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Author Topic: Primitive x ?  (Read 2569 times)

heyhay1984

  • Joined Jun 2014
Primitive x ?
« on: October 23, 2016, 03:03:03 pm »
Long story short, I have ended up with a lovely but unregistered (and unregisterable) North Ronaldsay type ram lamb, in with a bunch of registered ewes.

What could I put him with, if anything, to make a reasonable cross that would produce a few lambs finished by next Autumn, so that he earns his keep? I've seen Ronnie x texel lambs as babies and they seem nice but I've not seen the finished article.

Ideally I'd want to be lambing late March/ early April, outdoors if possible but indoors space available, to produce something to finish on grass without needing to be overwintered. Am I asking the impossible- if so it's not a problem but seeing as he's here I thought it might be worth considering.


Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Primitive x ?
« Reply #1 on: October 23, 2016, 03:51:46 pm »
The cross is usually done the other way round, so the Ronnie is the dam, with a larger commercial type tup (as long as it's not her first lambing).  Using the tup lamb on a larger sized ewe would probably give you the worst of both.  I would pop him in the freezer at 16 months, or even 28 for some really flavoursome hogget.
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

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landroverroy

  • Joined Oct 2010
Re: Primitive x ?
« Reply #2 on: October 23, 2016, 07:53:01 pm »
 Best way for him to earn his keep is to eat him and get a better meat type ram so that you get decent lambs.
 This may sound harsh, but basically it appears that the only reason you want to keep him is that you like him. But don't you think you will get attached even more to the lambs that you breed yourself? So if you're happy to have pretty little lambs killed then it can't be too difficult for you to get rid of a pleasant but basically low value ram and replace him with something worth using on your ewes.
Rules are made:
  for the guidance of wise men
  and the obedience of fools.

heyhay1984

  • Joined Jun 2014
Re: Primitive x ?
« Reply #3 on: October 23, 2016, 08:00:46 pm »
Thanks Fleecewife,  I had suspected that might be the case (otherwise other people would be doing it too, I guess!)

Might still get him a couple of primitive-style girlfriends for hoggett, the registered ewes are on their 'rest' year before I buy a purebred registered tup for next year, so the little fella's just in with the ponies and at the moment.

Landroverroy- I know what you mean about low-value! He just came as part of the bunch and he is a cutie but, you're right, he isn't going to be a long-term member of the team. But I can't eat him til this time next year so seemed sensible to make use of him in the meantime.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Primitive x ?
« Reply #4 on: October 23, 2016, 09:15:37 pm »
Some people use a Shetland tup on Beltex hoggs to give them an easy first lambing, and active lambs that know what to do.  So the only thing I can think of us to get some Beltex gimmer lambs, tup them, and sell them as proven breeders next summer. But personally, I wouldn't recommend it.

Otherwise you might be very lucky and find someone with a non-purebred fleece flock still looking for an interesting tup lamb to use on a few girls, but most of us have already got our tups for this year.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

ThomasR

  • Joined Jun 2014
  • Peebles
Re: Primitive x ?
« Reply #5 on: October 27, 2016, 02:30:08 pm »
Hi
no expert here but I used a hebridean tup on 2 comercial texel x ewes two years in a row and this provided me with great lambs that quickly got to the size of their mothers which were bigger than the tup by quite a bit. However I did leave them to 18months and just sent them to slaughter on wednesday so will let you know at what they kill out

 

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