Tupping 2017

[neilo]

Turned our tups in week last weds slow going to the tup, thought wed lamb 2/3 weeks earlier but going buy raddle marks we be the same as usuall any reason, did think of a teaser but for 40 ewes and for 14 days of the year cant justify it!! Teasers been selling around the £300 mark

I get my (Cambridge) teasers from Alun Davies on the Wirral. He gets his surplus pure Cambridge yearlings vasectomised by Liverpool vet school students IIRC, as part of their course work. They always last a long time (up to about 10 years IME) and mv accredited. You'd likely get 2 for your £300, delivered if he's passing, but you need to arrange the year before as it has to tie in with the vet school.

He's the secretary of the Cambridge Sheep Society, but if you can't find his number PM me.

 

[Jerry]

Mine are out working at moment.

A home bred Lleyn shearing working for first time.

Another Lleyn. Second year working and sourced direct from Performance Lleyns. He threw great lambs last year and his daughters pretty much all retained.

View attachment 578650

And my fav Charolaise ram. Now into his 4thyear working. Throughs wonderfully shaped lambs that are very easy lambing outside.

 

[Jerry]

Hmmm. Something's gone wrong. Here's the performance Lleyn ram again.

 

[Al R]

Mine are out working at moment.

A home bred Lleyn shearing working for first time.

View attachment 578644

Another Lleyn. Second year working and sourced direct from Performance Lleyns. He threw great lambs last year and his daughters pretty much all retained.

View attachment 578650

And my fav Charolaise ram. Now into his 4thyear working. Throughs wonderfully shaped lambs that are very easy lambing outside.

View attachment 578648

THe charolais just served that ewe I take it? She look sore!

 

[Nithsdale]

But having length with thickness definitely means weight, and in my eyes a chance of obtaining higher weights if that is what is desired

That's how I see it.
So long as you don't use a big rangey twunt which just leaves raw, framey lambs... a longer lamb will handle better (without going over fat) and reach its weight at 40-44kg quicker than a shorter lamb, which stands as tall. It will need a much greater flesh/cove and goes towards being 'out of spec'.

A longer lamb will have a longer/bigger loin, won't it? The most valuable cut of meat...

Length is also associated with growth.
Iv never seen anyone go daft over a short, stumpy wee tup/ewe. But something with length, sparks interest.

 

[neilo]

That's how I see it.
So long as you don't use a big rangey twunt which just leaves raw, framey lambs... a longer lamb will handle better (without going over fat) and reach its weight at 40-44kg quicker than a shorter lamb, which stands as tall. It will need a much greater flesh/cove and goes towards being 'out of spec'.

A longer lamb will have a longer/bigger loin, won't it? The most valuable cut of meat...

Length is also associated with growth.
Iv never seen anyone go daft over a short, stumpy wee tup/ewe. But something with length, sparks interest.

I went to the Beltex sale at Welshpool a couple of weeks ago, there were plenty going daft there.

I would like to see a bit of length, but not at the expense of a hindquarter, as is often the case. Looking at the ebvs will tell you what the growth rate is, rather than second guessing from it's perceived length, or the length of it's ears, etc. It is perfectly possible to get long sheep that grow slowly and shorter sheep that have grown fast.

 

[Castle Farm]

Went out today to buy a Lleyn tup..came back with 3...senior moment.

 

[Al R]

I went to the Beltex sale at Welshpool a couple of weeks ago, there were plenty going daft there.

I would like to see a bit of length, but not at the expense of a hindquarter, as is often the case. Looking at the ebvs will tell you what the growth rate is, rather than second guessing from it's perceived length, or the length of it's ears, etc. It is perfectly possible to get long sheep that grow slowly and shorter sheep that have grown fast.

But the beltex and charmoise are really slow growing and are short and fat arnt they? Yet the nice long charolais fatten as quick as anything.

 

[neilo]

But the beltex and charmoise are really slow growing and are short and fat arnt they? Yet the nice long charolais fatten as quick as anything.

You'll be upsetting the Beltex AND Charmoise contingents in one go. Fair play Sir, I don't think I've managed that. Plenty of long Charollais that won't fatten 'as quick as anything' these days, unfortunately.

I was more refering to within a breed. I'd agree that most longer sheep will generally grow faster than most shorter sheep, within a breed, but not always IME. There is evidence from CT of some lambs having an extra set of chops, but I don't know of anyone that's paying for them. Obviously they are unlikely to be found in short sheep.

 

[Al R]

You'll be upsetting the Beltex AND Charmoise contingents in one go. Fair play Sir, I don't think I've managed that. Plenty of long Charollais that won't fatten 'as quick as anything' these days, unfortunately.

I was more refering to within a breed. I'd agree that most longer sheep will generally grow faster than most shorter sheep, within a breed, but not always IME. There is evidence from CT of some lambs having an extra set of chops, but I don't know of anyone that's paying for them. Obviously they are unlikely to be found in short sheep.

Nothing wrong with the beltex or charmoise, I'm very tempted on using both but I don't want many lambs left post weaning if I'm honest and that's the only thing I've got against them. We've crossed beltex into BFL, texel and Charolais. The Charolais is the best one of the lot, lovely and long like the Charolais, not as tall, perfect rectangular back, a good backend but luckily the Charolais's back leg bones are stronger so they don't walk like John Wayne crossed with Stephen hawking? @neilo insulsts enough?

 

[CopperBeech]

So its that time of year again, rams are in for some and going in soon for many. Our first lot will go in, in a couple of weeks and then there will be bunches not going to the tup right up till December.

Whose putting what to what this year?

We are still working ours out, but have a load of mules going to nz suffolks, a group of 500 lleyns going to lleyn tups, some mules going to char/tex/beltex, possibly some mules going to exlana (hey @Tim W ), lots of exlana going to exlana, one group to the texel and nz suftex and lots of ewe lambs and others going to the charmoise. A southdown and charmoise over the hill ewes. And finally a pure chramoise flock. About 5000 ewes in all I think.

Already looking for a competent lambing shepherd for the first half of next year lol.

 

[Becs]

I'm mostly using Charollais or Texels on my mules but have just bought a smashing Texel x Suffolk ram called Arthur and I'm ditching my old Suffolk. Also bought a Llyen ram-lamb to try on a dozen new Llyen ewes, but if they don't fancy a toy-boy then I'll put one of the Texels in to finish the job.

 

[beltextexel]

135 old texel x ewes to beltex (Jan)
250 pure beltex / texel ewes to a beltex and one texel. (Feb)
350 3/4 beltex ewes back to the beltex. (March)
1000 Chev mule/Tex x to beltex x texel tup (April)
500 Chev mule/texel x/beltex x hoggs to the beltex (April)

Also looking for help at lambing if anyone is interested!

 

[Woolless]

So its that time of year again, rams are in for some and going in soon for many. Our first lot will go in, in a couple of weeks and then there will be bunches not going to the tup right up till December.

Whose putting what to what this year?

We are still working ours out, but have a load of mules going to nz suffolks, a group of 500 lleyns going to lleyn tups, some mules going to char/tex/beltex, possibly some mules going to exlana (hey @Tim W ), lots of exlana going to exlana, one group to the texel and nz suftex and lots of ewe lambs and others going to the charmoise. A southdown and charmoise over the hill ewes. And finally a pure chramoise flock. About 5000 ewes in all I think.

Already looking for a competent lambing shepherd for the first half of next year lol.

Did you come to any conclusions after your multi-breed tup trial over the hoggs?

 

[jemski]

Went out today to buy a Lleyn tup..came back with 3...senior moment.

Glad it's not just me...

I went to pick out one Charolais ram in May (was picking up fencing because I've summered some of his commercial ewes here and thought I'd get in early) and ended up picking out 2 char x primera rams. Picked them up last week, and also came home with a texel!

 

[farmer james]

Due to start lambing mid December
120 Suffolk ewes pure
80 Suffolk ewes to highlander
150 suff x ewes to a Suffolk
70 Suffolk & Suffolk cross ewe lambs to highlander.
FJ

 

[Nithsdale]

115 TexX and 'draft' Lleyns going to the 2 Suffolks. I'm not using a 'teaser' this year... but they are going in with the ewes this coming week so will tease the ewes themselves

240 Lleyns (and 2 pure Texels) go to Texels. They'll go out to the ewes around 15th October.

250 Lleyns to Lleyn and NCC. They will go around 20-25th October.

150 ewe hoggs running dry.

 

[Sheep92]

No rams going out til 25th of october here
200 draft horned ewes going to ncc
900 nc cheviot/mule/belclare/easycares going to easycares
300 lower end sheep going to texels
300 ewe lambs going to easycares

Like many on here we are also turning to the dark side, bought ten new easycare tips this year

 

[will6910]

Just wondering how many of u use raddle paint on Rams or harnesses ?

 

[MJT]

September 18th
220 Aberdales to texel and texel x beltex tups
70 Cheviot ewes to Aberdale Rams
20 Cheviot ewes to cheviot ram
45 beltex ewes to beltex ram.
10 Texel ewes to texel ram.

November 1st

650 Aberdale ewes to texel
210 cheviot ewes to Aberdale
200 Aberdale ewe lambs to Beltex
35 Cheviot ewe lambs to Cheviot.