The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Remy on March 14, 2013, 09:04:32 am
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I've previously bred my Ryeland ram to my Charollais and crosses, and last year experimented crossing my Zwartbles with a Charollais. I also crossed a Gotland with a Herdwick, and am impatiently waiting to see what comes out! I'll post pics when they arrive. Anyone tried 'different' crosses?
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I have bred Ryeland ewe with Charollais ram and had some lovely looking lambs from this cross. This year I fancied a change form the Charollais and have gone for Hampshire Down ram for all my girls, which include Ryeland, Charollais and Suffolk (and their crosses!). Very pleased with the twin lambs produced so far from this cross.
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Where to start!
shet blue face
shet suffolk
shet tex
shet char
shet ryeland
shet hamp down
suffolk shet
castlemilk tex
castmilk reyland
castmilk shet
shet chev
chev castmilk
shet beltex
shetryeland tex
and so on! the castlemilk as a sire gave the most interesting and some of the most productive ewe replacement.
keep crossin
dominic
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I've previously bred my Ryeland ram to my Charollais and crosses, and last year experimented crossing my Zwartbles with a Charollais. I also crossed a Gotland with a Herdwick, and am impatiently waiting to see what comes out! I'll post pics when they arrive. Anyone tried 'different' crosses?
What were the Zwartbles/Charollais like?
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I used a Ryland ram on Scottish mules, lambs were huge.
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What were the Zwartbles/Charollais like?
Still waiting the ewe to lamb!
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I'm planning to do shet/cheviot next year but staying pure this year and loooking forward to lots of multicoloured Shetland babies come end of April !!!
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What were the Zwartbles/Charollais like?
Still waiting the ewe to lamb!
Will you post pictures when they do? I'd love to see
Anyone crossed southdown/GFD?
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Use one of my Southdown tups on my Badger Face every other year for commercial-type lambs, then breed the BFs pure the next for replacements. X lambs are up and suckling within 10 minutes, have long, curly fleece and no markings other than a slight mottling on their nose, and woolly legs down to the hocks. Never had one with the slightest problem, all survived through to weaning. Tried a SD on Lleyns one year when I had 20 of them. Disaster - some scanned with quads but none raised more than twins, Lleyns were very nervous mothers, all sorts of problems. Sold all the Lleyns the following year.
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we have 3 portland x commerical type ewes(not sure of the breed The captain my tell us lol) they lovely looking sheep.
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Use one of my Southdown tups on my Badger Face every other year for commercial-type lambs, then breed the BFs pure the next for replacements. X lambs are up and suckling within 10 minutes, have long, curly fleece and no markings other than a slight mottling on their nose, and woolly legs down to the hocks. Never had one with the slightest problem, all survived through to weaning. Tried a SD on Lleyns one year when I had 20 of them. Disaster - some scanned with quads but none raised more than twins, Lleyns were very nervous mothers, all sorts of problems. Sold all the Lleyns the following year.
I'm genuinely surprised by that, for the very little I know would have thought SD/Lleyn would have been a dream combination.
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The thought of any breed such as the Lleyn ewe that is by nature so prolific would immediately put me off as I would just hate to deal with all those quads and triplets! I don't mind the odd triplet birth very occasionally, but give me a set of good strong healthy twins or a smashing single any day.
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I put wilts Horns to lleyns and have various composites. I don't have that many heavy multiples because I don't flush them. I've never met a lleyn who had poor mothering skills - from what I hear though there are two 'types' out there some more texel-y than lleyn-y. I expect lleyns to rear trips and they do.
Wilts horns are born very wooly and the crosses survive really well with such a thick coat.
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Awaiting Beulah tup x Lleyn and Mule ;D ;D and :fc: :fc: 9 pure Beulah. Funnily enough its the Mule (she is Lleyn x Leicester blue face I think) x Beulah I cant wait to see. Good luck to all :fc: :fc:
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I love blue face Leicesters. :-* I think the Leicesters are a very noble looking breed of sheep and a lovely size. Can't wait to see some pics of that combination FiB.
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I love blue face Leicesters. :-* I think the Leicesters are a very noble looking breed of sheep and a lovely size. Can't wait to see some pics of that combination FiB.
Until they are standing with 4 feet pointing skywards....
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Until they are standing with 4 feet pointing skywards....
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I imagine that is true for most breeds of sheep - except obviously Wiltshires :-J
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I think we should start a gallery of crosses - I am alwasy wanting to know what do you get if you cross a ______ with a ______ (in chickens too). Interested in how they look, fleece, and how they grow (meat!!). But initially how they look!!! Countdown.
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Ja, Zarzar has my three little ewe lambs that were Portland sired x Texel X mule (I believe). The ewe lambs, I believe, are bonkers. The lad we've kept on from last year is a big old boy and we've got another one this year but he's only a single. Unfortunately my other one was the one who had the twins with schmallenberg. Still gutted really.
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Until they are standing with 4 feet pointing skywards....
I imagine that is true for most breeds of sheep - except obviously Wiltshires :-J
That is true but BFLs have a special reputation for dying. ;D
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Not that interesting but I,ve crossed my Shetlands with Beltex Lleyn and Texel the Beltex gave the best meat carcase and even lot of lambs, the Lleyn the best breeding ewes good shape and good size
did not like the Texel at all very uneven bunch of lambs. Like the look of Shetland X Ryeland but Ryelands are not for me
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We've put a Gotland tup across three Shetland Moorits. Expecting two twins and one single. He also serviced three other Shetland guest ladies. Very eagerly awaiting results :excited:
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Most off my ewes are zwarble X texel or zwarble X charloias (I like black sheep) and they get out to my welsh ram I can't watch them all lamb 99.9% lamb on there own cause off the small sire but lambs grow like stink cause of mums breed
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Makes my lot seem quite boring. I have 2 southdown x wilts which I out to Suffolk. Ugly lambs but good meat! Put them with pure Southdown which was even uglier.
Others are mules or suffolks x with pure Suffolk. Put my Wilts to the Suffolk and that has produced a cracking big lamb.
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Use one of my Southdown tups on my Badger Face every other year for commercial-type lambs, then breed the BFs pure the next for replacements. X lambs are up and suckling within 10 minutes, have long, curly fleece and no markings other than a slight mottling on their nose, and woolly legs down to the hocks. Never had one with the slightest problem, all survived through to weaning. Tried a SD on Lleyns one year when I had 20 of them. Disaster - some scanned with quads but none raised more than twins, Lleyns were very nervous mothers, all sorts of problems. Sold all the Lleyns the following year.
I'm genuinely surprised by that, for the very little I know would have thought SD/Lleyn would have been a dream combination.
I did too. The problems seemed to stem solely from the Lleyns - one was, according to the vet, in perfect condition, but had a very bad prolapse, got stitched up, water bag appeared later the same day, had a Caesarean then jumped out of the 4 ft high pen as the vet turned to go, she was so stressed out. Looked fine then died 6 hours later. Vet thought she'd probably bled out internally due to jump. Really don't need those kind of (very expensive) problems. Lambs were bottle reared until I could foster them on and did OK but no better than the BF X SD.
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Charollais x Badger Face.
The ewe in the photo is out of a Badger ewe and by a Charolllais ram, put back to a Badger ram for 3/4 Badger lambs. Each year she produces triplets, apart from last year when she produced twins (but we had SBV here), she always raises the triplets unaided. Ewes get a handful of cake each day in the six weeks before lambing, all lambs are raised and finished on grass alone. We get a mix of badger markings and 'plain' lambs. This ewe is now eight and due to lamb early April.
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I can't be doing with anything too flighty and stupid and get rid of them, replacing them with a ewe lamb from one of my own quiet, docile and biddable ewes that are excellent mothers and that lamb easily. Having had a ewe some years ago that started lambing in the field and ended up running straight through a hedge with only the lambs head out, I too, can do without additional stress like that at lambing time. We did manage to grab hold of her in the ditch the other side of the hedge and miraculously the lamb was fine when we got him out, but what a palaver! All my girls now are super friendly and easy to manage - makes life so much simpler.
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One of my two lambed tea-tim yesterday...its still VERY cold so heat lamp is in the barn with them. Mum doesnt seem to like the second lamb so much so assisting with the odd feed + extra milk. 24 hours old now, still only -4 with forcast -15 or so tonight. Roll on spring.
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Haven't tried it myself but would a ouessant cross be a croissant :roflanim:
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Dunno...I have had a Ouessant x Cameroon hair sheep!!!! Got ewe in lamb...previous owners had no idea she was in lamb....apparently ram escaped from the monkey enclosure!!!
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We've put a Gotland tup across three Shetland Moorits. Expecting two twins and one single. He also serviced three other Shetland guest ladies. Very eagerly awaiting results :excited:
Can promise you you will be delighted with the results :love: :love: :love:
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Is this cross you were telling me about colliewoman ? If so would love to see them at some point.
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Zwartble x Wensleydale and Zwartble x Badgerface the wensleydale results will be intresting :)
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I'll post pics in due course I promise. I haven't a clue what they're going to be like. Already have (accidental-Mum Betsy visited a sexy neighbouring ram) GotlandxTeeswater and they are lovely. Bigger than the pure Gotland and quieter in nature but still very friendly. Here's Cotton - 50%Gotland/50% Teeswater and with her lambs last year - 75%Gotland/25% Teeswater. It's a very happy accident as far as we're concerned ;D
BTW the CharollaisxBadgerface are lovely :-*
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Is this cross you were telling me about colliewoman ? If so would love to see them at some point.
I'll try and dig out pic of my original flock so you can see. I am putting a Gotland tup to my Shetlands this year :fc:
Feel free to come see any time you like, you can visit the goats too :thumbsup:
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Well I'm still waiting for most of my ewes to lamb! They seem to be hanging onto them . I have had twins from one Zwartbles first-timer, they are purebred lambs - one boy and one girl half her brother's size, but both healthy. It's now peeing down non-stop and my fields are like lakes again ::) ::) I just need a dry spell!
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Hello,
We've just had some Border Leicester\Balwen crosses (pure white) and Jacob\Border Leicester crosses (sort of speckeldy dalmations). Border Leicester ram. Really lovely vigorous lambs with the Border Leicester rabbit ears! The balwen crosses are nearly twice as big as the pure Balwen (don't have any pure Jacobs to compare). Just waiting for some GFD/Border Leicester crosses now...
:sheep:
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A few pics for those interested -
Gotland x Herdwick, I think they are really cute! Hope they aren't as nutty as their mum though ::)
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y184/greydales/P1150033_zps9676c0c5.jpg)
This is a Zwartbles x Charollais, I have added a pic of purebred Zwartbles so you can compare. They are very leggy like the purebreds, the only difference I can see is slightly bigger ears!
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y184/greydales/P1140940_zps8d2e9f8b.jpg)
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y184/greydales/P1140952_zps3808ce2c.jpg)
These are Zwartbles x Welsh Mule, not very clear but again a similar size as the Charollais x. They have bits of white on their heads whereas the Ch x are jet black. Will be very interesting to see how they grow as lambs.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y184/greydales/P1150044_zps4393a776.jpg)
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All the cross lambs are gorgeous! I had a surprise a Jacob ewe with a pair of black lambs the other day I funnily enough they have a strange resemblance to Hamish my Soay tup.He's always up to mischief, again last year he got 3 pedigree texels pregnant 3 lovely ewe lambs. I wish people would shut gates :innocent:
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The Zwartble x Charollais are nice looking (we had a Charollais ram where I used to work and the lambs certainly weren't lookers) I'd be really interested to know how they grow and how you do for meat from them (if that's what they'll go for). The Gotland x Herdwick are really cute. Thanks for posting up the pictures.
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I bet the Charly x Zwartbles fleeces will be lovely for handspinning too :knit:
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Pic of my first GotlandxShetland with her mum, Heather. Bigger than a Gotland, much chunkier and wool more fluffy. Heather's legs are too short for her to get under to suckle so she lifts a back leg to expose a teat. Haven't seen THAT before ;D
Whoops! I forgot to attach the photo before. Here it is...