Black at both ends

390kid

Last night during a high stool discussion Suffolk sheep came up with one fella arguing they were a disaster to keep clean, now I’m familiar with this problem but another argued his point that this trait was down to a mineral deficiency! Is there any truth in this? I’ve never heard of it and just wondering could anyone shed some light on it

wrangler

390kid wrote: »

Last night during a high stool discussion Suffolk sheep came up with one fella arguing they were a disaster to keep clean, now I’m familiar with this problem but another argued his point that this trait was down to a mineral deficiency! Is there any truth in this? I’ve never heard of it and just wondering could anyone shed some light on it

They're fairly ****ty alright, apparently the have a huge appetite;;;I suppose it has to come out somewehere..... dirty backsides is their default mode, nothing to worry about, it doesn't seem to do the any harm.
Just edited to say that i was at farm walk in scotland during the summer and the farmer was using Sufftex (suffolk cross Texel) rams with his ewes, Texel for conformation, suffolk for performance, He had lovely lambs so they're good for something

Green farmer

Got one to try out across my Lleyns last year. Their better then what I taught. Surprisingly easier lambed then the texel I was previously using, but dopier. Heavy birth weights. They have been slower out the gate compared to the Charollais. Still out of what’s left knocking around the place their really pulling on the weight now (out of a bag) but will probably k.o at max weights. I’ll be interested myself to see how they get on in a normal (non drought) year. Also found they are dirtier around the tale, but clean up equally as well as everything else after dosing.

Dinzee Conlee

Had Suffolk’s here for a long time, so I would be a bit biased, but I think a lot of the negative press for Suffolk’s is a bit unfair...

True, they can be dirty, some of them more than others. I have found more variation in breed than outside nearly... Lameness can be an issue as well... but find a strain that don’t suffer from lameness or dirt and you will have super sheep... great to put on weight, good mothers with good milk...

The Suffolk is a good all round breed, both for meat and milk - so factory lambs and replacement ewes...

Charolais are good as well green_farmer, but I found Charolais ewes bad for milk.

Lads give out about them, but there is still Suffolk breeding in a lot of the National flock, and continues to be... speckled face sheep are always in demand... And I think a nice thick black faced ewe is a lovely animal - not too pure though, I think when they are too pure they can have issues... but I wonder is that the same for a good few breeds?

wrangler

Green farmer wrote: »

Got one to try out across my Lleyns last year. Their better then what I taught. Surprisingly easier lambed then the texel I was previously using, but dopier. Heavy birth weights. They have been slower out the gate compared to the Charollais. Still out of what’s left knocking around the place their really pulling on the weight now (out of a bag) but will probably k.o at max weights. I’ll be interested myself to see how they get on in a normal (non drought) year. Also found they are dirtier around the tale, but clean up equally as well as everything else after dosing.

I'd be interested to hear how you get on, I tried the cross years ago with Lleyn ram and black suffolk ewes expecting those nice grey faced sheep.
For some reason they came looking like hill sheep, more hairy than wooly so never tried it again...... ewes must have had something in their backbreeding

Green farmer

wrangler wrote: »

I'd be interested to hear how you get on, I tried the cross years ago with Lleyn ram and black suffolk ewes expecting those nice grey faced sheep.
For some reason they came looking like hill sheep, more hairy than wooly so never tried it again...... ewes must have had something in their backbreeding

The variation could have been caused by the Lleyns as well. I see a crazy variation in the Lleyns here. The Suffolk and charolais rams offspring aren’t retained, but who knows what I’ll try in the future.

razor8

I found copper supplements worked great at drying up Suffolk sheep’s back ends and left there faces a lot blacker than brown

Dinzee Conlee

wrangler wrote: »

I'd be interested to hear how you get on, I tried the cross years ago with Lleyn ram and black suffolk ewes expecting those nice grey faced sheep.
For some reason they came looking like hill sheep, more hairy than wooly so never tried it again...... ewes must have had something in their backbreeding

Put a Lleyn on our ewes once. Had a lot of brown faced ewe lambs, and very white faced lambs, nice lambs I thought... none of em were very patchy or speckled... wool was normal for us...
quiet like the Suffolk, but could be jumpy enough from the lleyn... didn’t breed em though, so not sure what they would have been like for mothers...

Some of the lambs were savage tall though, very leggy for some reason...

charolais0153

First year there wont be a suffolk lamb here since their was only galway sheep around. A lot easuer get a good charollais or texel that i like fompared to the suffolk. I dont really fancy them at all

390kid

razor8 wrote: »

I found copper supplements worked great at drying up Suffolk sheep’s back ends and left there faces a lot blacker than brown

What way did you give them razor?

carrollsno1

Green farmer wrote: »

Got one to try out across my Lleyns last year. Their better then what I taught. Surprisingly easier lambed then the texel I was previously using, but dopier. Heavy birth weights. They have been slower out the gate compared to the Charollais. Still out of what’s left knocking around the place their really pulling on the weight now (out of a bag) but will probably k.o at max weights. I’ll be interested myself to see how they get on in a normal (non drought) year. Also found they are dirtier around the tale, but clean up equally as well as everything else after dosing.

Out of interest what is the biggest weight youll keep them to? Was loading lambs one day in Western Australia and they were around 1 year old averaging 80kg plus, i thought they were savage big to be selling but that was the norm he said. They were South African meat merino (SAMMs) sheep and i had a few chops off them and found them very fatty but tasted great and probably would be docked for the fat in Ireland. We discussed using them in Ireland but the climate would ruin them because of their wool and feet apparently. Also they woukd have been mainly fed concentrates the whole way through as there wasnt really anything else for them to eat.

charolais0153

razor8 wrote: »

I found copper supplements worked great at drying up Suffolk sheep’s back ends and left there faces a lot blacker than brown

You could be onto something there. Sheep wouldnt really get Copper otherwise

Green farmer

carrollsno1 wrote: »

Out of interest what is the biggest weight youll keep them to? Was loading lambs one day in Western Australia and they were around 1 year old averaging 80kg plus, i thought they were savage big to be selling but that was the norm he said. They were South African meat merino (SAMMs) sheep and i had a few chops off them and found them very fatty but tasted great and probably would be docked for the fat in Ireland. We discussed using them in Ireland but the climate would ruin them because of their wool and feet apparently. Also they woukd have been mainly fed concentrates the whole way through as there wasnt really anything else for them to eat.

45-50kg and their gone out the gate. Just slow this year having to be finished on meal. Normally would be grass fed to be gone in the autumn, but the drought last summer changed all that.

wrangler

charolais0153 wrote: »

You could be onto something there. Sheep wouldnt really get Copper otherwise

We give copper here to anything that isn't texel/lleyn, we'd give it to vendeens out of texel/lleyns though, we used to find it difficult to keep the adult vendeen rams looking right and tried copper and they really improved so then tried it on the all the lambs. they all showed an improvement in thrive but the white lambs were more prone to photosynthesis , appparently it puts pressure on the livers of white sheep. So from then we just gave it to the vendeen lambs.
We use Coisecure, it has other minerals as well

Green farmer

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

Put a Lleyn on our ewes once. Had a lot of brown faced ewe lambs, and very white faced lambs, nice lambs I thought... none of em were very patchy or speckled... wool was normal for us...
quiet like the Suffolk, but could be jumpy enough from the lleyn... didn’t breed em though, so not sure what they would have been like for mothers...

Some of the lambs were savage tall though, very leggy for some reason...

Reckon there’s a strain of Lleyns that have cheviot blood in them, the long narrow types. Also reckon there’s another strain of Lleyn that have texel blood in them, the wider non show jumping type. had a 3/4 Breed Lleyn lamb this year that had colouring similar to a blue texel. put it down to the breed expanding very fast.

razor8

390kid wrote: »

What way did you give them razor?

Any way at all. Used cosecure and any drench with added copper. Drench doesn’t last but it’s worth trying to see if any improvement

Lambman

I like the suffolk ewes... the first ewes I bought were suffolk hoggets and I'd still buy a few good suffolk hoggets every year... I find them a super cross with the charrlois ram, lambs are lively and grow and kill out very well... suffolks lambs can be dirty but I find when the get a year old they seem till keep as clean as anything we have here. I don't keep any lambs off the cross but I might in the future charrlois ewes get a bad name for no milk which I don't think is 100% warranted... I bought 6 suffolk x charrlois hoggets same cross as mine but other way around and they were fine big ewes and scanned with 15 lambs 14 lived so there prolific aswell.

orm0nd

razor8 wrote: »

I found copper supplements worked great at drying up Suffolk sheep’s back ends and left there faces a lot blacker than brown

+1