New sheep herd - Lleyn Breed

Glenco.

Hi All, First time post, but have been logging on past few months and there is great info here.

I have been threatening the last couple of years to get a small sheep herd and have finally decided to go with the Lleyn sheep breed and hopefully will have a batch of 15 by the end of the month.

I have land in my name and farm certs but My father still farms it under his herd number (cattle only). He used to have sheep but not for past 10 years.

Is it diffucult to get a new flock number and how long would it take or should i just reactivate my fathers flock number if we are to get them in next couple of weeks? Also plan to purchase up north, is there any difficulity transfering them across?
We used to keep a Suffolk and Texel flock, has anyone any negatives about the Lleyn, I am going to go with a purebred herd to start.

tabby aspreme

Best to contact your district veterinary office about a flock number, sheep coming from the north have to be inspected by a vet and tested for something ,can't think what at the minute, if you buy at a pedigree sale the sheep may already be cleared for export.
Lleyn are good sheep , look at a few before you buy as there is a variation within the breed, there are pedigree sales on in the next few weeks in Tullow and a few other places,

eire23

Well glenco only seeing this now, The lleyns are good sheep, they tend to be prolific so you need to be set up for that. Started a flock of pure lleyns last year and got on mighty with them, bought more hoggets this year and kept back all the ewe lambs, so that says something. As tabby says above there is variation within the breed so do your home work before buying.

Did you head to roscrea today? If you were looking for some it was a good chance to start as it was a buyers market. Any more questions just ask or send a pm

arais

eire23 wrote: »

.

Did you head to roscrea today? If you were looking for some it was a good chance to start as it was a buyers market. Any more questions just ask or send a pm

I bought there to day , there was a lot of middling stock , some sellers putting 1 or 2 poor animals into the batch.

there was alot of ewe lambs unsold but to be fair IMO they were no more than good enough to breed this year , it's a long road to this time next year.

eire23

arais wrote: »

I bought there to day , there was a lot of middling stock , some sellers putting 1 or 2 poor animals into the batch.

there was alot of ewe lambs unsold but to be fair IMO they were no more than good enough to breed this year , it's a long road to this time next year.

Was only down for the look myself but i would be inclined to agree with ya.
Did ya buy a ram? Best of luck with them:)

arais

eire23 wrote: »

Was only down for the look myself but i would be inclined to agree with ya.
Did ya buy a ram? Best of luck with them:)

no was gone home before the rams sold
bought 17 hogget ewes , they are averaging about €170,

nearly always buy privately , got a bit of a hop with the commission .. 3.5% fees, wouldn't feel the price of a sheep going

rancher

arais wrote: »

no was gone home before the rams sold
bought 17 hogget ewes , they are averaging about €170,

nearly always buy privately , got a bit of a hop with the commission .. 3.5% fees, wouldn't feel the price of a sheep going

Quality wasn't great alright, which led to the good ones making too much, you must have some nice ones.
Bought ram no. 127 myself,€470. don't like lleyns too big or with open wool, so he was the only one that ticked the boxes for me anyway.
Here's some pics of this years ewe lambs, they are out of a Lleyn ram and texel cross Lleyn ewes so they are about two thirds Lleyn

2013-09-02 17.24.56.jpg

2013-09-08 09.38.33.jpg

2013-09-08 09.46.52.jpg

Glenco.

Went to Roscrea and I like the Lleyn so going to go ahead and get into them.
Maybe I should have bought some as it was a buyers market, i'd say half the sheep was unsold and only 5 rams.
It's just my first Mart and didn't want to rush in. Do you reckon price will improve.
Plan to look up north as there value with the pound now.

Rancher they are fine lambs in pictures. Better than what i saw yesterday.
They have a kind of brown/caramel tinge on there faces. Seen a few like that yesterday.
I think it was flock 2130 M. Harney had similar looking hoggets and brought them home At 200 euro.
I see you paid top price too yesterday for your ram.
Would you be tupping them lambs this year? What weight do they need to be before putting to ram

hedgecutting eddie

Glenco. wrote: »

Went to Roscrea and I like the Lleyn so going to go ahead and get into them.
Maybe I should have bought some as it was a buyers market, i'd say half the sheep was unsold and only 5 rams.
It's just my first Mart and didn't want to rush in. Do you reckon price will improve.
Plan to look up north as there value with the pound now.

Rancher they are fine lambs in pictures. Better than what i saw yesterday.
They have a kind of brown/caramel tinge on there faces. Seen a few like that yesterday.
I think it was flock 2130 M. Harney had similar looking hoggets and brought them home At 200 euro.
I see you paid top price too yesterday for your ram.
Would you be tupping them lambs this year? What weight do they need to be before putting to ram

I have lleyns since 2007, ewes are great mothers but after 3 different lleyn rams im giving up on them , sold my lleyn ram during week and goin to run a texel and a suffolk with my pure lleyn ewes this year, reason im doin this i dont keep rams for breeding so factory all my lambs and the lleyn are impossible to finish , so just goin to buy 20 pure lleyn ewes to breed own replacements every year, if your not goin the pure breeding route i wudnt breed them pure

sea12

They are smashing stock rancher. Looks like a nice set up there.

rancher

Glenco. wrote: »

Went to Roscrea and I like the Lleyn so going to go ahead and get into them.
Maybe I should have bought some as it was a buyers market, i'd say half the sheep was unsold and only 5 rams.
It's just my first Mart and didn't want to rush in. Do you reckon price will improve.
Plan to look up north as there value with the pound now.

Rancher they are fine lambs in pictures. Better than what i saw yesterday.
They have a kind of brown/caramel tinge on there faces. Seen a few like that yesterday.
I think it was flock 2130 M. Harney had similar looking hoggets and brought them home At 200 euro.
I see you paid top price too yesterday for your ram.
Would you be tupping them lambs this year? What weight do they need to be before putting to ram

Yes they'll be going in lamb this year, I'd like them to be 45kg+ to go in lamb. I usually scan 1.25 in them. I put the rams with them on the 1st November so they still have 8 wks to grow. They average 42kg at the moment so they should average near 50 kg by then, and I will be culling 15 of the lightest of them as well
I saw that brown tinge too and didn't notice it in my own until you pointed it out.
Eddie..we castrate the ram lambs here at birth with rings and they finish much easier,

tabby aspreme

Will you shear the ewe lambs Rancher, around these parts there is no premium to be got selling lleyn x ewe lambs like the Suffolk x get .
A lot of my ewes are2/3 lleyn at this stage and im thinking of crossing back to texel or rouge and then im thinking why bother as the lleyn are easy to keep

rancher

tabby aspreme wrote: »

Will you shear the ewe lambs Rancher, around these parts there is no premium to be got selling lleyn x ewe lambs like the Suffolk x get .
A lot of my ewes are2/3 lleyn at this stage and im thinking of crossing back to texel or rouge and then im thinking why bother as the lleyn are easy to keep

Shearing them in the morning, no premium for selling them here either, I just breed enough for replacements,
I don't think they're big enough bred pure, hence the texel cross

Dickie10

very convienent to see this thread,just bought a Llyen hogget ram yesterday.Purchased him in Ballingarry North tipp, very good set up the guy had and wasn't too hard on cash 400 euro. I have 80 sheep and I plan to run the Llyen ram with 20 ewes of Suffolk/Mule cross.I first thought of them as being a good maternal trait into my flock but I didn't want the expense of buying 15 or 20 Llyen ewes so I managed to get 22, 3 and 4 yr old ewes of Suffolk and Mule cross for 110 euro which I was pleased wit. Im planning to run my Suffolk and texel ram with the remaining 60 ewes there 2 and 4 year old rams would this be sufficient? im planning in keeping on the ewe lambs from the Lleyn as replacements, hopefully the ram lambs will not b to hard to finish when crossed with a Suffolk or texel type ewe.

rancher

Dickie10 wrote: »

very convienent to see this thread,just bought a Llyen hogget ram yesterday.Purchased him in Ballingarry North tipp, very good set up the guy had and wasn't too hard on cash 400 euro. I have 80 sheep and I plan to run the Llyen ram with 20 ewes of Suffolk/Mule cross.I first thought of them as being a good maternal trait into my flock but I didn't want the expense of buying 15 or 20 Llyen ewes so I managed to get 22, 3 and 4 yr old ewes of Suffolk and Mule cross for 110 euro which I was pleased wit. Im planning to run my Suffolk and texel ram with the remaining 60 ewes there 2 and 4 year old rams would this be sufficient? im planning in keeping on the ewe lambs from the Lleyn as replacements, hopefully the ram lambs will not b to hard to finish when crossed with a Suffolk or texel type ewe.

Castrate them at birth with rings and they won't be any different than any other breed, most of my march ones are gone, R3s averaging 20- 20.5 kgs,
Lleyns never worked well here on Suffolk crosses for some reason, would be interested to hear how they do with you

tabby aspreme

Put a Suffolk with lleyns in 2011 and the lambs were not good, kept a few of the best ewe lambs and they are very short in themselves as hoggets this year, hope they go better for you

Glenco.

Going up to see a batch of ewes lambs next week that are suitable for breeding in November.
CarrowdoreLleyns.co.uk
He sounds like he knows his stuff and they breed for commercial.
I think it would be better to source lambs from this type of flock than smaller show flocks, but they do show their sheep also.
He was telling me they will eat the half a suffolk would and more lambs weaned per ewe.
I think this is the biggest advantage of the LLeyn sheep as you can keep more on less land.

rancher

Glenco. wrote: »

Going up to see a batch of ewes lambs next week that are suitable for breeding in November.
CarrowdoreLleyns.co.uk
He sounds like he knows his stuff and they breed for commercial.
I think it would be better to source lambs from this type of flock than smaller show flocks, but they do show their sheep also.
He was telling me they will eat the half a suffolk would and more lambs weaned per ewe.
I think this is the biggest advantage of the LLeyn sheep as you can keep more on less land.

The ram I bought in Roscrea came from that flock, a lovely ram. best of luck with them,
sorry mistake there....he was sired by a ram from that flock, but it was an Edwards that sold the one I bought, so probably a relation

Dickie10

mm Suffolk cross with lleyn isn't getting much support would I be better to use txel cross ewes with the lleyn ram? does anyone know does the maternal traits of the ram come through well when crossed with non lleyn ewes? also should I get a ram lamb if I have only 3 rams to 80 ewes? I have a texel and Suffolk mature rams

rancher

Dickie10 wrote: »

mm Suffolk cross with lleyn isn't getting much support would I be better to use txel cross ewes with the lleyn ram? does anyone know does the maternal traits of the ram come through well when crossed with non lleyn ewes? also should I get a ram lamb if I have only 3 rams to 80 ewes? I have a texel and Suffolk mature rams

Always used Texel here up to 2002 when I started crossing them with Lleyn.
Since then lleyn has improved the feet, prolificacy, longevity, and maternal instincts in my ewe flock.
We use about one mature ram to fifty ewes here.

Dickie10

ok thanks for the advice il prob pick mostly texel cross ewes for the lleyn ram. is 50:1 not a lot of sheep to the ram I thought that would prolong lambing. I was trying to condense it a bit more so I was thinkinking 30:1 or does this help at all at tightening up ewes?

tabby aspreme

provided your lleyn ram is not a lamb he should have no bother with 50 ewes

tabby aspreme

In Tullow today lleyns were a poor trade , ewe lambs 70 to 90 , hoggets 115 to 140, hogget rams 200 to 350 mostly selling for under 250, quite a few not making 200 and not sold, some nice hoggets were good value for commercial breeding

eire23

Was there much of a crowd there tabby? Dont think that was a official society sale

hedgecutting eddie

tabby aspreme wrote: »

In Tullow today lleyns were a poor trade , ewe lambs 70 to 90 , hoggets 115 to 140, hogget rams 200 to 350 mostly selling for under 250, quite a few not making 200 and not sold, some nice hoggets were good value for commercial breeding

I bought 12 ewes first 5 cost 130 and the second bunch cost 135 very happy with them

sea12

hedgecutting eddie wrote: »

I bought 12 ewes first 5 cost 130 and the second bunch cost 135 very happy with them

I presume this wasn't a pedigree sale.

hedgecutting eddie

sea12 wrote: »

I presume this wasn't a pedigree sale.

Ones i bought had all lleyn reg tags

Cran

sea12 wrote: »

I presume this wasn't a pedigree sale.

A members sale but not official society I believe, some great sheep at it especially the rams I thought. Bought 15 hoggets and a ram myself excellent value, hoggets up to 167 I saw

Dickie10

just came across this thread again so said id give update, on the first crop of lleyns lambs. In the end I had a great scanning of 21 ewes put to the ram I got 2 singles and 19 doubles. I lost the one massive single one day I had to go to a family funeral. after that I got around 18 ewe lambs out of the 39 lleyn cross lambs.

I picked out mostly big sheep with texel and charrollas in them. this worked great gave the ram lambs good size and I left them uncastrated some were finished before the Suffolk and texels! out of about 15 ram lambs left straggling in mid august only 2 were lleyn cross. the ewe lambs are all over 50 kg now and I plan on putting them to a HD ram on Oct 15.

il get a few pics up soon when I figue out the iphone4 uploading yolk!!

sea12

Dickie10 wrote: »

just came across this thread again so said id give update, on the first crop of lleyns lambs. In the end I had a great scanning of 21 ewes put to the ram I got 2 singles and 19 doubles. I lost the one massive single one day I had to go to a family funeral. after that I got around 18 ewe lambs out of the 39 lleyn cross lambs.

I picked out mostly big sheep with texel and charrollas in them. this worked great gave the ram lambs good size and I left them uncastrated some were finished before the Suffolk and texels! out of about 15 ram lambs left straggling in mid august only 2 were lleyn cross. the ewe lambs are all over 50 kg now and I plan on putting them to a HD ram on Oct 15.

il get a few pics up soon when I figue out the iphone4 uploading yolk!!

That was a great lambing for your first tear. Still enjoying it I take ?

Dickie10

ah yeah they went well, half the battle is being prepared! still u always be pisd off at the ones u lose in the main flosck lost 2 to foxs 2 sudden death in the field as big lambs, and one or two bad luck

Dickie10

Just seen this again, the lynn x texel ewe lambs worked a dream, out of 15 put in lamb i got 2 didnt go in lamb within the 8 weeks the ram was with them, the other 13 had 5 doubles and and 8 singles, all lambed themselves, to a Hampshire Down ram, no pulling some out in the field but up and sucked, some were quite small as you can imagine but the later ones were good lambs . they lambed from march 15th to may 8th a bit of a dragged out but sure thats ewe lambs!

anyway the hampshire is leaving these lambs very easy to put fat on at this stage of the year. 50% of the lambs are gone, which im happy with and the rest will be gone by december. i took a bit of a risk or experiment with them as the ewe lambs in that they were not pampered at all during the winter and early spring just hay a scattering of hogget nuts on the ground the field was bare enough, they also got no nuts after lambing just out to april grass, so they were very easy kept so that part is true!

it got me to thinking that these lambs i have now which are sitting in with my bought in expensive (78 euro avge.) store lambs are the pick of the stores in the field yet reared for very little with their mothers joining the main flock also very cheaply, i wouldnt mind chancing a few more ewe lambs in april or even a group of 40 ewes to lamb in mid april. seems to make more sense than buying dear store to eat any excess grass which we had a good bit of this year as the main flock lambs were gone by August (born between feb 1st and march 1st)

sako 85

Dickie10 wrote: »

Just seen this again, the lynn x texel ewe lambs worked a dream, out of 15 put in lamb i got 2 didnt go in lamb within the 8 weeks the ram was with them, the other 13 had 5 doubles and and 8 singles, all lambed themselves, to a Hampshire Down ram, no pulling some out in the field but up and sucked, some were quite small as you can imagine but the later ones were good lambs . they lambed from march 15th to may 8th a bit of a dragged out but sure thats ewe lambs!

anyway the hampshire is leaving these lambs very easy to put fat on at this stage of the year. 50% of the lambs are gone, which im happy with and the rest will be gone by december. i took a bit of a risk or experiment with them as the ewe lambs in that they were not pampered at all during the winter and early spring just hay a scattering of hogget nuts on the ground the field was bare enough, they also got no nuts after lambing just out to april grass, so they were very easy kept so that part is true!

it got me to thinking that these lambs i have now which are sitting in with my bought in expensive (78 euro avge.) store lambs are the pick of the stores in the field yet reared for very little with their mothers joining the main flock also very cheaply, i wouldnt mind chancing a few more ewe lambs in april or even a group of 40 ewes to lamb in mid april. seems to make more sense than buying dear store to eat any excess grass which we had a good bit of this year as the main flock lambs were gone by August (born between feb 1st and march 1st)

I don't want to jinx myself but we lamb our ewe lambs every year and it usually works out very well. I cant understand why more don't do it, as long as the ewe lambs have the size that is.

Dickie10

yeah the lambs were all about 50-55kg at tupping then about 60-70kg lambing, plus ahandy ram without big head or shoulders, the key may be in having the ewe lambs u want to breed from born in februaury to give them time to grow by october. this rules out what i see a lot of lads at that is come september they start to think about keeping a few ewe lambs and then pick out some based on look. they dont know if they are doubles or singles or what the mother was like and if its sept then some of the better growthy ewe lambs are prob gone. i pick out the ewe lambs i might keep when there born judging by the mothers ie if the lambed and got up quick and easy if the mother is always plenty of milk and good feet and of course is out of twins/triplets (the lamb). i mark them and keep an eye on them all summer although a simple colour coded tag might be the job. some make the cut and some dont. i tried a few cheviots ewes with lleyn ram this year, they look great ewe lambs a bit like mules great length and height in them with the cheviot ewe, but the lleyn gives them the docility and hopefully milk and prolificy.

next autumn im going to put my aged suffolk ram to the 4 or 5 cheviot ewes i have and try and get some nice borris ewes i heard these were very good ewes to have plus i want to keep the genes from the suffolk as he has proven to be a great ram for early, quick finished lambs over the last 5 years. im thinking of putting him with maybe a few of the lleyn x ewes as well they would be 1/2 suffolk and 1/4 lleyn, im wary of putting him to texel x ewes as i dont want to terminal of ewes

k mac

Bumping this thread am thinking of getting into sheep in a very small way. Have cattle only at the minute but they are hard on wet ground. Have no experience with sheep so was planning on getting around 15 llyen eyes and maybe crossing with a charollais ram. Would be lambing outdoor so was looking for something easy lambing and hardy. Would this be a good choice of breed.

DJ98

k mac wrote: »

Bumping this thread am thinking of getting into sheep in a very small way. Have cattle only at the minute but they are hard on wet ground. Have no experience with sheep so was planning on getting around 15 llyen eyes and maybe crossing with a charollais ram. Would be lambing outdoor so was looking for something easy lambing and hardy. Would this be a good choice of breed.

The charollais wouldn't be the hardiest breed for outdorr lambing maybe something like a texel or Kerry hill IMO I find good for outdoor lambing!

Dickie10

hampshire would be the job easy lambed and made for bad weather, lively to get going too

k mac

Dickie would that be a Hampshire ram to cross with the llyen ewes or vice versa.?

Dickie10

a hampshire ram to cross with lleyn ewes, i used the last few years on ewe lambs that lamb in april and there lambs are always the easiest to finish in october/november when other lambs are getting are hard to put on fat