GROWING up as a youngster around the Suffolk sheep breed and having the Kelso Ram sales marked as one of his favourite days out to buy tups, it was no surprise when Sandy Sutherland from New Channelkirk, ventured into the breed with the aim of being able to sell his own there. 
Now, many years down the line, and he and his wife Grace, have more than achieved that goal with sheep from their Soutra flock from Lauder. Successfully at that too, as not only have their sheep attracted some of the lead prices amongst the shearling rams at Kelso, but also flock averages in the top bracket.
At one time the couple ran as many as 90 pure-bred ewes, but with Sandy having studied medicine and being a full-time GP at a local practice, the flock was reduced to 75 for ease of management and to save taking extra ground. 
MV accredited from the very start, biosecurity has always been extremely important for this closed flock, with only stock rams bought in. But in contrast to many breeders who regularly buy at society sales at Shrewsbury and Stirling, Sandy aims to buy new stock tups at Kelso, although he did purchase down south of the Border, in July.
“I look to breed shearling rams for the commercial trade which has not really changed in the last 30 years and that’s what I like about buying stock tups at Kelso which is predominantly a market for commercial producer. 
“Good commercial tups still have to have a good body, shape, size, skin and a bit of length. Such producers also look for good black hair with clean legs for easier lambing and to breed good replacement females. 
“When buying a tup I prefer to look at the tup itself, rather than the figures, but if the EBVs are good that’s a bonus.”
He also sticks to a budget when buying a shearling ram as a new stock tup, with one of the best breeding rams being Strathisla Sign Off which cost a mere £600, and is the sire of the majority of his pen of 24 shearling rams for next week’s sales. The remainder are sons of Sitlaw Surefire, a tup that bred the flock’s £2200 best at Kelso in 2014.
Critical of his own when selecting future replacement females, Sandy only breeds from sheep that are easy to work with, especially at lambing time, adding that only two ewes in the past 30 years have had to have their lambs taken out the ‘side door’. 
“We never keep ewes beyond five-crop as that’s when you can start getting bother with them and anything that has caused problems at lambing time goes down the road later that year,” he said pointing out that second chances don’t come along too often at New Channelkirk. 
As well as selling shearling rams, Sandy also enjoys catching up with breeders and showing at local shows which in recent years has seen his Soutra flock triumph among the rosettes at the Highland and the Border Union Show at Kelso. 
Outwith the sheep flock, the couple also buy in a few store cattle to keep on top of the grass throughout the summer. Most of these are Charolais crosses for a quicker turnover. Sandy also previously ran a small herd of Simmentals to breed bulls for breeding, but with a full-time occupation, a large Suffolk flock and beef cattle calving at the same time as the ewes were lambing, something had to go.
Sadly, the pedigree sheep are going to have to be sold too, as now that Sandy is semi-retired as a doctor and works as a locum, the couple has decided to disperse their well-known flock next year. 
“Suffolk’s certainly don’t get any smaller and I am not getting any younger, they are big sheep to handle,” said Sandy.
“It has been a hobby and a lifestyle choice to farm as well as work in another profession and with our children away from home we have nobody to pass the business onto,” Grace pointed out. 
As a result, the couple plan to sell all the females in January or February next year at their local St Boswells mart, where some will hopefully be in lamb to Roseden Gold Medal, the first prize tup lamb in the MLC class at the National show and sale at Shrewsbury in July, where he was purchased. 
However, they are not leaving the industry yet, as they plan to keep cross ewes and this means Sandy can still enjoy his annual day out at Kelso purchasing a tup... 
There are of course still this year’s Kelso Ram Sales to contend with and next year’s when the 2015 lamb crop will be sold as shearlings. Next week’s sales are looking particularly good too.
“The lamb trade has been significantly up on the year, so this year’s sales at Kelso can only be better than last, which added to the increased confidence in the sheep sector can only be positive news for the Kelso Ram Sales,” he concluded.