TexX ewes - which Tup to use?

[scottish-lleyn]

I will continue using the Lleyn on the hill group (wait and see how the NCC do before I decide if I continue with the 1off cross),... I MIGHT use Lleyns on my inbye ewes (or maybe Lleyn X Texel tups) but I will still use a Texel on 100 or so... to breed my 100 texX ewes for the Suffolks.

The Charollais are far too soft. There is no chance I will use them here again - regardless how easy lambing they are, or how well they grow.

i have some first cross texel-lleyn shearling for sale this year​

 

[hendrebc]

Ive sold quite a few nz texel cross lleyn ram lambs to friends as rams. They all say the same better a plainer live lamb than a shapey dead one. Most came for a lleyn to breed replacements from and leave wirh a couple of them too

 

[Nithsdale]

i have some first cross texel-lleyn shearling for sale this year​

Where you sell them?

I bred a few of my own at the end, first time round when I had pure Texels 10+ years ago... But I had traditional type Lleyn tups and the resulting cross tups weren't that nice (far too heavy a skin, far too much wool and very little shape). But the TexX lambs out of my own pure ewes look good, so I'd probably just retain my own

 

[scottish-lleyn]

I got asked to breed a few for a "study" for someone and i bred fifty stud ewes to recorded texels. They will just be sold from home along with the 40/50 lleyn tups

 

[scottish-lleyn]

Will be delivering a through tups in south ayrshire later in the year could make a day of it and head on down the road to yours and drop a couple off

 

[Woolless]

Texel being retired here as well. Texel lambs aren’t bad over the last two weeks, but the ewes are on the meal abit to long now and the lambs are getting to big and need pulling. Charly are throwing great muscular narrow shouldered lambs, but they were super soft during the bad weather. Overall most pleased with the Lleyn lambs. We’re more hardy at birth, best lambing coat and knew where to hide it the field best to avoid the rain. Mightn’t even run a terminal ram this year. It I do might be something less popular like vendeen or something.

A Hampshire Down might fit the bill. They're meant to knit well with Lleyns and I've found them good for lambing outside. But you've got to buy from the right breeder.

 

[Green farmer]

I’m open minded to trying any breed of sheep. Just want something to fit into the outdoor lambing, low labour input model !!!

 

[Woolless]

I’m not open minded to trying any breed of sheep. Just want something to fit into the outdoor lambing, low labour input model !!!

An NZ type Suffolk might be another option. Never tried one myself. I'm sure you could get a Texel that would suit but they wouldn't be easy to find.

 

[jamesy]

Nothing wrong with right type of uk Suffolk.

 

[Woolless]

Nothing wrong with right type of uk Suffolk.

Fair comment. I intended to mean a Suffolk bred with functionality and ease of lambing in mind.

 

[jamesy]

I may of mentioned earlier in this thread that I’d bought a small flock (50) of hill type NCC to try out the Suffolk rams I breed for two reasons. 1) to use the recorded results to help (hopefully) promote the sales of the rams

2) to use the above results to guide my decision making over future breeding criteria for the Suffolks.

I’m pleased to say I’ve been delighted on the lambing front & positive about the lambs onward performance!

 

[Nithsdale]

Ewes and lambs seem happy tonight. This is the other field of the 50ac grass parks, view to the South and East. North is hidden by trees. The pictures in my last post were facing North and East.

The poorer grass in background is my hill field, the peak on the right hand side of 2nd pic is the top of my hill.

 

[west coast angus]

I may of mentioned earlier in this thread that I’d bought a small flock (50) of hill type NCC to try out the Suffolk rams I breed for two reasons. 1) to use the recorded results to help (hopefully) promote the sales of the rams

2) to use the above results to guide my decision making over future breeding criteria for the Suffolks.

I’m pleased to say I’ve been delighted on the lambing front & positive about the lambs onward performance!

How could you have any other result when your using lairg cheviot ewes

 

[Nithsdale]

Jeeeeeeeeeeeesus it's been wet since Sunday. More rain this past 4 days than the last 4 weeks!! Fields were firming up and looking good, but its back to swamp gateways and slithering about with the bike and snacker the fields are jumping now, though - the grass is getting on!! First of the fert went on 2 weeks ago so atleast all this rain and the heat this weekend, it will rocket now hopefully I can slacken off with the feed soon!

Not much to report, half way through calving - it's going well.

The Suffolk (and Cheviot) lambs are well onto the creep now. They had been taking about 100kg of pellets a week for the last 2 weeks, but it's looking like they will demolish 150kg this week plus they are coming in to eat with the ewes every morning for bye!

Average age for the group will be 5-6weeks old, about 160-170 head - I haven't counted how many lambs there actually are but that number won't be far away.

Does that level of consumption sound right? How long before I should expect a draw of lambs?

At this rate I will run out of pellets soon. Not sure whether to buy another pallet, buy a tote of oats or just shift gradually onto the feed the ewes are on which is beet pulp, dark wheat grains or maize grains - depending on availability - and bruised barley (fed to store cattle too!). I did the pet lambs on the ewe feed last year with molasses and they did ok...

 

[Wishful Thinker]

Jeeeeeeeeeeeesus it's been wet since Sunday. More rain this past 4 days than the last 4 weeks!! Fields were firming up and looking good, but its back to swamp gateways and slithering about with the bike and snacker the fields are jumping now, though - the grass is getting on!! First of the fert went on 2 weeks ago so atleast all this rain and the heat this weekend, it will rocket now hopefully I can slacken off with the feed soon!

Not much to report, half way through calving - it's going well.

The Suffolk (and Cheviot) lambs are well onto the creep now. They had been taking about 100kg of pellets a week for the last 2 weeks, but it's looking like they will demolish 150kg this week plus they are coming in to eat with the ewes every morning for bye!

Average age for the group will be 5-6weeks old, about 160-170 head - I haven't counted how many lambs there actually are but that number won't be far away.

Does that level of consumption sound right? How long before I should expect a draw of lambs?

At this rate I will run out of pellets soon. Not sure whether to buy another pallet, buy a tote of oats or just shift gradually onto the feed the ewes are on which is beet pulp, dark wheat grains or maize grains - depending on availability - and bruised barley (fed to store cattle too!). I did the pet lambs on the ewe feed last year with molasses and they did ok...

Similar number of lambs here in total. Mine would be older but I’d say yours are eating well. I was feeding my ewes heavy due to grass shortage so I’d assume were getting plenty of milk, mine only eating that amount now at about 9 weeks and increasing each day. Was thinking of weighing some this weekend, with the prices the way they are at minute I’d consider pulling at 36/38kg.

 

[Green farmer]

A Hampshire Down might fit the bill. They're meant to knit well with Lleyns and I've found them good for lambing outside. But you've got to buy from the right breeder.

I’ve been thinking about this over the past few days. You’d wonder what impact the last few weeks will have on demand for different breeds of rams come next August. My shortlist will be hardy, good cover of wool and easy lambing.

 

[Nithsdale]

Similar number of lambs here in total. Mine would be older but I’d say yours are eating well. I was feeding my ewes heavy due to grass shortage so I’d assume were getting plenty of milk, mine only eating that amount now at about 9 weeks and increasing each day. Was thinking of weighing some this weekend, with the prices the way they are at minute I’d consider pulling at 36/38kg.

Cheers for the reply... I'm maybe better on course than I thought. I just got a bit of a fright when I checked the creep feeder tonight!

First time creeping lambs so it's all new territory to me. I'm liking it so far though.

 

[Nithsdale]

I’ve been thinking about this over the past few days. You’d wonder what impact the last few weeks will have on demand for different breeds of rams come next August. My shortlist will be hardy, good cover of wool and easy lambing.

That's my criteria every year - along with naturally done and easy fleshing...


Doesn't always work though

 

[Nithsdale]

Grass is growing, it's warm today. Sheep seem pretty happy and the lambs are too...
Took a brave step and finally counted the lambs last night

Very much a case of good new and bad news.

Good news - The hill ewes have lambed 156%. Very happy with that.

150% on the TexX ewes (I thought I was at 160), I lost about 10 due to the weather and a few more at birth so it would have been higher but I'm relatively pleased with that considering when they had to come through.

Now the bad news.
120% in the commercials ewes ran in bye

Those figures are number of lambs against number ewes put to the tup - so lambs per ewe will be higher than that, as I lost 22 ewes from tipping to now. There's a group (12) running with no lambs which I'm culling and there's also 15 ewes which have not lambed yet.

I have actually lost about my 'usual' number of lambs - going by how many (plastic dog food bags) I've sent to NFSco... but it has almost exclusively been lambs from the 1 lot, which has hammered them

The silver lining to it all is, I guess , I had 50 ewes more go to the tup and I still have more lambs than I ended up with last year - just not as many more as I should have had. So, it could have been worse. Those lambs will now run lighter across the farm and, as seen in 2013, will finish easier off grass with less competition...

 

[Bill dog]

And if your feeding them creep, away all the quicker ! Got the fert spread on the grazing ground here today, and not too much mess!
Well never got stuck, and a wallop with the tractor bucket will repair the worse bits !