The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Azzdodd on June 30, 2015, 01:07:17 pm
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I've been offered some full mouth an a couple off broken mouth ewes for a decent price. Just wondering people's views on them? They will be put with a texel tup for ewe replacements an fat lambs heard a lot of stories about multiple births they will all be lambing outside at the beginning off April
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If multiples are a problem don't flush them. I think Lleyn are a good ewe
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Love our lleyns. :love:
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Lovely sheep but yes, too many triplets - and worse! :o
Don't flush before tupping but take good care of them once the tup is out ;)
On good ground everyone says they can do three lambs on grass alone - but I'm guessing your ground and climate are more like ours, and anything needs help doing three lambs on our ground.
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Never had many problems with the Lleyn, I have gone for pedigrees, superb animals they're. My sheep have always lambed well and I have never had to flush em, you generally only get doubles and singles, it depends what stock they're from, whether they have a habit of giving triplets. I only have 2-3 ewes, which give triplets, in a year ( sometimes not even that). The meat is good and the ewes are very milky. I had a ewe lamb, lamb a single and she had enough milk for at least 2, possibly even 3. If you don't mind me asking..... are they pedigree and registered or not?
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Only got the 1 the rest are Poll Dorset and for the last 3 years triplets every time and she doesn't need any help and the lambs grow just like twins as she is very milky! Great maternal instinct as well!!!
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We love our lleyns! Lovely natured, good mums, mostly ours have twins and raise them no bother. 3 sets of triplets last year from 22 ewes.
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You guys are making me think maybe we should get some more next time we're buying in replacements... :thinking: Bet all ours would have triplets ::)
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Choose the strain with care. We had 20 from a top flock that mostly scanned with triplets and quads but none ever managed to raise more than twins and they were as flighty as could be - mostly only saw their tails disappearing into the distance when we went in the field. Sold them with lambs at foot in the second year and were so glad to see the last of them. Worst was one (in perfect condition for lambing) that had football size prolapse, vet carried out a Caesarean, she refused the lambs then jumped out of the pen as the vet left then bled out internally six hours later.
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We bought 10 as gimmer lambs 3 yrs ago, 2 got mastitis last year and had to go, one dropped dead for no apparent reason, so down to 7. We have had no more than triplets, and once they lamb they are good mothers and very milky. We had one who had lost a lamb and when one of the pets wandered into her pen she immediately claimed it as her own! Most people, we have learnt, around here will lamb them indoors despite them being hardy. We can't get near them they are so flighty so if they are having difficulty we can't help! Must admit my usual term for them is " bloody welsh things!" (sorry no offence meant!).
We will always keep a few lleyn ewes though as what we have had great success with is using a Lleyn tup on our Texel shearings. The lleyn lambs pop out easy being torpedo shaped and is much easier on the shearings. In their second year they then go to a Texel tup. So we will always keep a few Lleyn ewes so that we have replacement pure lleyn tups. THe Lleyn lambs jump up immediately they hit the floor and quickly search out the teat - great for first time Mums who are wondering what the hell's going on.
The Lleyn ewes to a Texel tup produce nice lambs, and a lleyn x texel ewe back to a texel are even better.
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Got told off last time I talked all goofy about our lleyns ahem, hehe, so all I shall say is they are intelligent, easy to train, ours are bucket led, great mums.
What ever breed yo decide on if you ve not had sheep before get some that have lambed down before, first timers can be a pain in the ass lol :wave:
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Sorry just re read older ewes, good stuff.
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Just like ANY breed. . . . . good lleyns are good sheep and bad lleyns are bad sheep.
There is a lot of variation within ANY breed, but probably more so amongst very popular sheep such as lleyns.
If they have got as far as being full mouthed on a system thats similar to yours, then they should do the trick.
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I had lleyns and used a texel tup, lots of triplets but I never left three lambs with them once the lambs had colostrum I reared them on bottles. Lots of the ewes had extra teats that were open but had bad experience leaving triplets on so decided I wouldn't . also had one miserable ewe that had 5 lambs and tried to sit on them all !! She also had a chewed teat that had sealed from rearing lambs prior to us having her so she reared 1 lamb and I had the pleasure of the others. Lambed fairly easily and most good mum's. ????
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We have girls going this year that are at least 9 years old.
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Thanks for all the replies I'm gonna take them an give them a shot! They come from a friend of a friend who is pretty good regards culling if there problems so to live to 4/5 must be decent ewes :-)
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Yep they sound good. Hope all goes well :)