BELCLARE EWES

farmers101

hi people.

I have Belcare Hoggets, Breed From cheviot X Texel Ewe.

Was wondering what ram 2 put with these hoggets?
What do u think of belclare ewes?

DMAXMAN

for what its worth I would put a charrollais on them. if you thought that the lambs might come a bit speckled you could put them to a Suffolk and the ewe lambs might sell well.ch would be for fat lamb

farmers101

Thanks,
Are the Charolais lambs very poor and shook when there born?
I will be just be feeding them 4 factory!!
Would there be much hassle with bel late ewes eg, lambing to ch ram?, Milk?
Are they a prolific breed?

jomoloney

farmers101 wrote: »

Thanks,
Are the Charolais lambs very poor and shook when there born?
I will be just be feeding them 4 factory!!
Would there be much hassle with bel late ewes eg, lambing to ch ram?, Milk?
Are they a prolific breed?

ch are usually easily lambed, when born they can be little bare and cold in them selves , a lot of losses last spring in the harsh weather coditions, when some of the traditional breeds of the same age survived, however the negatives aside they thrive well and attract premium price in the factory and marts

we tried the belclare but found too many triplets and found the ewes lacking in milk

CH X ewes I found to be very wild and frighty and a lot of mismothering , also some of them hadn;t much milk

we run approx 350 ewes longside a dairy herd, so we like sheep that more or less look after themselves

Username John

jomoloney wrote: »

ch are usually easily lambed, when born they can be little bare and cold in them selves , a lot of losses last spring in the harsh weather coditions, when some of the traditional breeds of the same age survived, however the negatives aside they thrive well and attract premium price in the factory and marts

we tried the belclare but found too many triplets and found the ewes lacking in milk

CH X ewes I found to be very wild and frighty and a lot of mismothering , also some of them hadn;t much milk

we run approx 350 ewes longside a dairy herd, so we like sheep that more or less look after themselves

Don't know about the Belclare, but agree with jomoloney above on Charolais.
In my limited experience of them - they are wild, but that's not too bad. They are not good for milk, and at the same time, seem to be more prone to mastitis.

Having said that, if you were going to kill all your lambs, and source replacement elsewhere, then I would think a Charolais ram would be good enough.

razor8

Belcare ewes are a disaster from my experiences which is over 15 years ago

they had lots of lambs but no milk to feed them. if you got a cold snap in the spring and grass got scarce they would dry up and you looking at them. Definitely not for someone with high stocking rates in my experience

on the Char a definite yes. bought a ram last year with 5 stars for production and the lambs are doing really well but they'll all be for factory. wouldnt keep a char ewe and as username john says they are flighty but i can put up with that!

farmers101

Since the ewes are breed from texel & cheviot will there be any chance of milk?

razor8

farmers101 wrote: »

Since the ewes are breed from texel & cheviot will there be any chance of milk?

shouldnt be bad, i would say first cross always the best then every cross after that you will have a sheep with less and less milk