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Cheviots on the hill

Youngshepherd · 2015-06-16 23:43:33

Thinking of starting a flock of cheviots as i may have access to hill ground its mostly a brown colour,heather i presume? Anyone know how long i could keep the ewes on the hill for untill they need taking down to good grass?

Comments

#32 15-09-2015 01:27PM

galwayhillbilly

Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 120 ✭✭

Join Date: September 2009

Posts: 115

MayoAreMagic wrote: »

Just for balance greenfarmer, Id say that I wouldn't go for an overly long mountain ewe. I find the longer they are, the harder they are to fatten. Id much sooner go for a good deep-bodied ewe with a strong bone and a good kidney - the better the kidney the less likely you will have lambing issues with the texel ram. Length doesn't always mean weight. If you look at how the Lanark ewe has been bred, they aren't long at all and yet they weigh well.

To be fair greenfarmer MayoAreMagic probably has a lot more knowledge than me, I am only doing this a few years, the Mayo lads started breeding mules and Greyfaces years ago and were probably the first to cotton on to the Hilltex breed, it is still hard for me to convince any of my neighbours that there is any merit in a crossbred ewe. Suffolks and Texels is all they want to know about and at the mart the Suffolk will always out price any lamb with a grey or white face no matter what the weight

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