Best ram for ewe lambs AND early lambing main flock

Dickie10

:rolleyes:hi im breeding 12 lleyn x cross ewe lambs this Autumn. I have a Suffolk and Texel terminal sire covering 90 ewes. I let the sffolk at two ewe lambs last year and was adisater out of 3 lambs 2 died from hard pull /couldn't lamb. he was ok as a hogget a few years ack but not suitable now. im looking for a terminal ram breed that I can use on ewe lambs and perhaps use on the main flock for a few weeks at the start to help the others out! basically I don't want to buy a ram just to service 12 ewe lambs.The main flock lambs from approx. 7 feb onwards and ewe lams around paddys day.
I first thought charrolais straight off, but as I did more research and asking I was told that there very soft for first 3 weeks. I asked by bro in law and he said sure keep them in for a week or so.

this is a non runner as im in college for last year and need to keep sheep and lambs moving on after 3 or 4 days inside max, I cant be mollycoddling lambs and running them in if a bad night is forecast . they will lamb inside at night alright.

So I thought of Hampshire Down the traits are good for early lambing, hardy, good in poor weather and early maturing but I don't know about the easy lambing this is prob most important or as important as hardiness.
im still half thinking charrolais but I rather have say 40 good lambs in june than 30 smashers as the charrolais might be seen as.
does anyone have any other easy lambing terminal sires in mind or is it HD vs Charrolais?
all help greatly appreciated, I hope im not making to much of a ramble :rolleyes:

Johnsey

Beltex is good used one this year on about 45 ewe lambs. Had used Charolais up to this. Nothing against the Charolais just changed cos Charolais ram died and had replaced him with a beltex. A couple gave a little bit of trouble with a leg back and a few coming backwards but I wouldn't blame the ram for that. Lambs were up and sucking in no time very impressed with this but didn't have them outside in the rain so not sure how they'd b but they had a lot more wool cover on them than a Charolais would so should b fine. lambs are impressive now. Will b using him again this year

colmwexford

We just bought a Charollais ram to cover our pure breed Lleyn ewes to get a bit of better shape on the lambs. Will lamb around Paddy's day and hoping the hardiness of the Lleyn will balance out any perceived softness of the Charollais. The sheep lamb indoors, but are let out after a day or two.

rangler1

Dickie10 wrote: »

:rolleyes:hi im breeding 12 lleyn x cross ewe lambs this Autumn. I have a Suffolk and Texel terminal sire covering 90 ewes. I let the sffolk at two ewe lambs last year and was adisater out of 3 lambs 2 died from hard pull /couldn't lamb. he was ok as a hogget a few years ack but not suitable now. im looking for a terminal ram breed that I can use on ewe lambs and perhaps use on the main flock for a few weeks at the start to help the others out! basically I don't want to buy a ram just to service 12 ewe lambs.The main flock lambs from approx. 7 feb onwards and ewe lams around paddys day.
I first thought charrolais straight off, but as I did more research and asking I was told that there very soft for first 3 weeks. I asked by bro in law and he said sure keep them in for a week or so.

this is a non runner as im in college for last year and need to keep sheep and lambs moving on after 3 or 4 days inside max, I cant be mollycoddling lambs and running them in if a bad night is forecast . they will lamb inside at night alright.

So I thought of Hampshire Down the traits are good for early lambing, hardy, good in poor weather and early maturing but I don't know about the easy lambing this is prob most important or as important as hardiness.
im still half thinking charrolais but I rather have say 40 good lambs in june than 30 smashers as the charrolais might be seen as.
does anyone have any other easy lambing terminal sires in mind or is it HD vs Charrolais?
all help greatly appreciated, I hope im not making to much of a ramble :rolleyes:

We lamb 120 ewe lambs here to Vendeen every year, mainly trouble free, and let out at 2 days old.
It's very important to scan them, divide the doubles and singles in the last two months and feed according to litter size

Dickie10

do vendeens not have a big wide head? how r they in poor weather are they fairly hardy? once ther easy lambed is a big concern

Willfarman

Moved from Suffolk to Charolais. Very happy with the Charolais.. Then bought a vendeen to run with ewe lambs. Was so happy with the results I bought 2 more the following year. Lamb hardy lambs that want to live. No more difficulty than the Charolais. Kill well and grade well.

sea12

Changed from Suffolk to Charolais ladt year and delighted with results. Have another one to buy this year. Might go with the vendeen to try them out also.

Lano Lynn

this might sound incredible but have used kerry hills for 20 years (along with many other breeds) and there were always kerrys in the first draft of lambs and very few left at the end of the year when there were plenty so called terminal sired lambs.
if you are under time pressure at lambing kerrys are on the ground sucking and out the field in minutes we used them on texel cross hoggets.wethers won't win prizes but they are hardy and healthy
you could use kerry to sweep up late ewes and tip ewe lambs and get lovely breeding ewes for again:D

vendeen would be another option hampshire or dorset or.............zwartble??????......so many choices:D:D

tabby aspreme

How ewes / ewe lambs are fed in the month before lambing is equally if not more important as what breed the sheep are

Willfarman

Lano Lynn wrote: »

this might sound incredible but have used kerry hills for 20 years (along with many other breeds) and there were always kerrys in the first draft of lambs and very few left at the end of the year when there were plenty so called terminal sired lambs.
if you are under time pressure at lambing kerrys are on the ground sucking and out the field in minutes we used them on texel cross hoggets.wethers won't win prizes but they are hardy and healthy
you could use kerry to sweep up late ewes and tip ewe lambs and get lovely breeding ewes for again:D

vendeen would be another option hampshire or dorset or.............zwartble??????......so many choices:D:D

I fostered a Charolais Suffolk lamb onto a little brat of a kerry ewe that belonged to neighbour. Her own lamb died for some reason. I never seen anything like the way that lamb thrived. She could hop a 4' 6 fence. The lamb couldn't! So back she'd come.

Dickie10

so what options are we breaking down for ease of lambing, considering vendeen and Hampshire down are hardy in poor /wet weather? don't know anything of dorset?? whaat they like??

Farrell

Is there any issue purchasing a NI ram, as in disease control, resale etc?

Cran

Farrell wrote: »

Is there any issue purchasing a NI ram, as in disease control, resale etc?

Needs to be export tested and certain Scrapie genotype, think its ARR/ARR or ARR/ARQ and B Ovis tested to be eligible. Then theres paper work required from NI DVO or equivilant and then DVO here are informed and they will call and check the stock.
Brought couple in myself yesterday from an export sale, its the handiest way I think...

eire23

Cran wrote: »

Needs to be export tested and certain Scrapie genotype, think its ARR/ARR or ARR/ARQ and B Ovis tested to be eligible. Then theres paper work required from NI DVO or equivilant and then DVO here are informed and they will call and check the stock.
Brought couple in myself yesterday from an export sale, its the handiest way I think...

Nearly sure they have to be to be in group 1 from the scrapie samples to be eligable for export, and then after their B Ovis tested they have a 30 day window to be imported before the cert/test expires and as cran said dvo just call out and check tag numbers.
Are all the rams at one of them sales approved for export?
looking into bringing a ram in myself this year from across the water but buying off a farm which leaves it a bit less handy

Farrell

Thanks lads, looked to be some nice rams in Fermanagh, guess they'll stay there

AnFeirmeoir

had a beltex for the ewe lambs last year. Lambed very easy ( like bullets) and they're hardy. his lambs look just average now but hard to compare as they are our of ewe lambs that wouldn't have as much milk as older ewes.

I'll use him again, with ewe lambs a live hardy lamb is a good result... you're being greedy if you expect more than that !