Tups in Tarset

I did say I hoped to be able to let you know what types of tups came into the area this year, so I had a quick whizz round the valley, camera in hand and have come up with the following:

Hexham type Blackfaced tup

Scotch type Blackfaced tup from Stirling and a South Country Cheviot tup

Scotch type Blackfaced tup from Lanark

Swaledale tups from St John's Chapel, Weardale

South Country Cheviots from Lockerbie

Blue faced Leicester from Hexham

millenium blue and texel from Carlisle

There may be others that I'm not aware of but this gives you a good cross section of tups to be used this year. The horned sheep will all be breeding replacement hill sheep. The cheviots will be used for crossing on the hill ewes to give a better store lamb although some are introducing Cheviot ewes into their flocks

The bluefaced leicester crossed onto a blackface or swaledale sheep produces a breed known as a mule which is the mainstay breed used by lowland sheep producers. Thousands of mule ewe lambs are sold every back end through Hexham mart, they will be crossed with terminal sires such as suffolks or texels to produce prime fat lambs.

The millenium blue (cross between blue de maine and texel) and the texel are crossed onto almost anything to give a good fat lamb, although these two will be used for pure breeding by a farmer with better ground which carries texel ewes.

So there you go - food for thought - because ultimately that is what these boys will be producing - food.