The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Ladygrey on March 17, 2015, 08:30:57 pm
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Hi there :wave:
I thought I would share some photos of the ewes and lambs we have had so far, just incase some people would like to know more about (or are just interested in seeing) the lesser known terminal sire breed called the Charmoise
Have had 12 ewes lamb since saturday so still slow going but I think we are speeding up now as we had 4 lamb today, things mostly going ok with us only seeing two lamb and the rest just popping out when we blink, had a mule ewe lamb slip her lamb last week
Pedigree Charmoise ewe lamb, lambed for the first time this morning on her first birthday! very good mum so far and loving her lamb, very nice chunky ram lamb, by a home bred ram lamb
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/Duckberry/charmoiseewelambandlamb_zpsz2eacnve.jpg)
Lovely pedigree ewe lamb to a first time shearling, 20 mins old here with a full belly, mum lay down and pushed and I watched the lamb wriggle around with sack still on and find the udder before mum got up!
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/Duckberry/charmoiseshearlingand20lamb_zpsoslukbh0.jpg)
A Charmoise lamb out of a texel/mule ewe, this is one of triplets, they all weighed between 5-5.2 kilo! so one huge weight the ewe was carrying
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/Duckberry/charmoisetriplet_zpsuixmdynr.jpg)
8 week old Charmoise ewe lamb
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/Duckberry/11028366_964470696911016_6224283416297225476_n_zpsd1w6yvvw.jpg)
Hour old lamb with her mum
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/Duckberry/11062101_967288703295882_2603418487424976524_n_zpsukwaeqla.jpg)
The ewes are being kept in the polytunnel for 24 hours and then going out in the fields, only problem with that is I cant get very good photos of them outside..... oh well!
Hope you like them :wave:
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Loving the pics. The more the better! I'm still anxiously waiting for my first! and starting to feel like I am never going to see one!
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Great pics! Those Charmoise are pretty little things. I'm still anxiously waiting for our first ones too.
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Super pics! Thank you
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Thanks everyone, its not usual for people to call the Charmoise pretty either :eyelashes:
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They are beautiful ! The lambs are well bonnie :thumbsup:
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Grand lambs and mums! Thanks for the lovely pics :)
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Thanks everyone, its not usual for people to call the Charmoise pretty either :eyelashes:
Nah, not the bonniest but prettier than a Beltex :stir:
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Great photos. Interesting to see you use a poly tunnel. We have just put one up -first lambs due next week :excited:
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Thanks everyone, its not usual for people to call the Charmoise pretty either :eyelashes:
Nah, not the bonniest but prettier than a Beltex :stir:
Haha yes at least they are prettier than a beltex, or even a texel for that matter :-J
sort of like a mix between a charollais and a beltex I spose...
Had more lamb over night and this morning so now only got 40 to go :)
Will take some more photos today
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Great photos. Interesting to see you use a poly tunnel. We have just put one up -first lambs due next week :excited:
We would normally lamb outside, however we lost our lambing ground so it was either sell the sheep or find an alternative, we managed to get hold of this polytunnel which could take 60 ewes inside, so we picked 20 something ewes to sell and sold off some ewe lambs and then moved the rest into the polytunnel a week before lambing
Some of them are fairly wild being indoors for the first time in their lives but I have only been knocked over and trampled on once so far :thumbsup:
They are staying inside for 24 hours ish and then being turfed out, they are much happier outside but we are very very happy with the polytunnel so far! soo much more labour than outdoors though :-\
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Thanks everyone, its not usual for people to call the Charmoise pretty either :eyelashes:
Nah, not the bonniest but prettier than a Beltex :stir:
And handsome is as handsome does :thumbsup:
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managed to catch a ewe lambing her second twin!
was beginning to think charmoise lambs just morphed out of the body somehow ::)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNiK9E3d7LU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNiK9E3d7LU)
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sort of like a mix between a charollais and a beltex I spose...
This is Charlie2. Dad was a Charollais, maternal Grandpa a Beltex.
In the second shot she has her Texel x lamb with her.
Her first lamb was Cap'n (Shetland x), who was so stylish and had such a lovely fleece I used him on my fleece sheep (and some of the commercial shearlings too) last year.
In another thread we are of the opinion that Cap'n was the George Clooney of the sheep world ;)
Final shot is Cat at 11 months. She's Cap'n's daughter out of a Dutch Texel x.
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Nice photos! :thumbsup:
A small narrow head, fine bones and a chunky body :thumbsup: looks very good, some good breeds in those mixes, do you get much variation within the lambs when using the crossbred tups?
One day you should have a look at a charmoise tup if you need a tup replacement (if one ever ventures up to where you are)
This is a lovely one owned by Tom (ME on the forum) taken off the charmoise sheep breeders page (I hope you dont mind Tom ::) ) he is nicer than my ones, although it would help if I could get that close to mine ::)
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/Duckberry/10897942_10152609581653616_6353376497447790322_n_zpsbuwhu3qd.jpg)
We are having some very lovely lambs out of both the charollais and the charmoise tups, there isnt much of a difference in the birth weights, the charmoise lambs are a little chunkier in shape, the charollais lambs are a little heavier boned, having a few too many triplets though....
I will get some photos of them in the fields in a bit
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Great pictures,
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They do look interesting and I'd love to have a try with one - we'd need to see some being sold up here somewhere, though. And bred in a TB4 or free region too.
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They do look interesting and I'd love to have a try with one - we'd need to see some being sold up here somewhere, though. And bred in a TB4 or free region too.
Yes that is very true, there may not be any that far up north, they tend to mostly enjoy the welsh habitat, must be true love :love: :roflanim:
fortunately they sell wherever texel or beltex lambs sell as they just look like chunky white lambs when finished
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We sell the majority of ours deadweight, which has many benefits. Not least that we get back the sheet showing us the weights and conformation of each lamb, so we can (and do, with a new tup or new breeding combination) relate the results back to the tup.
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We too sell deadweight, we find it much easier and even used to sell our culls deadweight due to being 20 mins away from turners
We have only recently sold live and have liked it, however the better conformation lambs such as charmoise would sell better deadweight as they kill out much heavier than they look in the live ring
We sold some stores and culls live last month and did very well, we are going to take a trailer load of culls/empties up to market in the next week or two to take advantage of the really good cull trade at the moment.
All our empty welsh mule ewe lambs (weighing 60 kgs) some empty charmoise ewes, some fat hoggets and a tup will be going, should do well with them, specially the larger charmoise ewes
We are 20 mins from turners and an hour from the live market though, so turners is always good for lamb that may not do as well when going live, so short and squat ones etc
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Some more photos of some sheep taken this morning
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/Duckberry/074_zpsifmqf3sk.jpg)
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/Duckberry/117_zpsgoxtyxbq.jpg)
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/Duckberry/186_zpsmptafsha.jpg)
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/Duckberry/120_zpsb3aos78m.jpg)
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Fantastic Great pics ,Thanks for spending the time to post
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Thankyou very much :)
I would like to take credit but im afraid its all the camera and my new lense's doing :innocent: