Hornys

weatherbyfoxer

Was offered horny ewes just off the hills for €50-€60..this has me half thinking of buying 50 and running blue face leister rams with them for mule ewe lambs....just wondering could i run these mixed with my low land flock apart from tipping?

IH784man

What would they make if you sent them to the factory

Nekarsulm

Depends on your fencing. Good idea otherwise I think. You can lamb once and then factory all the ram lambs as well as the horneys. Won't lamb as early as your lowland ewes. If you have the ground, why not try it anyway?

Green farmer

just wondering if you introduced a small few into a bigger quieter lowland flock, would it have the effect of quietening them down ? It would work with mountain ewe lambs, but not as sure with the older ewe used to wondering the hills ? I'm thinking fencing would be the key. You'd have cracking mule replacements alright, you'd have to give the blue Leicester ram a easy life as I hear their abit soft.

joe35

What would you think of running a Llyen ram with horn ewes. Would these make good replacements, they'd be prolific and a bit hardier than the Leicester mule. Any thoughts??

weatherbyfoxer

Great bit of insite lads cheers!...i have 100 low land ewes which is a mix of borris and belclare cross ewes...usualy i lamb these around the 1st of march,have a suffolk,charlaois and a belclare ram

Plan is to get to 200 good prolific ewes as cheaply as possable.all land is fenced well with sheep wire

Will hornys lamb on the 1st of march in the shed mixed with the main flock?

How would it go putting a belclare and blue leister ram with them?

AnFeirmeoir

I think its the length in the leister ram that is key to making those top mules.

Would the belclare / llyn have the same lenght ? I doubt the offspring would look as good

Sheep breeder

i would put a good big texel with them and breed hilltex ewe, have seen them on my travels and cross real well with a charollais to give a super lamb,
the hilltex male lamb would be worth more than the mule.

razor8

Sheep breeder wrote: »

i would put a good big texel with them and breed hilltex ewe, have seen them on my travels and cross real well with a charollais to give a super lamb,
the hilltex male lamb would be worth more than the mule.

Not sure I would agree on that if you went to ballinarobe any year, ewe lambs have crossed the €200 mark at their special sales which would counter any negative price on male lambs. IMO the mules would be a lot more profilific than a texel cross as well. If I was to use a texel I would skip a generation and put a texel on a mule ewe, have them a great cross here

eire23

joe35 wrote: »

What would you think of running a Llyen ram with horn ewes. Would these make good replacements, they'd be prolific and a bit hardier than the Leicester mule. Any thoughts??

Have used both beclare and lleyn on mountain ewes. My father would have used belclare years ago and We have used a lleyn on them the last few years as were in the process of moving the lowland flock to all lleyn and it would save having to buy Rams.
While they are great mothers prolific and hardy they turn into to small a sheep and tend to have small Lambs as well. And I tried three Rams on them, all with the same results. i intend to go back to using a Wicklow cheviot with the hornys this year, might not be as prolific as the lleyn cross but produces a better ewe. This is just what we found, others might differ!

charolais0153

razor8 wrote: »

Not sure I would agree on that if you went to ballinarobe any year, ewe lambs have crossed the €200 mark at their special sales which would counter any negative price on male lambs. IMO the mules would be a lot more profilific than a texel cross as well. If I was to use a texel I would skip a generation and put a texel on a mule ewe, have them a great cross here

i know a man that does be getting good prices for theese mules and my neighbour tries to get the mules aswell.but there is a big difference between my neighbours and the other fellas ewes .the other lads ewes are top quality.also he pays a lot of money for his rams which are very long.my father says "there is a good and a bad one in everything"