Worcester Suffolk x North Country Mule Breeder Buys at Builth
15th September 2018
Worcester breeder, William Halford, buys all his tups at the NSA Wales & Border Ram Sale held on the Royal Welsh Showground. He says he only comes to the Builth Wells sale, simply because ‘that’s where you can buy the best’.
Will also appreciates the fact that you have a wide choice of tups and breeds and that they are quality and veterinary inspected. He buys about 20 tups each year, mostly Suffolks but also a few Charollais and first came about 25 years ago with his late father, Robert.
He says: “You have a wide choice of tups at Builth. I know a lot of breeders who keep their best tups back to sell at Builth. They won’t sell off the farm and Builth is a good shop window for them.
“We buy Suffolk tups to go on the Mules. The Suffolks seem to take the weather and the buyers are looking for uniform carcasses these days. You can get more weight with a Suffolk without them going to fat.
“We look for good, long, strong tups. We put the Suffolks on the North Country Mules. Then we keep the ewe lambs to tup with a Charollais. We then sell them as hoggs with lambs in the Spring and what’s left are sold in the Autumn as yearlings that have reared a lamb. The wethers we sell as fat at Worcester Market.”
They lamb 4,000 ewes each year. The Halford Partnership flock comprises 2,800 North Country Mules, 1,200 Suffolk x mule ewe lambs, 60 pedigree Suffolk Rams and 30 Charolais Rams.
Replacement North Country Mule yearlings are purchased from sales in the north of England, preferably buying a yearling that has already reared a lamb. The type of Suffolk tup purchased is one aimed at producing a quality Suffolk cross ewe lamb. The tups must have good length, tight skins, clean bold heads, good loin and gigot for fat lamb production.
