Crofter's day out : Buying a Charollais tup

He has some growing to do but there's a really good tup in there

Its nearly time to put the tups (rams) in with the ewes, the 15th November and we don't have one. If we had kept the Charollais x Texel that we've been using for the past two years he'd be mating with his daughters. What to buy? and where to go?

For some time I have admired the lambs produced by Charollais  males, they have  well muscled rear ends, long backs, they grow quickly and are easy lambing, but where to find one. Charollais are still a minority breed and apart form big national sales like that at Kelso in August they aren't easy to find in your local market. There is a breed society with

Home in the gloaming

a website and a list of breeders with stock for sale. This is how I tracked down the tup we bought today.

Alistair and I set off for Doune at seven we had the choice of ten shearlings, not easy because they all looked good but we came away with the one in the picture. After some lovely homemade soup and an hour of farming craik. This type of conversation is what Dormouse calls a "4 x 2 moment" i.e. largely, but not exclusively male and technical.

Home in the early evening with crepuscular lighting effects on Ben Hiant. After a four hour ride in the trailer we thought it best to let him settle down for the night in the trailer with a bucket of water and some leafy hay. Tomorrow we'll give him a couple of wether lambs as company until he starts work.