Anyone raised any Texels?

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:clap: :clap: :clap: Pat yourself on the back. A shame you never learned a little modesty along the way. People might be more apt to listen to your rants knowing you wern't going to make fun of them or put them down for doing things "the way they do it". :nod: :nod: :nod:
 
When I first began in the Cattle Business, in 1982, I bought 5 Blk angus, 5 Red Angus, 5 Red Lims, 5 Beef Shorthorns, 5 charolais, 5 Santa Gertrudis, 5 Horned Herefords and 5 FB Flek Simms all Purebreds except the FB Simms (I will assume you know the difference) and used AI for all my PB cows.

I know the difference between PB and FB Fleckvieu Simmental, but I am afraid I don't know the difference when it comes to BA, RA and Hereford, maybe you can explain?

Do you believe your sample size was big enough to make the data you collected in 6 years time meaningfull when seen in the bigger (global) picture?

I never would have guessed your age, you are really carrying your years well.
 
Keren":2hl0goc3 said:
Oh. My. God.

Get over it!

Do you guys not realise that sheep and cattle can work very well together in an agroecosystem. Goats work well with more traditional livestock species, too.

I did a lot of work breeding texels a few years back with ET recips and AI. They produce great carcasses; but we did have a high percentage of dystocia, higher than I would have liked, simply due to big lambs. We did a lot of cut-throat or sacrificial caesars on the recips. A few other things to consider, I found their temperament not to be the best, they were pretty fond of barging straight through you, and some of them were a little to extreme frame score wise.

Incidently, at the same time we were doing similar stuff with Finn sheep. I really like these little guys, boy they are lamb raising machines. Not the carcase of the Texel of course, we had some really nice Texel cross Finn ewes, but really not a market for them, people look at you like you are nuts. We had to be really careful when we were AI'ing the Finns; we normally give a shot of PMSG to boost fecundity - I had one ewe that had seven - yes, seven - lambs. They were born, assisted, about a month early (needless to say, not alive) and they were tiny.

I was wondering what kind of sheep would you recommend for clothing material for lattitude 33 degrees north just in case our economy falters further. Would Texels be sufficient?
 
HerefordSire":5ixht1go said:
Keren":5ixht1go said:
Oh. My. God.

Get over it!

Do you guys not realise that sheep and cattle can work very well together in an agroecosystem. Goats work well with more traditional livestock species, too.

I did a lot of work breeding texels a few years back with ET recips and AI. They produce great carcasses; but we did have a high percentage of dystocia, higher than I would have liked, simply due to big lambs. We did a lot of cut-throat or sacrificial caesars on the recips. A few other things to consider, I found their temperament not to be the best, they were pretty fond of barging straight through you, and some of them were a little to extreme frame score wise.

Incidently, at the same time we were doing similar stuff with Finn sheep. I really like these little guys, boy they are lamb raising machines. Not the carcase of the Texel of course, we had some really nice Texel cross Finn ewes, but really not a market for them, people look at you like you are nuts. We had to be really careful when we were AI'ing the Finns; we normally give a shot of PMSG to boost fecundity - I had one ewe that had seven - yes, seven - lambs. They were born, assisted, about a month early (needless to say, not alive) and they were tiny.

I was wondering what kind of sheep would you recommend for clothing material for lattitude 33 degrees north just in case our economy falters further. Would Texels be sufficient?

merino
 
TY Knersie! Any other recommendations anyone?

Another sheep question if you don't mind...anyone...

With the current pending US methane legislation regarding livestock....are sheep included like cattle? For example, @ $87 per head bovine methane tax @ 200 head for example, would be close to $17K per year. Without this tax I am showing a loss.
 
HerefordSire":1rw6z4s6 said:
TY Knersie! Any other recommendations anyone?

Another sheep question if you don't mind...anyone...

With the current pending US methane legislation regarding livestock....are sheep included like cattle? For example, @ $87 per head bovine methane tax @ 200 head for example, would be close to $17K per year. Without this tax I am showing a loss.

For grazing we figure 7 SSU to be the equivalent of 1 LSU, if the flatulence is proportionate I guess 7 sheep will fart as much as 1 cow.
 
Postby TexasBred on Tue Dec 30, 2008 6:25 am
:clap: :clap: :clap: Pat yourself on the back. A shame you never learned a little modesty along the way. People might be more apt to listen to your rants knowing you wern't going to make fun of them or put them down for doing things "the way they do it". :nod: :nod: :nod:

Agreed & well said :tiphat:
 
brandonm_13":2c2bw0wz said:
It may be a cattle forum, but I can tell you that sheep definately correlate to cattle production. Sheep and goats have been used for weed prevention for years, without the side effects that pesticides give. And for anyone that thinks they are nasty, when's the last time you saw them peeing or taking a dump in a pond, while drinking out of it at the same time? Cattle do it all the time. We just have a prejudice against them.

Sheep eat weeds? If so, what other benefits do sheep provide besides clothing and meat?
 
4CT - I'm afraid we didnt do a lot of crossbreeding with the Texels so I probably cant answer that question accurately. We were involved mainly in importing genetic material and the stud flock was our main priority. Of the few Texel/Finn cross ewes, we didnt have lambing problems, but I attribute that more to the fecundity of the Finn, not sure what the result would be using a Texel on other breed ewes.

Hfordsire - if you are after sheep for clothing more than anything, you dont really have much choice other than merino. If you are wanting a bit of meat production too, get a Merino ewe flock, figure out how many replacements you need and join the top whatever % of your ewes to a good merino ram to get enough replacements, join the rest of the flock to a good Poll Dorset or another terminal breed, you will still be getting your wool check from the female side of the flock but you will have great fat lambs to sell.
 
HerefordSire":3qd76vol said:
brandonm_13":3qd76vol said:
It may be a cattle forum, but I can tell you that sheep definately correlate to cattle production. Sheep and goats have been used for weed prevention for years, without the side effects that pesticides give. And for anyone that thinks they are nasty, when's the last time you saw them peeing or taking a dump in a pond, while drinking out of it at the same time? Cattle do it all the time. We just have a prejudice against them.

Sheep eat weeds? If so, what other benefits do sheep provide besides clothing and meat?

They graze to a different height than cattle do, so if you want to clean out a pasture sheep work very well in combination with cattle. The turnover is much quicker with sheep than with cattle and over here the profit margin and generation turnover is also much higher. As always the downside is more intensive management and very regular parasite control.

Under good conditions a ewe can lamb 3 times every 2 years and depending on breed multiple births can almost be the norm. Dorper sheep for instance have a typical lambing % of 150%, figure this into the 3 lambing seasons in 2 years and you and you get an annual lambing % of 225% (in theory). Add to this that lambs are harvested from 3 months onwards under good conditions its easy to see why sheep is more profitable.

You just need good fences, need to be prepaired to do predator control, know how to use dogs, make good friends with representatives of the various animal health companies, and accept that you'll have more losses than with cattle. Over here three lambs will bring the same as one weaner calf.
 
HerefordSire":wm1xmw1n said:
brandonm_13":wm1xmw1n said:
It may be a cattle forum, but I can tell you that sheep definately correlate to cattle production. Sheep and goats have been used for weed prevention for years, without the side effects that pesticides give. And for anyone that thinks they are nasty, when's the last time you saw them peeing or taking a dump in a pond, while drinking out of it at the same time? Cattle do it all the time. We just have a prejudice against them.

Sheep eat weeds? If so, what other benefits do sheep provide besides clothing and meat?

Yep, sheep eats weeds. Local university made tests where Finn sheeps and Hereford cows with their calves grazed together. Results were good. Many weeds were eaten by sheeps. Also cattle protected sheeps from wolves. the Only problem was that one of the cows didnt like sheeps very much and killed some :lol2:
 
hey thanks for your info -- just was interested in the meat quality of the Texel as I wasnt interested in the wool end of it. I have seen a few cattle outfits using sheep for mulrispecies grazing to help eliminate the need and use for the ever waning commercial wormer. Our place is closed to all other cattle operations and every vehicle has to go thru a bio-security checkpoint before entering. About 5 yrs ago I took a trip to Beltsville MD experiment station and they have a herd of Angus up there that havent been wormed in years because they dont need it due to their closed operation and parasite free pastures. We do the same thing here and just wanted to know about the Texel because I had heard good things about the meat quality etc.... and living in a high Hispanic area I can sell a few lambs a week easily any time of the year for some mad money

Thanks again
T
 
4CTophand":3fw8o2p0 said:
hey thanks for your info -- just was interested in the meat quality of the Texel as I wasnt interested in the wool end of it. I have seen a few cattle outfits using sheep for mulrispecies grazing to help eliminate the need and use for the ever waning commercial wormer. Our place is closed to all other cattle operations and every vehicle has to go thru a bio-security checkpoint before entering. About 5 yrs ago I took a trip to Beltsville MD experiment station and they have a herd of Angus up there that havent been wormed in years because they dont need it due to their closed operation and parasite free pastures. We do the same thing here and just wanted to know about the Texel because I had heard good things about the meat quality etc.... and living in a high Hispanic area I can sell a few lambs a week easily any time of the year for some mad money

Thanks again
T


Where I live, we are becoming a majority Hispanic population. Hispanics like lamb?
 
West of us are a good number of RMs but not many in this area. I don;t know about worms in sheep but it seems like most of the goat wormers are pretty ineffective unless the grass is kept knee high or it's barren ground.
 
Where I live, we are becoming a majority Hispanic population. Hispanics like lamb?[/quote]
yeah they sure do
 
Keren":3t1moc2r said:
If your facilities allow it, you are better off using some Boer goats, get the same results for weed control etc and the hispanics will take more goats than sheep
No thanks,, when I was in Grad school I had to teach a repro lab with Boer Goats and never been a Goat man.
 
Keren":2q72xb3n said:
Dun ... remember you are talking to an Aussie ... we live off them, and they taste great. I actually like sheep better than beef (hiding now, please dont kill me) but I like goat better than sheep. I will admit they are born looking for a way to die.

At least I dont eat lutefisk

Keren-

E-e-e-u-u-u! If you would like a way to "wean" yourself OFF of goat meat, try eating COLD Goatmeat sandwiches on plain old White bread! That would run a buzzard off of a Garbage Dump! :devil2: :???:

DOC HARRIS
 
HerefordSire":17u0u26r said:
TY Knersie! Any other recommendations anyone?

Another sheep question if you don't mind...anyone...

With the current pending US methane legislation regarding livestock....are sheep included like cattle? For example, @ $87 per head bovine methane tax @ 200 head for example, would be close to $17K per year. Without this tax I am showing a loss.



It appears sheep are also included in the proposed methane tax at a 4 to 1 ratio relative to beef cows. Therefore, no need to raise sheep unless below the numbers specified which are probably dependent upon the ability to make a living.

....According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a farm with just 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cows, or 200 hogs, sheep or goats exceeds the 100-ton minimum....

http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/230921
 

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