Wiltshire Horn x Shetland

Khale

Member
Hi all,

Ive got a small flock of sheep and have a number of Shetland ewes in lamb to a wilts tup. I purchased 7 cheap shetland ewes late summer and have already singled out 3 ewes that havent gone lame and have a calmer temperment (which being a shetland is still not exactly docile!). Im planning on keeping ewe lambs back from these ewes, if they prove to be good mums in the hope of starting my own shedding lines, with the future idea being that the resultant offspring are bred with an exlana tup to breed sheddind ewes.

It'll be more of a hobby for me at the time being, ive only left school last year so it'll be and experiment id love to see how it turns out! Just wondering what you guys think of the idea and if you have any advice or experiences they'd be muchly appreciated.

Cheers
 
There would be worse bases to start a flock from. I have toyed with the idea of introducing a little Shetland blood to my Easycares as them and their crosses seem very efficient but at the moment I think my ewes could stand being a little bigger.
 

Khale

Member
Yeah the shetlands have always been of interest to me and their efficiency was one of the reasons i thought i'd give them a go, as well as the fact some of them do shed their wool, even though not 100%

The only negative point of them is their size, the 3 I've chosen are by far the biggest of the group, however 7 isn't a big enough sample size so i'm sure there's bigger out there especially the white colour strain.

By crossing with the wilts hopefully that'll bring the size up, so when they're crossed with an Exlana the resultant lambs should be a little on the larger side. But probably not as big as most Easycare type ewes.

However, if they could throw decent sized lambs to a terminal and whilst not being the biggest ewe couldn't that be seen as a positive, because with the efficiency of the shetland blood when it comes to rearing a bigger lamb than herself it could mean you could still get good sized lambs but with the ewe eating less, and consequently producing a bigger lamb on a low food intake making her a 'profitable' maternal ewe?
 

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