llyens

weatherbyfoxer

looking at breeding my own replacements from some Suffolk x ewes here this year, anyone much exsperience of llyens?..being a maternal breed are the rams lamb a pain to finish off grass? and also do they crop with a heap off thriplets and some quads?

wrangler

weatherbyfoxer wrote: »

looking at breeding my own replacements from some Suffolk x ewes here this year, anyone much exsperience of llyens?..being a maternal breed are the rams lamb a pain to finish off grass? and also do they crop with a heap off thriplets and some quads?

They're not as prolific as belclares, they won't fill the place with triplets.
We castrate at a day old, lleyns seem to start chasing ewes even before weaning, so better to have them castrated, they seem to fatten alright then.
I' m using them 20 years, they're about as easy care as you'll get
They're a small breed so need to be crossed with something bigger

Young95

wrangler wrote: »

They're not as prolific as belclares, they won't fill the place with triplets.
We castrate at a day old, lleyns seem to start chasing ewes even before weaning, so better to have them castrated, they seem to fatten alright then.
I' m using them 20 years, they're about as easy care as you'll get
They're a small breed so need to be crossed with something bigger

Have you ever used a Suffolk ram on a llynn ewe wrangler before? How do the lambs finish and is there much hassle trying to lamb them ?

wrangler

Young95 wrote: »

Have you ever used a Suffolk ram on a llynn ewe wrangler before? How do the lambs finish and is there much hassle trying to lamb them ?

Never used suffolk rams,always texel, and we use vendeen on the ewe lambs, all the ewe lambs singles were over 5 kg and the ewe lambs were only 44 kg themselves going to the ram so they've plenty room for lambing.
Lambs usually grade R3 and U3 so are ideal supermarket spec.
Very difficult to get good rams. Eire 23 on here used to breed them and from what I've seen of them, they'd be worth looking at if you're in sligo ( i think)area.
I wouldn't advise buying purebred ewes, they didn't do well here.......;)

Kevhog1988

Bought a footbath off a fella yesterday in Prosperous Kildare. He had some nice lleyn ewes for sale also if your looking. I cant seem to find the donedeal ad at the moment. Will look again later

Green farmer

Good points, hardy enough, excellent feet ( haven't footbathed here in several years), medium sized, so easier to handle, very good mothers, dont have to be told what to do, very clean around the tail end, many spotless. Some flesh well. Vast percentage will lamb unassisted outdoors, if you stay away from texel, suffolk rams.

Not so good points, bad at flocking, so not great for rounding up. Alot of variation in the breed. Some can be flightly and know how to jump fences ( cull these and rest will stay quiet).

Edit, I'm running 3/4 bred ones and not purebred.

eire23

Have them here since 2012 or that (I think) good sheep but the biggest problem is the number of 3's. Negative flushed them last year as in starved them with the ram and still scanned a touch over 2.1. Have a homebred ram kept last year and he was a single so hopefully that might help... Maybe. Aot of them are to small and fine boned imp. Have been told mine are to big for true lleyns but hey ho.
The first two pics are of the home bred ram I kept, then next o e is of dry hoggets in for shearing. Last one is of 3 ram lambs. Gave every ram lamb the ring this year and just going down purebred non registered route! And I have no rams for sale this year so this isn't a advertisement but I hope it give ya a idea of the type of lleyn that is out their. Everything ya see there has been bred pure since 2012. I never really had hogget ewes to sell because I used to keep me best and what wasn't kept I always thought if I wasn't interested in keeping them that they weren't good enough for selling.... Rightly or wrongly!

Young95

eire23 wrote: »

Have them here since 2012 or that (I think) good sheep but the biggest problem is the number of 3's. Negative flushed them last year as in starved them with the ram and still scanned a touch over 2.1. Have a homebred ram kept last year and he was a single so hopefully that might help... Maybe. Aot of them are to small and fine boned imp. Have been told mine are to big for true lleyns but hey ho.
The first two pics are of the home bred ram I kept, then next o e is of dry hoggets in for shearing. Last one is of 3 ram lambs. Gave every ram lamb the ring this year and just going down purebred non registered route! And I have no rams for sale this year so this isn't a advertisement but I hope it give ya a idea of the type of lleyn that is out their. Everything ya see there has been bred pure since 2012. I never really had hogget ewes to sell because I used to keep me best and what wasn't kept I always thought if I wasn't interested in keeping them that they weren't good enough for selling.... Rightly or wrongly!

They are big llynns alright! Nearly like a plainish Texel . Are ur ram lambs hard to finish?

eire23

Young95 wrote: »

They are big llynns alright! Nearly like a plainish Texel . Are ur ram lambs hard to finish?

No problem finishing them.majority go off grass, would feed the dregs then in the back end. Be well over half r's and the rest u's. Ram lambs All got ringed bar a real good one from a good ewe.

wrangler

eire23 wrote: »

Have them here since 2012 or that (I think) good sheep but the biggest problem is the number of 3's. Negative flushed them last year as in starved them with the ram and still scanned a touch over 2.1. Have a homebred ram kept last year and he was a single so hopefully that might help... Maybe. Aot of them are to small and fine boned imp. Have been told mine are to big for true lleyns but hey ho.
The first two pics are of the home bred ram I kept, then next o e is of dry hoggets in for shearing. Last one is of 3 ram lambs. Gave every ram lamb the ring this year and just going down purebred non registered route! And I have no rams for sale this year so this isn't a advertisement but I hope it give ya a idea of the type of lleyn that is out their. Everything ya see there has been bred pure since 2012. I never really had hogget ewes to sell because I used to keep me best and what wasn't kept I always thought if I wasn't interested in keeping them that they weren't good enough for selling.... Rightly or wrongly!

Lovely sheep , never thought of you when I was looking,
breeders were culling nothing, selling every thing for breeding.
I bought 14 purebred hogget ewes in 2018, I won't say theywere the best in the sale but they were the highest priced on the day. 8 survived to breed in 2019 and 4 are left now . That wouldn't be my experience in the crossbreds ,they're very hardy

wrangler

eire23 wrote: »

No problem finishing them.majority go off grass, would feed the dregs then in the back end. Be well over half r's and the rest u's. Ram lambs All got ringed bar a real good one from a good ewe.

They'd never fatten if you left them entire

eire23

wrangler wrote: »

Lovely sheep , never thought of you when I was looking,
breeders were culling nothing, selling every thing for breeding.
I bought 14 purebred hogget ewes in 2018, I won't say theywere the best in the sale but they were the highest priced on the day. 8 survived to breed in 2019 and 4 are left now . That wouldn't be my experience in the crossbreds ,they're very hardy

I know well they weren't. And it was the same with rams. Had the all ireland ram lamb champion one year... Brought him for inspection as a hogget amd he failed him on a bit of pink in his nose. And he was a serious ram, like the one above. God I was sick and to see some of the things that passed. They fared out bad for ya so, that kind of thing would put ya off a breed of sheep

Green farmer

I suspect some texel blood was infused into some and cheviot into others as the bred expanded rapidly. The texel ones flesh very easy and dont jump fences as much.

wrangler

eire23 wrote: »

I know well they weren't. And it was the same with rams. Had the all ireland ram lamb champion one year... Brought him for inspection as a hogget amd he failed him on a bit of pink in his nose. And he was a serious ram, like the one above. God I was sick and to see some of the things that passed. They fared out bad for ya so, that kind of thing would put ya off a breed of sheep

I'll still be using them for breeding replacements, they're an ideal breed for crossing back and forth with Texel.
I bought the 2018 champion in tullamore show, he's breeding lovely ewes but jasus he's bold.......,either me or him'll be killed

weatherbyfoxer

hearing more good that bad about llyens so far from my bit of looking into them..id be intreasted to see how they compare to the mules i have here at the moment

Ard_MC

wrangler wrote: »

I'll still be using them for breeding replacements, they're an ideal breed for crossing back and forth with Texel.
I bought the 2018 champion in tullamore show, he's breeding lovely ewes but jasus he's bold.......,either me or him'll be killed

Its the only kinda ram I look for in the sale..

Dickie10

i bought a lleyn in 2013 for breeding replacement ewe lambs. have to say i wouldnt look at having many other ewes round the place. there brillaint for the mid february lamber. i mate to Hampshire and Texel give lovely tight ,quick growing lambs that hit carcass weight 21 kg in 11-13 weeks. if i start running a later april lambing flock i might go with more suffuolk type ewe to leave a longer , bigger framed lamb to carry carcass weights up to 22-23 for winter finshing.
- lleyns good points:
- good feet
-quiet
-easy lambed, cant remmeber the last lamb i pulled from one bar coming backways , very roomy backend.
- very clean arses
- extremly lively lambs at birth, have to be seen to believed.
prob ideal for low labour input april outdoor lambing.

razor8

Dickie10 wrote: »

i bought a lleyn in 2013 for breeding replacement ewe lambs. have to say i wouldnt look at having many other ewes round the place. there brillaint for the mid february lamber. i mate to Hampshire and Texel give lovely tight ,quick growing lambs that hit carcass weight 21 kg in 11-13 weeks. if i start running a later april lambing flock i might go with more suffuolk type ewe to leave a longer , bigger framed lamb to carry carcass weights up to 22-23 for winter finshing.
- lleyns good points:
- good feet
-quiet
-easy lambed, cant remmeber the last lamb i pulled from one bar coming backways , very roomy backend.
- very clean arses
- extremly lively lambs at birth, have to be seen to believed.
prob ideal for low labour input april outdoor lambing.

Have you a picture of ram?

Dickie10

ill get one