Easiest ewe to care for

OneMan37

Which is the best ewe during lambing or best cross ewe ?

I recently moved into lambing Belclare ewes and find them a joy to lamb, quiet, good mothers, with plenty milk, and fairy easy lambed compared to the Texels I used to keep. Also have some Hilltex, for the first year, interested to see what they are like to lamb etc

kay 9

OneMan37 wrote: »

Which is the best ewe during lambing or best cross ewe ?

I recently moved into lambing Belclare ewes and find them a joy to lamb, quiet, good mothers, with plenty milk, and fairy easy lambed compared to the Texels I used to keep. Also have some Hilltex, for the first year, interested to see what they are like to lamb etc

Interested in this myself.
After the lambing season I've had I think mules may be overrated.

White Clover

I have around 20 belclare ewes lambed this year, its our first year with belclare here. So far they're not great at keeping both lambs with them. In comparison, my own suffolk's are never without their lambs by their side.

charolais0153

White Clover wrote: »

I have around 20 belclare ewes lambed this year, its our first year with belclare here. So far they're not great at keeping both lambs with them. In comparison, my own suffolk's are never without their lambs by their side.

I always think the grass is greener on the otjer side. As has been said before,theres bigger variation between a good belclare and a bad one tahn a good suffolk and a good belclare .

kay 9

Anyone on here have Lleyn ewes? Can't seem to come upon many negatives on them bar they're not monsters.i wouldn't mind if I could run a few more, it'd make up the difference

wrangler

kay 9 wrote: »

Anyone on here have Lleyn ewes? Can't seem to come upon many negatives on them bar they're not monsters.i wouldn't mind if I could run a few more, it'd make up the difference

We use Lleyn here, they're as easycare as you'd get in a lowland farm, we cross them back amd forth with texel to breed replacement because I don't think they're big enough either.
Apart from a hill flock i don't think there's any flock that you can leave 10 or 12 hours to lamb themselves

kay 9

wrangler wrote: »

We use Lleyn here, they're as easycare as you'd get in a lowland farm, we cross them back amd forth with texel to breed replacement because I don't think they're big enough either.
Apart from a hill flock i don't think there's any flock that you can leave 10 or 12 hours to lamb themselves

Sound good. What are they like put back in lamb to a pb Lleyn again? Small as you say I guess.
These bastids I have can't be left 20 mins on their own tbh, I'd be as well off with pedigrees .
The Lleyn look a nice sheep and sound good.

kay 9

The only thing going for the mule ewe imo is milk and they're good to look after their lambs.
Other than that, they're short lived and poor having their own lambs. I can't imagine crossing them on a Suffolk ram.

Green farmer

Have Lleyns here as well. Really good mother’s. Been breeding my own replacements for a few years now. However, there is a lot of variation within the breed. Some like showjumping and abit wild. After trial and error, I found the “stocky” rams give me the quiet type of ewes that work out best here. Also found the Lleyns to have good feet.

wrangler

kay 9 wrote: »

Sound good. What are they like put back in lamb to a pb Lleyn again? Small as you say I guess.
These bastids I have can't be left 20 mins on their own tbh, I'd be as well off with pedigrees .
The Lleyn look a nice sheep and sound good.

Nothing would tempt me back to purebred breeding, even the purebred Lleyns that I bought last year gave me a reminder that you need some bit of a cross in them.
We used to have 500 commercial ewes and 50 pedigree vendeens and the 500 were less trouble lambing

Green farmer

You ever find a huge variation in the Lleyns wrangler ?

jd06

We have cheviot and borris ewes here,
Cheviot s are great mothers plenty of milk but would only scan around 1.5
The borris ewes are great all rounders, size profligacy, and good mothers too

kay 9

Green farmer wrote: »

Have Lleyns here as well. Really good mother’s. Been breeding my own replacements for a few years now. However, there is a lot of variation within the breed. Some like showjumping and abit wild. After trial and error, I found the “stocky” rams give me the quiet type of ewes that work out best here. Also found the Lleyns to have good feet.

That's one thing I don't want is wild sheep.
Takes time to get into the right ones. Same as any breed I suppose.
I remember getting a few replacement mules and a red deer wouldn't jump like them. They wouldn't leave a wall standing if kept.
Rounded up and shipped off they were.
They went into local forestry and thought we'd never get some of them

wrangler

Green farmer wrote: »

You ever find a huge variation in the Lleyns wrangler ?

Yea, unlike you I prefer the bigger type, more maternal, wouldn't be looking for them very square

Lambman

I like have some Suffolk in my ewes whatever it is about them I've no bother lambing them till a texel or charrlois ram they seem till have twice the room inside them as a texel or mule if you do have till assist them. Never use a Suffolk ram here though so buy in a few Suffolk x hoggets most years. If you get 4 lambings outta a mule get rid nothing but bother after that.

Green farmer

wrangler wrote: »

Yea, unlike you I prefer the bigger type, more maternal, wouldn't be looking for them very square

There’s a big narrow framed type of out there. Hard to fatten. Their the ones I’m not too gone on. Think they could have cheviot blood in them. the ones I prefer, have some texel blood sneaked into them at some stage and are docile, but still medium to big sheep.

eire23

wrangler wrote: »

Yea, unlike you I prefer the bigger type, more maternal, wouldn't be looking for them very square

Green farmer wrote: »

There’s a big narrow framed type of out there. Hard to fatten. Their the ones I’m not too gone on. Think they could have cheviot blood in them. the ones I prefer, have some texel blood sneaked into them at some stage and are docile, but still medium to big sheep.

Keep lleyns here..all are pure and put back to charollais or lleyn rams but put a Suffolk with them this year as well. Imo alot of lleyns are to small and fine..have been told mine are getting to big the bigger and stronger the better imv.

OneMan37

Lambman wrote: »

I like have some Suffolk in my ewes whatever it is about them I've no bother lambing them till a texel or charrlois ram they seem till have twice the room inside them as a texel or mule if you do have till assist them. Never use a Suffolk ram here though so buy in a few Suffolk x hoggets most years. If you get 4 lambings outta a mule get rid nothing but bother after that.

Yes, this is true. Might buy a few Suffolk ewe lambs this summer and test them out, as I've never really lambed big strong Suffolk's. Ewes with Suffolk blood throw out strong lambs. Only drawback from my perspective is they tend to be dirtier sheep.

Dinzee Conlee

OneMan37 wrote: »

Yes, this is true. Might buy a few Suffolk ewe lambs this summer and test them out, as I've never really lambed big strong Suffolk's. Ewes with Suffolk blood throw out strong lambs. Only drawback from my perspective is they then to be dirtier sheep.

They do tend to be dirtier - but I think this is something you can avoid over time, if you cull for it.

Sheepman2

A lot of variation between mules aswell infairness, a well bred one will last a long time. As them for being wild all depends on how used they are to seeing the farmer walk through the field and being handled like any sheep.

kay 9

Sheepman2 wrote: »

A lot of variation between mules aswell infairness, a well bred one will last a long time. As them for being wild all depends on how used they are to seeing the farmer walk through the field and being handled like any sheep.

Have to agree. Most of mine will eat out of my hand in fairness. There's wild stock and then there's quiet.
My cattle are very docile as well.

Sheep breeder

The easiest ewe is the sheep that suits the farm land and the labour involved and the biggest is it suits the owner. All talk about breeds which are great for this and easy care and New Zealand genes won’t convert/change minds away from what is traditionally done in areas.
Not going to convert a hill man from hornies to lleyns or a Suffolk ram to a vendeen not to simple.
Over the years have seen different breeds come as the new big thing and not get going. Look at the new craze black nose and Dutch spotted were are they going. It’s all about what suits and makes money, one guy that I know does fancy store lambs for June to August sales every week and was traditionally finishing all his sheep as hoggets in feb to April and the reason for change kids and school runs and the new system has 100 more ewes and a lot less labour in the winter and a lot more income and less expenses.
Look at the Cheviot ewe was traditionally the back bone of flock replacement in the east of the country and now the Cheviot is barely fit to rear one lamb and the Suffolk ram is all about bucket heads and legs.
The lleyn was going to next big breed and now has had to crossed to improve from a small handy ewe and needs a muscle injection of ram to have a saleable product.

kk.man

Sheep breeder wrote: »

The easiest ewe is the sheep that suits the farm land and the labour involved and the biggest is it suits the owner. All talk about breeds which are great for this and easy care and New Zealand genes won’t convert/change minds away from what is traditionally done in areas.
Not going to convert a hill man from hornies to lleyns or a Suffolk ram to a vendeen not to simple.
Over the years have seen different breeds come as the new big thing and not get going. Look at the new craze black nose and Dutch spotted were are they going. It’s all about what suits and makes money, one guy that I know does fancy store lambs for June to August sales every week and was traditionally finishing all his sheep as hoggets in feb to April and the reason for change kids and school runs and the new system has 100 more ewes and a lot less labour in the winter and a lot more income and less expenses.
Look at the Cheviot ewe was traditionally the back bone of flock replacement in the east of the country and now the Cheviot is barely fit to rear one lamb and the Suffolk ram is all about bucket heads and legs.
The lleyn was going to next big breed and now has had to crossed to improve from a small handy ewe and needs a muscle injection of ram to have a saleable product.

Very good post.

stantheman1979

Every breed you can think of has come through our place. All have good and bad points. The honest answer to this question is what breed suits your location, set up and what you want out of them. Personally I want a compact milky ewe that will rear her lambs. I’ve a automatic machine for pet lambs so triplets don’t phase me, the more lambs I have the more profit. Hate seeing ewes walking around with one lamb so will try foster another lamb onto all singles. But some lads on bad ground hate seeing too many twins and triplets are a real disaster. It depends on what you want to achieve

davidk1394

Had nearly every type of a ewe here. At the moment the Easycare sheep we have suit our system well. Big lambs, milk and good to finish

Dickie10

breeding lleyn cross ewe lamms the last 5 years here, very hard to find fault with them some my first ones are now 5 year old and very little problems brilliant cross lambs to get up and drink and as mothers they never need intervention only if breach or backways very roomy in backend. quiet temprement. males can be hard to finish if there a cheviot cross. lleyn crossed on suffolk ewes tend to give short ass ewes thoough. id say lleyn x texel are ideal , they would give the texel much more room in back end but also leave much meater lambs. also buy 3/4 suffolk/belclare and 1/2 suffolk/belclare ewe lambs off a neighbour find these excelent sheep, had some that went to 8 year old and gave 7 lamb crops.

orm0nd

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

They do tend to be dirtier - but I think this is something you can avoid over time, if you cull for it.

A copper bolus often helps clean up Suffolk ewes especially if they are showing browny heads.

White Clover

orm0nd wrote: »

A copper bolus often helps clean up Suffolk ewes especially if they are showing browny heads.

Ormond, Would it be safe to give to suffolk's whose dams may have had some texel breeding in them?

wrangler

White Clover wrote: »

Ormond, Would it be safe to give to suffolk's whose dams may have had some texel breeding in them?

We give copper here to the vendeen lambs out of texel x with no ill effects

Western Pomise

Are Belclare ewes hard or easy fed?....often thought of trying some sheep with a small bit of Belclare in them to bring up the lambing % a bit.
In the West here,wouldn’t really see any Belclare sheep in marts here,what counties are they most popular/common in?

Dickie10

a man beside me has 1100 ewes and belclare are the backbone he has a farm in south rosscommon as well , they would be under pressure on two lambs down there in fairness but the land is gravelly and dosent get much fertiliser or lime, great lambing percntage though. he crosses them on suffolk and back and forth so some belclare 3/4 some sufolk 3/4.

OneMan37

I'm new to the breed, but I find them easier fed than my previous Texel's. Altho I also had Lleyn and they were easy kept. But I think for the lambs one gets from a Belclare and the prolificy then they aren't hard kept, I have one ewe raring 2 lambs on one teat pretty well and had a ewe rare 4 lambs last year. My friend keeps Milford ewes which are also prolific, but they are hungry ewes, and the lambs don't make as much as the Belclare unless they are good ewe lambs.