The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Porterlauren on May 29, 2015, 12:46:09 am
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Rams came back for shearing today so thought i'd stick some photos up. Also a photo os a three and a bit week old charmoise x ram lamb with its Easy Care hogg mum. Both rams, ewes and lambs have had no feed or other fuss since being here, rarely handled, and the lamb was born outside unassisted.
(http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/n623/Ideation123/Ideation123051/IMG_3770_zpsie1ti4vx.jpg) (http://s1143.photobucket.com/user/Ideation123/media/Ideation123051/IMG_3770_zpsie1ti4vx.jpg.html)
(http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/n623/Ideation123/Ideation123051/IMG_3771_zpspv9sdekr.jpg) (http://s1143.photobucket.com/user/Ideation123/media/Ideation123051/IMG_3771_zpspv9sdekr.jpg.html)
(http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/n623/Ideation123/Ideation123052/IMG_3773_zps5vc6vepj.jpg) (http://s1143.photobucket.com/user/Ideation123/media/Ideation123052/IMG_3773_zps5vc6vepj.jpg.html)
(http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/n623/Ideation123/Ideation123052/IMG_3778_zpsws0zrqw6.jpg) (http://s1143.photobucket.com/user/Ideation123/media/Ideation123052/IMG_3778_zpsws0zrqw6.jpg.html)
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Loving the charmoise, been thinking about them all year...
Your rams are fab PL x
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Lovely pics!
They look huge!! How much would one of those tups weigh?
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Thanks guys! I'm not sure of their weight, I've never weighed them. But they are fairly small sheep, they look big in those photos, but they are a small, hardy, wedge shaped sheep. Ideal for first time lambers and I would have thought primitives. I'm really surprised more folk don't use them on hebs etc.
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They certainly go well on Welsh ewes
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Im seriously thinking about one on my Hebs this autumn - I've looked into sourcing a ram but havnt really had chance to follow up -
Im based near wetherby In yorkshire.
My main concerns are keeping the ram - For some reason my heb rams team up on anything male without horns and plulp it, myself included, So would need a new paddock / pen.
Also looked at meaty LLeyn's for the same lambing ease but still undecided.
Would love someone within an hours travel of me so I can have a feel of them to see if they are what Id like.
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Over the years we've sold a number of Southdown rams to large commercial flocks that have tried various Continental terminal sires - Rouge, Charollais, Charmoise, Bleu - and got fed up with the lambs' inability to cope with English weather. Most have now returned to UK breeds, particularly the non-show type Suffolk.
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So who did you sell the Southdown to where the Charmoise couldn't cope MF? I would be interested to talk to them about it.
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The above photo taken at 1000 feet kindly uploaded by a repeat customer of mine to the Charmoise Sheep Breeders Facebook page:
"Another unassisted Charmoise lamb out of Welsh ewe lamb! ?#?easylambing"
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Here is where PL's tups and the father of the crossbred lamb in the photo were reared with no supplementary feeding. Maybe Herefordshire is rougher than I remember!
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MF - I'm in no way breed loyal or breed blind. But I really struggle to believe that a good charmoise tup would produce a lamb that would struggle to cope with the elements, whilst one from an English Suffolk thrived. . . . As for using a Southdown to produce commercial lambs. . . . . i'm not convinced lol :innocent:
To be fair i've found the charmoise x lambs incredibly hardy, and I lamb them outside, and they dont get any kind of special treatment, they either live or die, and if many of them died, those tups would now be kebabs.