New ram for this year.

J.O. Farmer

Lambman wrote: »

Agree with a lot of what yous saying but 40 ewes at €40 a piece €1600 €400 for ram that's €2000 your out... if you wean 1.5 sell the 30 rams off grass for €60 thats €1800 sell the old ewes hopefully get €30 a piece for them that's €1200.... keep the ewe lambs on for another year and sell and average €140 for 30 that's €4200 and sell ur hogget BFL for €400.... €2000 spent and €7600 back less expenses which would just be wintering your ewe lambs along with the usual dosing dipping clipping and the likes during the summer.

Those figures sound good but if you sold the ewe lambs for €80 you would have nearly as much profit in one year as keeping them to hoggets.

If you keep them until hoggets your lamb sales averages at €150 per ewe. If you sell the lambs your lamb sales averages at €105. That leaves you €45 extra per ewe for keeping 0.75 ewe lambs over a winter. Allow it costs €40 to keep the ewe lamb (€30 per ewe) over the winter until now that leaves €15 extra for your extra work. If you lose 1 over the winter your extra profit will be down to about a tenner.

You would probably make more with a good texel ram selling the ram lambs and hilltex ewe lambs for the same kind of outlay.

Lambman

I'd lamb them late like first week off April because I'd be keeping the ewe lambs on till hoggets so no point in lambing early... so you wouldn't see €80 for the ewe lambs as they'd be that bit smaller than a mid March lambing flock but I get were your coming from and it's an angle I didn't think know about till be honest.

J.O. Farmer

Lambman wrote: »

I'd lamb them late like first week off April because I'd be keeping the ewe lambs on till hoggets so no point in lambing early... so you wouldn't see €80 for the ewe lambs as they'd be that bit smaller than a mid March lambing flock but I get were your coming from and it's an angle I didn't think know about till be honest.

Check out the will there be anybody lambing thread for debate on it. If you keep the ewe lambs to hoggets the small margins to be made buying ewe lambs to sell as hoggets is your extra profit for keeping ewe lambs nearly an extra year.

stantheman1979

We had the same idea. Buy cheap horny ewes to breed mules for ourselves. They were generally a disaster. Could hardly rear their lambs. Tried them on good grass they scoured like fook. Tried them on hilly ground they went thin and dry. We factoried them and got what we paid for them but it's not as easy as u may think

joe35

Lambman wrote: »

Nope they weren't split till day they went for ram and just closed off first 20 that ran into the pen no special selecting and both groups were back together after 6 weeks.... no ewes were barren in either lot.

Would the 20 that ran into the pen not be in better form. Always a way of sorting out ewes especially on the hill, just keep the last few back as the generally wouldn't be as good a sheep

Lambman

Anybody change rams this year? Will be looking for another charrlois... probably buy a ram lamb... 1 texel hogget ram currently running with a hand full off hoggets but nothing tipped out 6 days now... was used as a lamb but with another ram lamb so hope he's fertile... early yet for tupping maybe ewes aren't coming on is the problem.

J.O. Farmer

Lambman wrote: »

Anybody change rams this year? Will be looking for another charrlois... probably buy a ram lamb... 1 texel hogget ram currently running with a hand full off hoggets but nothing tipped out 6 days now... was used as a lamb but with another ram lamb so hope he's fertile... early yet for tupping maybe ewes aren't coming on is the problem.

His fertility won't affect whether anything gets tipped. They'll just get tipped for several cycles if he's firing blanks.

Of course he could be gay. If he is find a bleeding heart liberal gay animal rights activist and casually mention factorying him and he'll be the most valuable ram you have.

It's early though so that's more likely to be your problem. Also a handful of hoggets sounds like a small bunch. Even in the height of the season you could get the majority of a small bunch tipping the second week the ram is out.

Lambman

Yea I near hope he turns out like Benji the bull was it haha.... yea I know it's early and there well.bred texel hoggets not pure but we'll bred... hopefully he'll do some damage over the next fortnight or he's getting the p45 and Mr charrlois will.get the job.

sheepfarmer92

Bought 5 texel and 1 belclare hogget rams and sold 4 easycare rams as iv daughters out if them, might try a beltex if i see one that i like,
Culled very hard on the ewes this year, tipping the easycare cross ewes to texels and the rest to easycares, belclares and texels
Happy with the easycare cross ewes but still unsure weather to keep crossing and go pure with them or just keep them as a crossbred ewe off the belclare and texel crosses

Willfarman

stantheman1979 wrote: »

I'll be selling all 3 texals and getting either another Hampshire or a polled Dorset. I'll run them with the 2yr olds, the lesser quality ewes and any old girls on their last year. Like u said it's not a beauty contest and u can't beat the Hampshire/Dorset to put some length into lambs. Don't ever keep replacements from a Charolais or a vendeen!! They're both no good to milk

I wouldn’t be afraid of a charolais x ewe at all. As long as they have a bit of sharpness in the head. A few I bought very cheap as hoggets last year performed extremely well crossed to vendeen.

Lambman

How'd the logie ram do for you razor? Any pics off lambs?

razor8

Very happy with him. Let him out on his own with 110 and have 186 lambs off him from from 98. I let another ram in after 1st cycle so could have more lambs off him

razor8

Pic

razor8

Pic2

razor8

Pic3

razor8

Pic4

razor8

Is there an easy way of uploading photos?

Green farmer

how did the NZ Romney go ? The ewe in the last pic out of him ?

razor8

Green farmer wrote: »

how did the NZ Romney go ? The ewe in the last pic out of him ?

I was disappointed with there scan at just over 1.7 compared to mules of 2.05 but most ended up with 2 when cross fostering so maybe not a bad complaint

Yes that ewe is off him as well as 2 in background behind mule

DJ98

Was thinking of replacing the Suffolk with a Hampshire down this year, any pros and cons to this decision?

razor8

Main con is you won’t have any saleable ewe lambs

Lambman

Good looking lambs there... Any bother with lambing?

razor8

Ive bred my own replacements for nearly 20 years so at this stage they could lamb a weanling. Romney’s and mules are very roomy sheep. Very rare to have to handle a Romney

Lambman

Where did you source your Romney's? Can you give me a pros and cons off the Romney's if it's not 2 much bother please

razor8

I’m a firm believer that breeding your own replacements is only way that will breed a flock that has less foot issues, lambing problems etc no matter what the breed. I’ve always kept strongest twin & triplets for last 20 years

Pros
The romneys are very easy lambing
Very little assistance needed
Lots of milk
good tight elders that lambs find easily
Very attentive mother’s


Cons
but as said before not as prolific as mules
Have a lot of wool and should probably dag pre lambing

Sourced in Northern Ireland off Billy O’Kane

https://www.donedeal.ie/sheep-for-sale/new-zealand-romney-rams/13553478

Lambman

What kinda scanning % would you expect from the Romney's? Are they out off season breeders like the Dorset?

razor8

No not out of season breeders. As said in this previous post only scanned over 1.7. My target would be to wean 1.7 so slightly below where I’d like them to be

serfspup

would the romneys out live the mules?

razor8

Can’t tell you that, oldest is 3 year old here.