear wellies, innocent to the rolled ankles I was yet to suffer in them damned things!! ?)

 

[Gator]

View attachment 838495

Just managed to find this... The pens in their glory days. That's dad and I dosing and sorting out Scotch Mule ewe lambs. The first Lleyn rams were bought in 2005, so I'd guess this is from 2003 or 2004 - I'm just a young pup at 19 or 20.

Also found this, I must've been proud of her...
View attachment 838498


(Back when I used to wear wellies, innocent to the rolled ankles I was yet to suffer in them damned things!! ?)

wellies. ........humm ???

Think I've some owd photos of our owd pens, it's good to look back jus to see how things change.

 

[Nithsdale]

wellies. ........humm ???

Think I've some owd photos of our owd pens, it's good to look back jus to see how things change.

Steady, I'm not Welsh

Aye, we have a few Ariel photos of the farm. 1 every 15-20yr or so from the 70's upto about 4yr ago. It's interesting to see the change and looking back


I'll see if I can get pictures into my phone and upload them...

 

[Nithsdale]

Made a start ..

 

[Nithsdale]

Just in for lunch, took a photo of the farm photos @Gator

This is from the late 70's. Dad is at the Leyland tractor parked beside the buchts and my grandpa is at the gateway in the top left of steading. The big shed on the left was new, it was built in '77 and the fresh/bare soil below it in the picture was the spoil from where it is dug into the hill. It's a high level slatted shed, 100'x30'. Slats are 10-11' off the ground... The 'L' shaped byre nearest the house was the parlour

This picture is from the mid/late 90's... the buchts have had an alteration as dad put in a new fibreglass dipper and drying pens during the 80's. Top end of the slatted shed, the hill was dug into farther and a small silage pit built. It held around 60acres first cut. (dad dug that out with a McConnel backacter - there's some serious rock in there, too!! ). Not sure when the newest shed away to the right went up, some time in the 80's. The long barn which runs from it, going left had the loft in it, grain rooms, dresser, bruiser and mixer... it looks sound there but the roof joists were f**ked and it was sagging in. The heavy snow of '96 did it in... the long hayshed at the back was also starting to rot. Only thing keeping it up was the red lean-to

This is from late 2015 and obviously a different angle... you can see the big barn with loft in the middle is gone, replaced by a 130'x60' cattle shed - it was put up in 2004 by the estate. And half of the hayshed is gone, replaced with an 80'x40' earth floor shed. We put that one up ourselves in 2011-2012 (my now ex brother in law is a welder, he built the frame and then he and I erected it whilst my brother recovered from a bad accident - put his hand in the bruiser and then knee surgery for cruciate ligament reconstruction). there's 2 cottages in the bottom corner, I'm in the one nearer the farm. We had a bumper crop of silage that year - over 2,000 bales in that heap.

 

[Gator]

Just in for lunch, took a photo of the farm photos @Gator

This is from the late 70's. Dad is at the Leyland tractor parked beside the buchts and my grandpa is at the gateway in the top left of steading. The big shed on the left was new, it was built in '77 and the fresh/bare soil below it in the picture was the spoil from where it is dug into the hill. It's a high level slatted shed, 100'x30'. Slats are 10-11' off the ground... The 'L' shaped byre nearest the house was the parlourView attachment 838608

This picture is from the mid/late 90's... the buchts have had an alteration as dad put in a new fibreglass dipper and drying pens during the 80's. Top end of the slatted shed, the hill was dug into farther and a small silage pit built. It held around 60acres first cut. (dad dug that out with a McConnel backacter - there's some serious rock in there, too!! ). Not sure when the newest shed away to the right went up, some time in the 80's. The long barn which runs from it, going left had the loft in it, grain rooms, dresser, bruiser and mixer... it looks sound there but the roof joists were f**ked and it was sagging in. The heavy snow of '96 did it in... the long hayshed at the back was also starting to rot. Only thing keeping it up was the red lean-toView attachment 838609

This is from late 2015 and obviously a different angle... you can see the big barn with loft in the middle is gone, replaced by a 130'x60' cattle shed - it was put up in 2004 by the estate. And half of the hayshed is gone, replaced with an 80'x40' earth floor shed. We put that one up ourselves in 2011-2012 (my now ex brother in law is a welder, he built the frame and then he and I erected it whilst my brother recovered from a bad accident - put his hand in the bruiser and then knee surgery for cruciate ligament reconstruction). there's 2 cottages in the bottom corner, I'm in the one nearer the farm. We had a bumper crop of silage that year - over 2,000 bales in that heap.View attachment 838610

Taken in 1968. only been here 4 years. Took tenancy over in 1964, I was 6 months old then. From what I can remember dad saying the place had been run down by gbe last tenant, took dad a few years to get it looking something like.Started with 10 milk cows and with the profit from the milk round he bought a new calves heifer ever fortnight. £64 , them days are long gone.

2016

need to get the drone out, sh1t sheds missing ?

 

[farmeronecow]

Taken in 1968. only been here 4 years. Took tenancy over in 1964, I was 6 months old then. From what I can remember dad saying the place had been run down by gbe last tenant, took dad a few years to get it looking something like.Started with 10 milk cows and with the profit from the milk round he bought a new calves heifer ever fortnight. £64 , them days are long gone.
View attachment 838658

View attachment 838655


2016
View attachment 838657
need to get the drone out, sh1t sheds missing ?

Any reason they built a farm between two bloody great puddles?![emoji51]

 

[Nithsdale]

Taken in 1968. only been here 4 years. Took tenancy over in 1964, I was 6 months old then. From what I can remember dad saying the place had been run down by gbe last tenant, took dad a few years to get it looking something like.Started with 10 milk cows and with the profit from the milk round he bought a new calves heifer ever fortnight. £64 , them days are long gone.
View attachment 838658

View attachment 838655


2016
View attachment 838657
need to get the drone out, sh1t sheds missing ?

It's fairly changed!

Not sure what was running here before / when grandpa came, but he milked about 30 cows and had the same again beef sucklers fattening the calves, and dad said there were 250 SCC ewes which were the heft on the hill which grandpa had to take over with the tenancy. The dairy only went off when they all switched from churns collected at the roadend to on farm tanks. Dad said we were told the lorries wouldn't come up the road (3/4mile dirt track with 2 steepish sections) unless we tarred or concreted it... grandpa and dad weren't prepared to do that and neither was the estate so the herd were sold. That was '76 IIRC, and probably why the estate were willing to 'help' build the slatted shed.

We've now 90sucklers, 600 ewes on the same acres. But grandpa had fields of barley/oats every year along with growing turnips and a field of rape or kale for lambs. He would also buy store lambs to finish... we stopped the grain 10yr ago and the farm is all grass now.


It's a slight shame the old sheds are gone - in the beams, there were names and dates etched... alot were from German POWs from the war who worked here.

 

[Gator]

Any reason they built a farm between two bloody great puddles?![emoji51]

More than 2 theres bloody 6, 1 in front and 5 above, will be in the ? if they burst?‍.

The population of Oldham expanded from 25,000 in the 1830s to 120,000 in 1870, and there was insufficient water supply from the town's first two reservoirs and local wells to provide more than a few hours supply a day. Oldham Corporation bought watershed land at Piethorne Valley.

Construction work started in 1858, the reservoir being first completely filled ten years later. During the excavations for the reservoir.

It was soon found that moorland silt was being carried into the reservoir from its feeder streams, Piethorne Brook and Cold Greave Brook; Hanging Lees Reservoir was next built as a settling reservoir. Four further reservoirs were built; Kitcliffe and Norman Hill in the 1870s, Ogden, started in 1878, to compensate mills further down Piethorne Brook for loss of water supply, following the Gas and Water Works Facilities Act 1870, and Rooden Reservoir later. A stone-step cascade, or man-made waterfall, carried Piethorne Brook from Norman Hill Reservoir to Piethorne Reservoir. Another stone-step cascade was built as an overflow from Ogden Reservoir. Horses were used to pull wagons along tramways to haul materials on site. Piethorne and the other reservoirs were built using an impermeable clay puddle core to seal the dams, supported by strong earth material. Navvies trod the clay wearing boots with sacking tied around their legs until the full reservoir height was reached

 

[Gator]

Any reason they built a farm between two bloody great puddles?![emoji51]

All they had to dig the reservoirs back then

Plus lots on man power

Would just love to go back in time and see it all happening, at its peak there where 8,000 + people working on the reservoirs from stone masions, quarrymen, navies

 

[Norfolk Hill Farmer]

It's fairly changed!

Not sure what was running here before / when grandpa came, but he milked about 30 cows and had the same again beef sucklers fattening the calves, and dad said there were 250 SCC ewes which were the heft on the hill which grandpa had to take over with the tenancy. The dairy only went off when they all switched from churns collected at the roadend to on farm tanks. Dad said we were told the lorries wouldn't come up the road (3/4mile dirt track with 2 steepish sections) unless we tarred or concreted it... grandpa and dad weren't prepared to do that and neither was the estate so the herd were sold. That was '76 IIRC, and probably why the estate were willing to 'help' build the slatted shed.

We've now 90sucklers, 600 ewes on the same acres. But grandpa had fields of barley/oats every year along with growing turnips and a field of rape or kale for lambs. He would also buy store lambs to finish... we stopped the grain 10yr ago and the farm is all grass now.


It's a slight shame the old sheds are gone - in the beams, there were names and dates etched... alot were from German POWs from the war who worked here.

How many work on the farm now ? and how does that compare with when your Father milked cows ?

 

[Bill dog]

Cracking photos ! I wonder where the tradesmen would have all stayed? In tented camps next to the diggings I guess?
I bet the conditions were bloody awful, with matching food !
When men were men ! And I moan about having to fill a few feeding bags with a shovel !