General Blue Texel | Bearwood Lleyn Sheep

Things Calm Down As Ewes Go To The Tup

We have had a busy autumn selling breeding stock. Over 250 females and 30 rams have been sold privately or through Breed Society Sales. Many customers return to buy breeding animals off the farm and therefore it is important that I have different bloodlines for them to choose from and that my records are accurate. Electronic identification and a good livestock management computer program is essential. I am fed up with taking bits of paper out to the field; which disintegrate and become unreadable, to answer customers questions on pedigree, performance figures, lambing history etc; that next year I will have a tablet computer with all the information to hand in one box.

The rams have been out with the ewes for the past month and ewe lambs are being tupped at the moment. The rams will be pulled out of the ewes next week and will be left in with the ewe lambs for another 16 days. 70% of the ewe lambs have gone to the ram already.

I have sold 90% of the fat lambs off grass. Usually I sell deadweight, however, in August/September when they should have graded at 40 – 44kg, they were that weight but did not have the flesh on them due to the wet summer. Consequently they have graded in the last 6 weeks at 45 – 55kgs. The deadweight only pays for carcases to 21kg deadweight (44kg live weight) and so I have been selling these lambs through the market. The higher weights mean I have been getting an acceptable price for the year and I have not had the extra cost of feeding expensive concentrate.

For the next couple of months I will be busy going around the grass fields repairing fences so that everything is ready for ewes and lambs next spring and catching up with paperwork during wet days.

Lleyn Ram and Blue Texel Females Purchased

I had a busy day at the NSA Ram Sale at Builth Wells yesterday.

I purchased a yearling Lleyn ram from Wynne Davies, Pwllheli. This ram has great length, good skin and a great head. He will be primarily used for breeding females.

I also purchased three Blue Texel ewes; two yearlings and one 3 year old. I now have 16 Blue Texel ewes and these are the foundation ewes of this new flock. The female bloodlines are strongly influenced by David Alexander’s Millside breeding, while the male bloodlines are from the breeding of Sue Andrews’s Miserden flock.

I have been impressed with my first Blue Texel lamb crop and this autumn I am putting a small number of Lleyn ewes to the Blue Texel tup to see what this cross will be like.

Sale Season Well Under Way

The sale season is well under way. Yearling rams and ewe lambs have been sold at Lleyn Sheep Society Sales at Exeter, Ruthin and Ross on Wye so far with the yearling rams averaging £945.00.

Ewe lambs have been sold off the farm to start pedigree Lleyn Flocks in Sussex, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire and rams have gone to Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Sussex, Devon, Shropshire, Worcestershire and Cambridgeshire to name a few. Many customers are repeat customers with one person coming back for the 10th year.

I am selling ewe lambs and yearling rams on the 29th September at the Lleyn Sheep Society Sale at Welshpool. This will be my last sale of the season.

I am keeping all my Blue Texel ewe lambs to build up the flock and 2 ram lambs. One yearling ram, Millend Thunder Bold has been sold to Staffordshire and a couple of ram lambs are heading to commercial flocks in Herefordshire.

New Blue Texel Purchases

Blue Texel Yearling Ewes Purchased At Worcester

4 Blue Texel yearling ewes were purchased at the Blue Texel Sheep Society Sale at Worcester Livestock Market last Saturday. They come from the MAC flock of Heather McCurdie, Warwickshire. I bought a couple of yearling ewes from the same flock last year and they have done very well here at Bearwood during the past 12 months, lambing on their own and rearing their lambs off grass.

Blue Texel Rams Purchased

I went to the NSA Ram Sale at Builth Wells, mid-Wales yesterday to look at Blue Texel rams. I purchased the winner of the ram lamb class at the Blue Texel Sheep Society’s pre-sale show, Miserden Trump Card. This ram lamb was bred by Sue Andrews of Miserden Blue Texels and was sired by Pen-y-Bec Old Blue Arrow, who has been used extensively in the Miserden flock, out of a daughter of one of Miserden’s foundation ewes bought from Dennis Davies. I have also got the use of Pen-y-Bec Old Blue Arrow to put on a few ewes this season.

My second purchase at Builth was ram lamb Millend Thunder Bold. This ram lamb is by a Millend tup out of a Marteg ewe. Both ram lambs have settled in well at Bearwood after their ordeal at the sales.

I was aware that my female ewes were all from a particular bloodline and I am very pleased that the rams that I will be using this season are not closely related to the ewes and will compliment them well.

Blue Texel Flock Established

Last Friday I attended the Millside Blue Texel Production Sale in Carlisle. 60 head of Blue Texel male and females from the flock of David Alexander were sold. I purchased 1 three year old, 1 two year old and 6 yearling females and with the purchase of 2 yearlings from Dan Jones of Jonsland Blue Texels, I now have my foundation flock of 10 females. There was alot of interest in the Breed at Carlisle with breeders from the Lleyn, Beltex and Charollais world looking to purchase breeding animals.

I am interested in using a Blue Texel tup on some of my Lleyns and David Alexander had some gimmers of this cross for sale at Carlisle; very impressive sheep that I believe would be of great interest to the commercial farmer.