Thinking of getting a beltex...am I mad

[Northeastfarmer]

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.

The 2 beltex tups I bought have not melted in the slightest and get nothing but grass, in fact they are in better condition than my Texels

 

[Skintagain]

I have two beltexes that I bought as lambs. Fat as buggery mostly throughout the year.

My three pure texels ended up thin last winter but they are 7,8 and 9 shear. How long can tups go never kept any past 5 shear before?

 

[Northeastfarmer]

I have two beltexes that I bought as lambs. Fat as buggery mostly throughout the year.

My three pure texels ended up thin last winter but they are 7,8 and 9 shear. How long can tups go never kept any past 5 shear before?

At 5 shear I think you’re starting to push your luck

 

[Skintagain]

Pushed mine to the max then!! It’s two years since they were run independantly so two could be firing more blanks than the Territorials....

Was Thinking Of looking out for a couple of replacements this time same as year and the year before, I have grown a bit fond of the old lads done a good service and just keep thinking one more year.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Pushed mine to the max then!! It’s two years since they were run independantly so two could be firing more blanks than the Territorials....

Was Thinking Of looking out for a couple of replacements this time same as year and the year before, I have grown a bit fond of the old lads done a good service and just keep thinking one more year.

Last good tup I had I let him die on the farm

 

[NZDan]

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.

Well said. This is exactly the reason I believe that it is more important to choose the right ram breeder first, then the right ram. This going to a multi vendor sale is only encouraging the pissing contest.

 

[Nithsdale]

Last good tup I had I let him die on the farm

Plenty bad ones do that too

 

[Downton_shep]

If you want to see them in their working clothes, not all trimmed up then buy off farm and not from the sales. I’ve not been to a ram sale for the last 10 years.

 

[sheepwise]

If you want to see them in their working clothes, not all trimmed up then buy off farm and not from the sales. I’ve not been to a ram sale for the last 10 years.

The only way to sell naturally reared (not necessarily entirely on grass) tups or bulls is on farm,where they can only be judged against their contemporaries.

 

[unlacedgecko]

Last good tup I had I let him die on the farm

That doesn’t seem like very good welfare...

 

[Northeastfarmer]

That doesn’t seem like very good welfare...

What that I let him live his days out on the farm rather than having his throat ripped out by someone in a burka saying allah
No you’re right...atrocious welfare

 

[beltextexel]

3rd prize in the show today.

 

[Skintagain]

Hope he does well. Don’t know if I could look at him but he will throw some good lambs.

 

[ShooTa]

our beltex is a wonder - hes so butt ugly - so rambunctious - but charming.
He was fed far too much protien before we bought him and as such has THE worst feet known to sheepkind. more like jesters shoes....... but hes our terminal sire.......and i think this is his last year with us.. but being pasturefed since he joined us hes still in fine form..does the job. every time.

 

[unlacedgecko]

What that I let him live his days out on the farm rather than having his throat ripped out by someone in a burka saying allah
No you’re right...atrocious welfare

I hate to break it to you, but all sheep sent from slaughter die by having their throat cut....

I think it's an infinitely better end than dying of pneumonia or starvation.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

I hate to break it to you, but all sheep sent from slaughter die by having their throat cut....

I think it's an infinitely better end than dying of pneumonia or starvation.

Who said mine died by pneumonia or starvation...

 

[liammogs]

View attachment 718892 View attachment 718894

3rd prize in the show today.

Smart lamb that!!

 

[beltextexel]

Great day up at Lanark, got 3rd with the lamb and sold for 1800gns which our top price tup to date and I think top price lamb on the day.

 

[unlacedgecko]

Who said mine died by pneumonia or starvation...

Unless you shoot it, that's what kills sheep on farm.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Unless you shoot it, that's what kills sheep on farm.

Very presumptuous