Thinking of getting a beltex...am I mad

[sam1]

Fair tup

 

[beltextexel]

Yes 612, out of a ewe I share with Ivanhoe.

 

[ewefool]

What sort of results did you get from the beltex over the blackie?

Nice looking lambs ,selling mule ewe lambs today so will see how we get on with them ,nobody wanted tail end mules so was hoping beltex lambs would be easier sold ,not away yet dipped last week so will go in about a fortnight .

 

[NZDan]

Anyone else want to dip there toes in the water and want to try one......pen of 8 ram lambs for Builth NSA week today, some are registered
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Have you a photo of a good Beltex tup cleanly shorn with no shaping?

 

[liammogs]

I'll have to go digging through some photos on my old phone

 

[Nithsdale]

Have you a photo of a good Beltex tup cleanly shorn with no shaping?

It's a shame the society doesn't stop it

 

[Longlowdog]

What can you tell with more wool on rather than less?
Devils advocate question really. When I was self employed and could make time I liked preparing sheep for sale, now I have a day job it's a p.i.t.a.....
Given tup sales up here are generally autumn it would be a bit harsh to bare clip a tup for mid October sales when we have often had snow by then.
Perhaps when we get to see what a 60k Blackie looks like without his fleece the Beltex Society will follow suit.

 

[Nithsdale]

Blackie isn't trimmed to feck

I can appreciate the skill in topiary, but there's no place for it in agriculture, IMO

 

[liammogs]

At the same time, you always check teeth, testicles etc so you can be your own judgement and asses the carcass with your hands, all a part of being a good stockman I thought

 

[Longlowdog]

I'd never buy a tup I hadn't handled and run on the hard aisle outside of the knee high straw in some vendors pens.
No seller would ever risk a sale by telling you not to handle his primped and preened show king or queen.
Personally if I had my way I'd have terminal breed tups back fat scanned in the mart to show the confirmation under the 'condition'.

 

[hendrebc]

It's a shame the society doesn't stop it

All breed societies should stop it. It stops being about the sheep and more a trimming competition

 

[MJT]

Have you a photo of a good Beltex tup cleanly shorn with no shaping?

Agree the trimming doesn’t help the breed in any way ....

Not straight after shearing but here’s my stock tup a month after .

And here’s a ewe lamb fresh after shearing a couple of weeks ago .

 

[Nithsdale]

At the same time, you always check teeth, testicles etc so you can be your own judgement and asses the carcass with your hands, all a part of being a good stockman I thought

So why do it?... don't expect me to reward you for wasting your own time trimming the life out of the wheezy wee bugger.

It's visual deception, plain and simple. Regardless of what you believe of your purchasers ability as a stockman.

Quality stock sell themselves, they don't need anything done to them.

 

[liammogs]

So why do it?... don't expect me to reward you for wasting your own time trimming the life out of the wheezy wee bugger.

It's visual deception, plain and simple. Regardless of what you believe of your purchasers ability as a stockman.

Quality stock sell themselves, they don't need anything done to them.

As much as I agree with what you say, but it's same as the cake stuffed tups against grass reared tups, untill people start proving it with there wallets it will never change, id love to just load tups on to the box and off they go save me hours of work! But untill the market dictates it i cant see it changing!!

 

[sam1]

Exactly that

 

[Nithsdale]

As much as I agree with what you say, but it's same as the cake stuffed tups against grass reared tups, untill people start proving it with there wallets it will never change, id love to just load tups on to the box and off they go save me hours of work! But untill the market dictates it i cant see it changing!!

That is why I said the Society needs to stop it. The entire breed needs to make that conscious decision and go forward from it. It can only come from the top

 

[muleman]

yes you are

 

[CharcoalWally]

yes you are

Eventually , 13 months later. ........

I know I know, look before you leap. ....

 

[muleman]

Eventually , 13 months later. ........

I know I know, look before you leap. ....

 

[Longlowdog]

I try the unfed tup job every Carlisle Premier, it's a heap of shi*e. Take them to mart, don't get a bid over £300, bring them home after watching folk pay £800 for a c.s 5 boo-leggit wheeze bag. Pour £40 of feed into them over a couple of months and sell them for £650 in the local mart.
All you hear on here is unfed, untrimmed, blah blah bull dip, you buyers talk the talk then fail to walk the walk. So...you'll get fed tups and I'll fed my family and no-one will actually feel happy at the end of the day. However, instead of a tup that would work for another 5 years if you just took that few quid and used it to build the boys up AFTER tupping, you get tups that may not last the distance.
If you saw a GRASS fed Beltex in his workaday condition I doubt you'd be impressed, but try to tell folk that that tup is a son of the big price tup in the papers and they simply don't believe it. Nor will they believe that the tup will throw the wee breeze block lambs like the fat ones do. Till the buyers step up, vote with their cheque books discriminating against the fat sheep you'll always get the fat, trimmed show ponies rather than the real deal.