[Coximus]

I know its late - I have a few ewes that have not been tupped yet - I know its VERY late - but I want to try a Charolais / Texel etc on them to compare to suffolk lambs.

I Keep Hebs;

Im based north of Leeds.

Happy to collect / borrow - the young man would only be serving 4-5 Girls as an experiment to compare which lambs do best at market - The girls are still in season and i hope so for another 2-3 weeks!

[babysham]

I bought a Suffolk Tup lamb and he has covered my 10 girls and will sell him as a store next year. I am loath to borrow a tup as if anything happens such as it gets Orf or Blow Fly when its returned - even months later some people can be very funny even if its obviously not from your land. If something does happen while on your land you are responsible and will feel terrible. I paid £60 for my chap.

[Coximus]

True - I may be interested in your suffolk this coming year - I do like their ears - Your right on borrowing, probabbly better to own then you can also at least sell on!

[landroverroy]

You might be better with a Suffolk this late in the season for the rapid growth rate of the resultant lambs. You're also likely to have less lambing problems wwith a Suffolk than you would with a Texel. Bearing in mind that any sheep tupped now will be lambing late May/June. At that time of year the spring grass is at its most nutritious  and should be available ad lib.  Your ewes will therefore be on the equivalent of ad lib concentrates in the final weeks of their pregnancy and so you will get big lambs. I would be very wary of using a Texel for that reason.
 

[Ladygrey]

True - I may be interested in your suffolk this coming year - I do like their ears -

Thats a good way of tup selection right there....

[Coximus]

haha so true - if not the worst way imaginable!

To be honest I Intend to try about 6-7 different crosses on my Hebrideans over the next 2-3 years - Im looking for which produce the best lambs for market - but also the ones that do the best on my ground, off grass with no extra feeding (bar selenium licks as my land is vvvvv deficient in this). and therefore most profitable.

I know some people have success with texels, but other people have nothing but nightmares....... its down to your ground, local weather and how it works with the combination; so I intend to try;

Suffolk,
Charolais;
Texel
Beltex
Lleyn
Easycare

And perhaps Charmoise if I find one.

[Ladygrey]

Good idea there,

If only you were closer, I have some charmoise rams plus a charolais ram if you wanted,
pity rams cant be posted 

[Coximus]

I may consider it as I have family in Essex so do travel that way every so often - The nice thing is the Rams can be sold on afterwards and I have the space to keep 6-7 rams in a seperate field I rent so as I normally have 2-3 rams of diff bloodlines anyway why not make them diff breeds and see what works?

This year coming its going to be Suff and texel lambs so far.

[MarvinH]

Why dont you just go to your local market / slaughter house  see / ask what sells - theres your answer.

[Coximus]

I did - And as I keep hebrideans the honest answer was any comerical sire x on to them - but as the local abatoirs dont wanna know about rare breeds (No market in their words) im stuck in the ring.... and the local mart said basically - if they look like a normal comercial lamb, put em in and they should sell OK... but if they look too rare-breed like, they MAY not do very well....

[MarvinH]

If you looking for a more comercial lamb that sells you need to drop your hebs.

[landroverroy]

You'll get a decent enough lamb from a Heb put to a meat ram - should get to to 36kg (but not much more) and that'll sell in market.
But as to which ram produces the best lamb will be very difficult to prove as you cannot exactly reproduce identical conditions from year to year and between different ewes. You'll probably end up with the ram that you like the best for a completely different reason, such as the nicest temporament or (as you said before!) the floppiest ears.

[Coximus]

True JS - IF I was making my main living from sheep I would go back to Mules - Ive had them in the past, and they throw texel x's that you can finish from 40-50kg depending on when you stick barley / fodder beets on them.... They sell well straight to the abattoir and get good grades so good prices.....

All I want is for my sheep to pay for the fencing on the 15 acres they're on.... and to pay for their extra feed if needed, vet costs and transport and Rent.... Breakeven is the aim.

That means a compromise - getting the best lamb possible out of the breed I most want to keep.... Ideally Id breed pure and sell heb lambs - but to quote one auctioneer "Id rather if you didn’t, you’ll only be disappointed with the price".

Also looking through months and months of auction reports - and speaking to people on here with experience of comercial x primitive breeds, It does look like about 2/3 of the x's produced grade nicely, although are as you say quite light usually 36-40kg. Given that my local auction mart serves part of the yorkshire dales, their are alot of very light finished pure Hill lambs , eg lonk, swaledale, misc horned mixes etc, all which sell - often lighter and poorer finished than what Im hoping to produce, so my main issue is back to selling the unknown really.

[Big Benny Shep]

I've a pure Texel shearing Tup that hasn't worked yet this year if your interested?  I'd use him but he's related, was too good to sent so kept him on.
Near Skipton, bd23

[Big Benny Shep]

Also have 2 pure Texel lambs