TexX ewes - which Tup to use?

[JSmith]

And just while we are on point.

Oi @JSmith !! I don’t “lurk”anywhere!! I make far too much noise too be accused of “lurking”!!

Jolly good, please continue with whatever you were telling us before @Nithsdale Farmer

Are you sure your not a secret lurker?? It’s a thing you know, maybe you don’t know you do it but going back an forth to look at the smallest pen of blackies in the market could be classed as lurking!!

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Are you sure your not a secret lurker?? It’s a thing you know, maybe you don’t know you do it but going back an forth to look at the smallest pen of blackies in the market could be classed as lurking!!

Jesus it’s “free hits on Anymule” tonight is it?!

 

[Nithsdale]

Been a manic morning so no pics, had arranged getting the 23 heifers PDd this week and got word late last night he was coming 1pm today. Perfect I thought, heifers are still out so got squared up this morning and went to walk them in after a cuppa for 10oclock...

Just 2 fields above the steading, be no bother they're nice and quiet... Twunts wouldn't come down the last hill into the steading so were up and down the field 6 or 7 times, tried them through a different gate... they baulked once through it and flattened a fence into another field and f**ked off .. eventually got them into the shed a good hour and half after we set off to get them

23 heifers, all in calf.
16 will calf at 2yo
7 will calf at 3yo
There's 1 set of twins

All in calf to a new AA bull who himself will only turn 2yo as the youngest calf. He was tested, but unproven (and we were getting nervous we hadn't swapped bulls!)

We are really, really chuffed with that.

Heifers are 8 pure Luing and 8 SimLuing. The 7 older ones are LimX and SimX

 

[AftonShepherd]

Are the two age groups due to a change in policy? Or just the way things worked out? Have calved at 2 for a while here and works well for us.

 

[Nithsdale]

We normally run them on. We had the 7 oldest homebred to go to the bull anyway and 8 of the younger ones are homebred too but we were down on cow numbers and sourced the 8 pure Luings. We should've bought 10 looking back.

Decided we couldn't run 16 empty as it's too many so decided to source the AA bull and serve the whole lot.

So I guess yeah it's a change of policy, not sure what we will do next year, but we like the pure Luings so may well buy some more from the same place.

 

[hendrebc]

Calve at 2 here as well and have done for about 10 years or more see no reason to go back to calving at 3. I did calve some at 3 this year because I needed more cows and put the bull with the ones I was going to finish last year and the ones that calved at 2 were just as easy to calve and have done as good a job on their calves as the bigger ones at 3. The younger ones did take the bull slightly earlier than the older ones as well I don't know why.

 

[Nithsdale]

We have calved when younger before - but it's always been by accident. And It's never went well, either...

Decent sized group and we are actually trying to do it this time, so we are fairly confident it'll be OK

 

[jendan]

We have calved when younger before - but it's always been by accident. And It's never went well, either...

Decent sized group and we are actually trying to do it this time, so we are fairly confident it'll be OK

Just looked in on this thread and thought it was "Tex ewes,which tup to use? " ...................Seems to be about calving cows.

 

[Nithsdale]

Just looked in on this thread and thought it was "Tex ewes,which tup to use? " ...................Seems to be about calving cows.

You'd need to go back to the start and see how the thread has progressed over the last 5+ years...


It's now just a running 'diary' of the farm

 

[jendan]

You'd need to go back to the start and see how the thread has progressed over the last 5+ years...


It's now just a running 'diary' of the farm

Ah,abit like "Coming home for lambing".

 

[Nithsdale]

Yes, just the same really

Can you imagine the level of argument if after 4,211 posts we were still debating which tup to use

 

[jendan]

I've not lambed hoggs for about 8 years

Rose tinted glasses - I just remember letting them do their own thing and never had any issues. If lambs were getting a bit big or stuck, I'd shut them onto a very bare field



It can't be that easy... was it? (That was Lleyn hoggs lambing to Lleyn tups)

I think with a few of them,you will end up on your side on the deck,with your feet jammed up against the hoggs arse,whilst pulling like hell on the lambing rope.

 

[jendan]

Yes, just the same really

Can you imagine the level of argument if after 4,211 posts we were still debating which tup to use

So which tup did you settle on then?

 

[Nithsdale]

So which tup did you settle on then?

Suffolks. Used those tups upto this year (1 died last winter and I put the other cull in the spring).

I'm tupping some ewe lambs this year so to save buying too many tups, I have switched to Beltex - they served the TexX ewes in the first cycle and are now out with the ewe lambs - been with them for 10 days and are about half way through

 

[Nithsdale]

Decent weather this past week. The oldest calves are weaned, other half of the sucklers are in (just a handful cull cows are still out with calves too young to wean, and the heifers)...

The top shed with the earth floor is needing a wee bit maintenance - the doorway is on a steep hill, which straight across goes to the high level slatted shed, and the old silage pit. The slope has gotten washed out and erroded a bit... the water was starting to run into the earth floored shed making the doorway sunken pulling more water in. Ideally concreting it is where we need to go, but we've been building it all back up the last couple days with old but good slats from the other shed. We also took in 20t for type1 sub base.
So I've been playing on the digger this week

All dug out onto a level with the digger, slats are singles but well packed in with sub base between them so shouldn't shift - and didn't when I drove the digger over them. Doorway is 15', slats are 10' so there's a gang of shortened ones at the top side of the door. The full length ones will be taking more weight when turning in, so hopefully won't can move.

Not finished yet, still got to grade off and blind up the edge inside the shed, and build up the bottom side of the doorway outside. There's a 2-3" step in the slats just outside the doorway to stop water running in and the gate is to get sheeted with Stockboard, too.

The road continues up the grassy area behind the hurdles in first and last pic, upto where the bales are built. We don't use that bit of road anymore and it acts like a big funnel channeling the water down into the yard.
Next job is to put a trench in at an angle across the old bit of road and use more slats to catch the water, forcing it to the other side of the road (away from this doorway) then piping it under the part of road we do use, sending it down to the field below.



If this doesn't last, we will pack it in again and pour concrete over it (the joys of being tenants and trying to cut corners )

 

[glasshouse]

They do something for me too. Maybe my memory of the dosey, shitty arsed, plain things is still too recent.

I shall refrain from posting the obvious answer, as I might be accused of being a) biased and b) predictable.

Would a Lleyn make sense though, and keep some stronger/improved ewes to go into the maternal flock. Everyone else with Lleyns is doing it, they can't all be daft.

Is a lleyn tup any good over blackface ewes?

 

[neilo]

Is a lleyn tup any good over blackface ewes?

No idea, but isn’t that what @Nithsdale Farmer ’s flock is bred up from?

I dare say @Agrivator would say it would be an improvement…

 

[Agrivator]

No idea, but isn’t that what @Nithsdale Farmer ’s flock is bred up from?

I dare say @Agrivator would say it would be an improvement…

A good Cheviot of any description or a Texel is infinitely better.

The Lleyn is far too variable and thankfully it has had its day.

 

[hendrebc]

Is a lleyn tup any good over blackface ewes?

Pick your lleyn very carefully and pick the breeder to buy from as well.
Agrivator has a point about lleyns having had their day because there is a lot of variable sh!t in the breed now but the good ones from the good breeders are as good as anything else you will get.

 

[Agrivator]

Pick your lleyn very carefully and pick the breeder to buy from as well.
Agrivator has a point about lleyns having had their day because there is a lot of variable sh!t in the breed now but the good ones from the good breeders are as good as anything else you will get.

It's difficult to know how much Texel has been used to create a more acceptable Lleyn. There is a case for using Lleyns over first-time lambers, but they have little other advantage.