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The Doughery Charollais sheep flock (XYU) was established in November 2005 with the purchase of 2 in lamb shearling ewes from the Tullyear flock of Drew Cowan. These 2 ewes were very sucessful for us and produced 2 lambs each in the first year with one ewe lamb out of QY4147 going on to win the ewe lamb class at Saintfield show on only her third outing.
In 2006 and 2007 we added other females, purchasing 4 ewes and 4 ewe lambs from the Riverdale flock of Sharon and Norman McMordie, 3 shearling ewes from the Rockvilla flock of David and Liz Mawhinney, and a ewe lamb from each of the Banville flock of Bryan Berry, the Cardoonan flock of Ian Goudy and the Beechview flock of George Booth. We are currently running 41 pedigree ewes and 14 ewe lambs.
Why did we pick charollais sheep ?
We picked Charollais sheep for the following reasons Easy lambing - this is very important when you have 200 commercial ewes to look after as well and is very helpful at three oclock in the morning. There is a good market for them as they are recognized as a get up and go breed being very easy to manage because of their easy lambing abilities. They regulary make the top prices at prime livestock sales because they can be taken to heavier weights without being over fat.
The current flock consists of 31 ewes, including all the ewes the flock was established with we are still sorting them out and hope to retain the flock around the 35 or 40 ewe mark. The flock lambs in early December onwards with the ewes being artifically inseminated. All ewes are lambed inside and after about a week old are batched up and remain outside. They are then weaned at 12 weeks. |
