mountain ewe crossed with a lowland ram

Tomjim

Was tallking to a guy today who runs a lowland sheep flock but has started buying some mountain ewes and crossing with a lowland ram

The advantages he says is that mountain sheep are cheap and he gets as good a lamb out of the mountain ewe as he gets out of the lowland ewe

Anyone know anything about this

Conmaicne Mara

The better the mountain ewes you buy, the better lamb you'll get. If you buy ****, that's what you'll get out the other end too. I've a half Lanark, half Mayo Connemara type here and she reared two lambs 40+kg. Crossbreed the likes of her to a lowland ram on a lowland farm and she'd do better again IMO. My place is old pasture, never reseeded.

A lot of hill farms would do some bit of crossbreeding, texel, suffolk etc.

tomwaterford

Tomjim wrote: »

Was tallking to a guy today who runs a lowland sheep flock but has started buying some mountain ewes and crossing with a lowland ram

The advantages he says is that mountain sheep are cheap and he gets as good a lamb out of the mountain ewe as he gets out of the lowland ewe

Anyone know anything about this

how do these lambs grade at factory???

as con said you buy ***** you will bye and large produce ***** lambs

that being said I do have some mountain cross lowland ewes and breed back to lowland ram again and some are nearly as good as prue lowland cross lambs to finish

solerina

We have quite a few mountain ewe x texel lambs born every year, they are great lambs and do well at the factory.

tomwaterford

solerina wrote: »

We have quite a few mountain ewe x texel lambs born every year, they are great lambs and do well at the factory.

they make great ewes I think they were trying to launch there own breed a while back hiltex

even crossed with a suffock is a nice ewe

Farrell

tomwaterford wrote: »

they make great ewes I think they were trying to launch there own breed a while back hiltex

even crossed with a suffock is a nice ewe

Have some mule ewes here, good mothers & lots of milk

solerina

tomwaterford wrote: »

they make great ewes I think they were trying to launch there own breed a while back hiltex

even crossed with a suffock is a nice ewe

Only problem we have with suffolks is keeping the ram alive...last 3 we have bought havnt lasted longer than 6 months, in fact the last one didn't even get to go near the ewes before he died, beautiful 2 year old :-(....texels fare better on hilly ground..suffolks seem too 'soft' (for our farm anyway !!)

Conmaicne Mara

solerina wrote: »

Only problem we have with suffolks is keeping the ram alive...last 3 we have bought havnt lasted longer than 6 months, in fact the last one didn't even get to go near the ewes before he died, beautiful 2 year old :-(....texels fare better on hilly ground..suffolks seem too 'soft' (for our farm anyway !!)

Don't think we ever had a problem with suffolks dying like that, are ye putting them on the hill? We bring the ewes off the hill into the fields (sounds better than they are trust me). Would have fed the rams for a month or six weeks prior to letting them out, then would try to feed them each day during tipping too. Never had texels.

Lano Lynn

all depends on quality there are hill sheep and there are wooly spiders,
same goes for lowland .some are so f'd up with meal and bad breeding practices it verges on criminal.

basic principal of crossing breeds with different attributes has been the cornerstone of uk sheep flock for over 100years .old hill ewes crossed with longwool ram n female progney crossed with down(lowland)ram.

ireland never adopted this principle to the same degree,the suffolkXcheviot in wicklow being the closest in terms of similar scale to the mule trade in the uk.

the west never developed a significantly organised supply of viable aged horned ewes AND the lowland breeders bred galways to suffolks to suffolks to texels to charolais etc etc

the hiltex is not a breed it is a crossbred and if bred from good horned ewes and a LONG texel ram is a good sheep.
rubbish ewes mated to a short wee yoke with a big head n no arse is the road to nowhere

tomwaterford

Lano Lynn wrote: »

all depends on quality there are hill sheep and there are wooly spiders,
same goes for lowland .some are so f'd up with meal and bad breeding practices it verges on criminal.

basic principal of crossing breeds with different attributes has been the cornerstone of uk sheep flock for over 100years .old hill ewes crossed with longwool ram n female progney crossed with down(lowland)ram.

ireland never adopted this principle to the same degree,the suffolkXcheviot in wicklow being the closest in terms of similar scale to the mule trade in the uk.

the west never developed a significantly organised supply of viable aged horned ewes AND the lowland breeders bred galways to suffolks to suffolks to texels to charolais etc etc

the hiltex is not a breed it is a crossbred and if bred from good horned ewes and a LONG texel ram is a good sheep.
rubbish ewes mated to a short wee yoke with a big head n no arse is the road to nowhere

couldnt disagree with anything said there only maybe they should be promoting the texels to be a longer animal than they are some poor enough examples going for big money on donedeal around tipping time
a short lamb is very hard to put weight onto imo

Lano Lynn

yep but don't they have great heads;) n you know the great premium the factory pays for great heads.......

solerina

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

Don't think we ever had a problem with suffolks dying like that, are ye putting them on the hill? We bring the ewes off the hill into the fields (sounds better than they are trust me). Would have fed the rams for a month or six weeks prior to letting them out, then would try to feed them each day during tipping too. Never had texels.

We have never left suffolks out on the hill, they are always in the fields around the house...they just don't seem to survive here (north facing fields mainly and very bitter in winter). We wont be buying anymore of them, texels all the way in future.

dave747

Have some mountain cross and some cheviot ewes here that i use to breed replacements out of. Use suffock or texel on the ewes and use either texel or ch on the replacements. Find the lambs easy to finish and the replacements are very milky. hoping to try hiltex and mules next year