TexX ewes - which Tup to use?

[Nithsdale]

So if you use a Texel, the lambs will be 5/8 and will (should) look very good, as it is almost 3/4. With Lleyn being dominant in the ewes, they should be easy enough lambing... go with the Texel

 

[neilo]

So if you use a Texel, the lambs will be 5/8 and will (should) look very good, as it is almost 3/4. With Lleyn being dominant in the ewes, they should be easy enough lambing... go with the Texel

But a Texel ewe crosses very well to a Charollais ram, whilst avoiding the hard pull associated with too much Texel blood........and might even get lambs that don't suffer from 'Texel Stall' in mid-summer. Just saying.

As posted above, @Green farmer wouldn't go far wrong with either. Charollais crosses will be faster to market, but Texel crosses would leave you a female lamb with potentially an extra market.

 

[Nithsdale]

But a Texel ewe crosses very well to a Charollais ram, whilst avoiding the hard pull associated with too much Texel blood........and might even get lambs that don't suffer from 'Texel Stall' in mid-summer. Just saying.

As posted above, @Green farmer wouldn't go far wrong with either. Charollais crosses will be faster to market, but Texel crosses would leave you a female lamb with potentially an extra market.

I would say the % of Texel in the ewes, lambing shouldn't be much of an issue (unless you select/buy a ram with difficult lambing traits) - Itl more depend on what the other 25% is made up of... but you will gain at the other end, by having what should look like a 3/4 bred lamb for selling.

But the ewes in question, you pays your money and takes your choice. Really can't go (that) wrong with any terminal breed

 

[Nithsdale]

13 months have passed since this thread started... and a year since the first Suffolk was bought.
Where has the time gone?!?

Not the best pictures but here the boys are. In this afternoon.

Loaded up... ready for action

I'm not bothering with a sub fertile teaser this year... just turning them out a fortnight early and let them get on with it. No white lambs in this bunch this year!

 

[Bill dog]

You've turned them out already? Loving an outdoor nithsdale February lambing ! Just proving how hardy these Suffolks can be! Well done chairman elect !

 

[Nithsdale]

You've turned them out already? Loving an outdoor nithsdale February lambing ! Just proving how hardy these Suffolks can be! Well done chairman elect !

The sun always shines in Mid-Nithsdale

Nah, I'm just expecting next to feck all happening for the first 10-14 days

 

[Bill dog]

You'll be grand, after all, you're much closer to the equator than up here !

 

[Nithsdale]

11 weeks since I last posted on here


Not much to report, really. Ewes were all dosed with Triclabendezole and injected with Dectomax the week after the last pictures (last week of September). Tups are still in with the ewes but very quiet, so that's a good sign
They will be in this coming week for a Closantlel dose, and a spray of Crovect as there appears to be lice bothering them, and for @Ysgythan favourite past time of mine, as I pull off the tups

There's just 150 fat lambs left (mostly all hill lambs), with 70-80 planned to be leaving in the next 10 days to fortnight and hopefully the rest will shift by mid-January.


Like every other part of the country, the rain here has been awful since June. November on the whole has been a break, with plenty frosty mornings. Things have certainly dried up.

Here's a picture for pictures sakes feeding the ewe hoggs this morning. They are on 1/2lb just to keep them coming forward... they looked very poor in October, the weather had taken its toll and the 'wintering' ground has much less grass so pickings is short. They've picked up a lot and with this dry weather. Long may these frosty days continue

 

[Green farmer]

They look nice and content.

 

[Sheeponfire]

11 weeks since I last posted on here


Not much to report, really. Ewes were all dosed with Triclabendezole and injected with Dectomax the week after the last pictures (last week of September). Tups are still in with the ewes but very quiet, so that's a good sign
They will be in this coming week for a Closantlel dose, and a spray of Crovect as there appears to be lice bothering them, and for @Ysgythan favourite past time of mine, as I pull off the tups

There's just 150 fat lambs left (mostly all hill lambs), with 70-80 planned to be leaving in the next 10 days to fortnight and hopefully the rest will shift by mid-January.


Like every other part of the country, the rain here has been awful since June. November on the whole has been a break, with plenty frosty mornings. Things have certainly dried up.

Here's a picture for pictures sakes feeding the ewe hoggs this morning. They are on 1/2lb just to keep them coming forward... they looked very poor in October, the weather had taken its toll and the 'wintering' ground has much less grass so pickings is short. They've picked up a lot and with this dry weather. Long may these frosty days continue

View attachment 609754

Nice headgear.. so as not to "out" yourself.....

 

[Nithsdale]

Nice headgear.. so as not to "out" yourself.....

Salacious allegations
I like girls, so I can't out myself


It was actually to stop the camera from breaking

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Nice headgear.. so as not to "out" yourself.....

I thought he’d joined Islam and it was a burka

 

[yellowbelly]

I thought he’d joined Islam and it was a burka

 

[Nithsdale]

I thought he’d joined Islam and it was a burka

 

[Agrivator]

I assumed it was somewhere in Jordan

 

[Nithsdale]

I thought he’d joined Islam and it was a burka

Now that I'm sober (and the hangover is gone)... and can think of a better reply which didn't consist of just swearing



Infidel!!!!

 

[Nithsdale]

Ewes were all Flukiver dosed last week, Vectocert sprayed and the tups pulled off didn't take any pics though ewes much fitter than I expected, especially the hill ewes which don't have much grass at all... another week and they will be away to the hill proper until lambing.

Totally un-sheep related, but this is the job this past few days. We bought an immaculate 2014 Kuhn Primor to bed the cattle with back in October - with an eye to feeding the silage bales through it too.

The estate put the (2nd hand) shed up to replace a falling down stone barn in 2004... at the time we fitted the crash barrier feed barrier... The shed is built into a hill, the other side is shuttered concrete to 7ft high which is where the floor level is... the digger driver got carried away as the hardcore was hauled in and he raised the road level to where it is above the level of the shed, creating an open ditch. We fed silage bales in it for a year or 2, but with it just being earth there was an awful lot of waste and took alot of digging out.. so we gave up and have been using feed trailers and ring feeders ever since...

We decided concrete panels laid would be the best (easiest) way to make an instant feed area so got some ordered. 130' long in total but we left a 15' bay at one end and 10' at the other clear otherwise it would be too tight getting trailers or lorries round, so 105' of feed area. Panels are in at roughly 45degrees and sat onto concrete blocks to keep them all the same(ish) level, with a drainage pipe underneath. There's blocks to be cemented up at either end to close off the trough, and we will backfill underneath the panels... but we finished laying today and tomorrow is the long awaited first feed (and not before time!!).

(I would like that road concreted... but loathe to do it when we are just tenants)

 

[copse]

Why waste diesel chopping up bales ? When you can just drop them in a ring feeder. Can see the logic if doing tmr mix but just chopping it up to put it on the floor doesn't make sense to me. We had similar feed trough to yours and cattle nosed silage over the side and made work forking it back in again.

 

[Nithsdale]

Why waste diesel chopping up bales ? When you can just drop them in a ring feeder. Can see the logic if doing tmr mix but just chopping it up to put it on the floor doesn't make sense to me. We had similar feed trough to yours and cattle nosed silage over the side and made work forking it back in again.

There is far too much bale waste. The silage pulled through from the ring feeders holds p!ss, but not dry like straw... soaking around the feeders (even though we scrape away excessive build up) and wasting areas of the bedded section.

Best friend shifted to a chopper 3 years ago feeding on a flat pad infront of his barrier... Cattle waste almost no silage now compared to feeding whole bales and minimal forking required.

The chopper is set to just break up and blow the silage/straw bales - it isn't really chopping. It's made a noticeable difference to bedding already.

Also, will now only need to go in amongst the cattle much less. Instead of in with 3 bales every morning, then the scraper then twice a week for bedding... the old tractor the chopper is going on uses bugger all diesel as it is

 

[yellowbelly]

Panels are in at roughly 45degrees and sat onto concrete blocks

Same arrangement as our neighbour has on his sheep shed. His panels are at a steeper angle but I suppose he doesn't need as much 'trough volume' for sheep.