Thinking of changing to shedding sheep. Change my mind.

scottish-lleyn

Member
Mixed Farmer
My wife and i have been discussing the move to the darkside this evening and our problem is we really only want the sheep we have here without the wool. I dont want to loose what i think of as the perfect ewe in terms of performace and confirmation by adding shedding genetics. Our sheep at the moment are where i want them well muscled but maternal. Im in a pickle really. What i really want is a shedding maternal texel.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
My wife and i have been discussing the move to the darkside this evening and our problem is we really only want the sheep we have here without the wool. I dont want to loose what i think of as the perfect ewe in terms of performace and confirmation by adding shedding genetics. Our sheep at the moment are where i want them well muscled but maternal. Im in a pickle really. What i really want is a shedding maternal texel.

If you have Lleyn x Texel then they (apparently) wouldn't take long to get to the stage where they all shed. One cross or two. A lot of the Exlanas are bred up from a Lleyn base I believe and @Woolless has recorded, shedding Texel x Easycares iirc. Either wouldn't have you straying far from your current genetic base and, once you have a bunch shedding, you can keep a couple of your own rams back to reinforce those genetics.

I feel exactly the same way about my Highlander ewes. My plan is to work with a base flock of 100 pure Exlanas, but also to breed a similar sized nucleus of half shedding Highlander x Exlana ewes, to breed (hopefully) shedding 3/4 bred Exlana crossbreds. Once I have plenty of full shedders to work with, I can select those that are nearest my ideal type, and will keep a homebred ram or two, unless I am blown away by the pure Exlanas by then. I am hoping to minimise the number of messy half shedders, whilst still retaining as much of my existing genetic base as I can.

I'm just off down top fetch another trailer load of pure Exlana ewe lambs today, then the flock is closing again.:)
 

gwi1890

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North wales
Well I made the jump bought 80 easycares 3-4 year olds from the original flock on Anglesey which was only 3 miles from mine, will get them all tested for mv. Need a tup now will record everything next year, might cris cross a bit with my pure texels once I get numbers up, the gentleman man I bought them off had some easycare x texel which were full shedding and to be fair they looked fantastic in terms of confermation bit his lambing % was 10%-15% lower on them wich is not what I wanted to start off with but definitely something to look I look to do down the line, they look no different to lleyns really I don’t get the bashing about being narrow, weighed a couple and they where 70kg-75kg which suits me fine here.

30FFC421-5DA9-4BE0-A546-3392E45ECA9D.jpeg
 

pgk

Member
Well I made the jump bought 80 easycares 3-4 year olds from the original flock on Anglesey which was only 3 miles from mine, will get them all tested for mv. Need a tup now will record everything next year, might cris cross a bit with my pure texels once I get numbers up, the gentleman man I bought them off had some easycare x texel which were full shedding and to be fair they looked fantastic in terms of confermation bit his lambing % was 10%-15% lower on them wich is not what I wanted to start off with but definitely something to look I look to do down the line, they look no different to lleyns really I don’t get the bashing about being narrow, weighed a couple and they where 70kg-75kg which suits me fine here.

View attachment 900477
We bought originals from iolo 11 years ago when he was mv accredited. Been difficult since to source mv stock, have only bought in 48 mv exlana ewe lambs and graded up from our mv lleyns, now up to 400+. We have some with texel in 1/2 and 3/4 which fully shed. Cant deny lambs with a bit of texel in are easy on the eye. Been buying recorded exlana tups last few years which have improved many traits. Would not go back to full flock of woollies.
 

unlacedgecko

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Fife
My wife and i have been discussing the move to the darkside this evening and our problem is we really only want the sheep we have here without the wool. I dont want to loose what i think of as the perfect ewe in terms of performace and confirmation by adding shedding genetics. Our sheep at the moment are where i want them well muscled but maternal. Im in a pickle really. What i really want is a shedding maternal texel.
As @neilo says, speak to @Woolless. I’m very happy with my tup from him. Considering another this year. The catalogue is out now!
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
If you have Lleyn x Texel then they (apparently) wouldn't take long to get to the stage where they all shed. One cross or two. A lot of the Exlanas are bred up from a Lleyn base I believe and @Woolless has recorded, shedding Texel x Easycares iirc. Either wouldn't have you straying far from your current genetic base and, once you have a bunch shedding, you can keep a couple of your own rams back to reinforce those genetics.

I feel exactly the same way about my Highlander ewes. My plan is to work with a base flock of 100 pure Exlanas, but also to breed a similar sized nucleus of half shedding Highlander x Exlana ewes, to breed (hopefully) shedding 3/4 bred Exlana crossbreds. Once I have plenty of full shedders to work with, I can select those that are nearest my ideal type, and will keep a homebred ram or two, unless I am blown away by the pure Exlanas by then. I am hoping to minimise the number of messy half shedders, whilst still retaining as much of my existing genetic base as I can.

I'm just off down top fetch another trailer load of pure Exlana ewe lambs today, then the flock is closing again.:)
Such a clever chap like you should be able to even to breed the birth coat on Charolais one would've thought..:unsure::sneaky:
 

pgk

Member
Took some lambs in to weigh last week , thought they should be around 21 kgs ,turned out they were 23.5 kgs, sold through live ring at £92.50 , would have been pretty similar to other prices on the day,
Took 15 pure ram lambs in to farmers fresh yesterday straight off grass clover ley, April born no hard feed, averaged 19.41kg, lightest 18.4kg heaviest 21.6kg, mainly r3l, 4 of 3h which they chip 15p kg, averaged £90.50 gross. Kill out 46%. Big balls!
 

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quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

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