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www.beltex.co.uk
Beltex Sheep SocietyShepherds View,
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Millennium year magic for Beltex breeders
Consistently among the big prizes during the last decade while they have been pedigree breeding and using the Beltex commercially, the Bishops, of Colwall, near Malvern, Worcestershire, celebrated their most successful year in 2000. But the couple, who have been dedicated to the commercial lamb show ring for the past 20 years, appreciate that it is difficult to stay at the top, particularly with a small flock of only 80 commercial and 20 pedigree ewes. “It’s amazing where our sheep have come from in the last 10 years,” said David Bishop. “We hope to maintain what we’ve achieved and keep our stock good, but I think improving is almost impossible.” Producing top quality commercial lambs born in two batches timed for the summer and winter shows has been firmly a partnership for David and Ivy. Originally a butcher, working in his father’s shops, David is a lamb classifier in local markets for four days a week while Ivy deals with the day to day management of the sheep and lambing on the 25 acre smallholding, Luggs Mill from which the pedigree flock takes its prefix. While they view the sheep enterprise as part time, it has to pay for itself and the Bishops have earned such a reputation that pedigree lambs are spoken for before they are born and virtually all the commercial lambs which are not shown are sold privately. “All our lives, Ivy and I have looked for quality. This is probably partly because of my becoming a butcher when I left school and now seeing the situation from both sides of the business,” said David Bishop. All the females in the pedigree flock have been bred from a handful of foundation females, with new bloodlines introduced on the sire’s side. All four stock sires have been Belgian-bred. Eventually, the Bishops hope to use home-bred rams. The best yet, 70995083, didn’t have a name and he has now sired three quarters of the ewes at Luggs Mill. His lambs and lambs from his daughters were again winning at shows last year alongside those by the newest tup, Aladin De Malbray, bred in Belgium by Lucy Melle Moyart and sold by Andrew Graham, of Wigton, at the Carlisle August 1999 sale for 1,300gns. David Bishop selects his rams first on conformation, with breeding coming second. “What I’m looking for is a sheep which is not too small which will appeal to commercial producers. It has to have a good loin and very good gigots with a bit of length as well. I think it is possible to keep the Beltex shape and go for a bigger sheep,” he said. “We have got to keep the loin and gigots together and if we can go for that extra size for the commercial man, all well and good. My commercial May born lambs were weighing up to 50kg live when they were sold at Christmas.” The commercial ewes still have North Country Cheviot and Texel blood in them with increasing amounts of Beltex – in some cases they are half Beltex. The ewes are lambed in two batches to meet the summer and winter show seasons. The pedigrees and another 20 ewes are lambed from mid February through into March. The later batch lambs from April into May and so far the system has worked well. Conception rates are good but if early ewes when scanned are not in lamb then they join the later sheep. In 2000 on the summer show circuit the Bishops’ major wins included the supreme champion carcase at the Three Counties Show. In the pedigree classes, they won the supreme champion progeny group with lambs by 70995083, all out of one ewe Again in the pedigree section at the Shropshire and West Midlands Show, they had three first prizes, male champion and reserve supreme champion. At the prestigious Royal Show, Stoneleigh, they had the champion and reserve champion pens of live lambs as well as the champion and reserve champion carcases. They also won the champion and reserve championship in the live-dead section. In the pedigree section they had three first prizes with a yearling ram, a ram lamb and a ewe lamb. At the Royal Welsh Show at Builth Wells they had the reserve supreme prime lambs and the reserve supreme carcase lamb. Pedigree sheep here won firsts in the ewe and ram lamb classes as well as reserve champion group of three and reserve champion exhibitor-bred. Closer to home at Tenbury Wells Show they had the champion and reserve champion single lamb as well as the champion pen of three butchers lambs and the reserve pen. And at Moreton in the Marsh they had the champion Beltex lambs with a group of five. The lambs taken to the five summer shows were sired by both Aladin and 70995083 and were a mixture of wether and ewe lambs. The majority if not all the carcases graded E3L, killing out at around 55 per cent. Most lambs kill out at 2.5kg over their half weight. “I maintain that we get a better ratio of meat to bone and fat than the Texel. The Beltex are quite small boned sheep and tight skinned. There is not a lot of waste on them,” said David Bishop. “They produce this lean meat which also means you can sell them at any time – they’re not going to get too fat,” he added. “It was surprising that the heaviest lamb we showed during the winter season, a March-born wether, had a carcase weight of 31kg and still classified E3L. It was very lean.” During the winter show season, they exhibited their sheep before 11 different judges at the four major shows. Pure Beltex wether lambs by Aladin won the supreme championship at the National Primestock Show, Bingley Hall, Staffordshire. They also had three first prizes with untrimmed lambs and reserve in the untrimmed section. They went on to win the reserve championship in the live-dead competition. Three days later at the Royal Bath and West Winter Fair, two three-quarter ewe lambs sired by Aladin won the supreme champion pair. Back in Wales at the Welsh Winter Fair they won four of the six classes in the crossbred section, going on to win both the crossbred championship and reserve. Their first prize winner in the pure bred section also took the section championship as well as the show’s supreme championship. The crossbred pairs also won the reserve supreme rosette. And to round off an excellent day, the Bishops also won the supreme champion carcase. There were a total of 340 pairs of lambs entered along with 200 carcases, reflecting the stiff competition at the Welsh event. The Bishops have won both the supreme championship and the carcase championship four times in the last 10 years – taking the double on three occasions. The icing on the cake came at the prestigious Royal Smithfield Show when a pair of May-born ewe lambs, which had also won the butchers’ section, won the Queen Mother’s Cup for the overall championship. They went on to sell for a Smithfield record price of £700 each at auction. |
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The
Millennium year brought commercial lamb showing to its pinnacle for Beltex
breeders David and Ivy Bishop who won virtually all the top awards.
In
the early days, the commercial lambs were produced from North Country Cheviot
ewes crossed with a Dutch-bred Texel, gradually improving the quality of
their females. But to keep one step ahead of the competition, the Bishops
were one of the earliest into the Beltex breed in the UK, buying their first
Beltex ram in the early 1990s and seeing the breed’s great potential
to further improve prime lamb conformation.
With
21 ewe lambs retained as flock replacements, virtually all the rest of the
lambs must be of show potential to meet the demand for the year’s events,
many of which involve a carcase competition. Most of the flock now classifies
as E3L. Ewes and lambs are not fed hard with the emphasis on breeding quality
rather than feeding. All ewes are given feed before lambing with the early
born lambs receiving some creep feed until weaning. The later lambs are turned
out to grass and only receive creep in the autumn. The ewes lamb outside
and inside at night and are turned out within a couple of days.
