BREEDING small numbers of good quality tups to sell on an annual basis is never easy and managing as many as 75, solely grass-fed shearlings to look the part at this time of year is something quite special, but it is a feat the Brown family from Hilton of Culsh, at New Deer, obviously excel at.
Very much a family business, the 600-acre Aberdeenshire mixed unit has been run by Browns since the early 1800s, with Willie and Jennifer Brown and son John (24), now at the helm. 
Jennifer attends to all secretarial work with daughters Morag (21), who has recently started a full-time job after completing an honours degree in agriculture at Craibstone, and Grace (19), who studies graphic design at Aberdeen College, both helping out during busy periods. 
Jon Adamson who has been helping the Browns for the last 10 years, works self-employed three days a week, where he assists with tractor work and some cattle duties. 
In previous years, the farm was home to some 450 predominantly Texel cross ewes tupped with a Suffolk, to produce the best possible finished lambs, but in a bid to improve flock margins, two pedigree Texel flocks were purchased privately when they came on the market in 2010. 
Since then, the pure flock has grown to 100 females which are run solely for the commercial market. This has enabled breeding stock to be sold as gimmers and shearling rams, which have certainly more than paid their way.
Last year’s sale of Texel tups sold to a top of £1400 to average £800 – all off grass. 
Notable also is the fact that 19 of the 25 sold at Huntly last year sold to repeat buyers and have in the past sold in to pedigree flocks.
“Having bought stock tups for ourselves that were purely grass fed in the past, we decided to give it a go and since then, we've never looked back,” said Willie.
“They are put on turnips for the month of April as tup hoggs but when the grass arrives, they don’t get anything else.”
Not only is this flock producing valuable stock to sell, it’s also reducing input costs as some of the shearlings are kept for their own use.
More importantly, its these home-bred shearlings rams as well as bought in grass-fed tups which have helped to improve the grades of the finished lambs sold from Hilton of Culsh. 
This year, some 50% of the farm's lamb crop was cashed in June, averaging 21kg dead weight with all yielding E and U grades. 
The family recently ventured into Suffolks too and will have 15 such shearling rams up for grabs this month all by Broomknowes Muscle Man.

Notably, they include New Zealand genetics following the purchase of 22 Suffolk ewes and gimmers as foundation stock from Robert Neil’s Rossiebank flock dispersal at Stirling.
“We find Suffolks with NZ genetics produce quick maturing lambs which have more vigour than the traditionally-bred Suffolks and the ewes have finer, silky hair and bone. 
"In previous years, our Suffolk ewes would need need individual attention at lambing time whereas Suffolk lambs with NZ genetics have smaller heads, which can ensure easier lambings,” said Willie. 
Although the business relies mainly on home-bred replacement females, around 50 Cheviot Mule ewe lambs are purchased at Longtown every year to cross to a Texel the following year to breed 100 Texel cross Cheviot Mule stock females.
They are then crossed to the Suffolk and Texel to breed fat lambs, with the remainder sold at Thainstone as gimmers. This year, their sale of gimmers averaged £150. 
“Breeding your own stock means that you control the quality of your stock and you minimise the risk of bringing in disease,” said John, who completed an HND in Agriculture at Oatridge and is now an active member of Strichen JAC, as well as a part-time shearing contractor. 
Further improvements to the flock are made by adhering to a strict culling regime, especially in the families in the pedigree flocks. 
This is aimed at achieving the best results with each breed, with weaning being the first opportunity to take out lambs with teeth or testicle problems. 
Any lambs that can’t flesh naturally on grass are also culled, while ewes are cashed at four or five-crop and often at three-figure prices now that the quality of the females has improved.
Commenting on the choice of future stock rams, which are bought by ‘eye’ rather than performance figures Willie said: “We always look for fleshing ability when buying stock rams, most of which are purchased at Kelso. 
"We also look for tups with good tops, tight coats and sheep that are good on their legs. When buying we prefer tups that don’t have too big a head, as sometimes such rams can produce lambs that are more difficult to lamb.”
While the Suffolks are lambed inside in February, the pure Texels and commercial ewe flock are lambed from mid-March onwards.
As well as having a busy spring lambing, the Browns also calve half of their 120 commercial cows which are put to the Limousin or Charolais sire, at the same time, with the remainder of the herd calving late August onwards.
Most of the spring-born progeny are finished on a home-grown ration of barley, silage and minerals, and sold through to Woodhead Bros, or McIntosh Donald, with the back-end calves cashed as yearlings in September at United Auctions, Huntly. 
In addition, the family has branched into pedigree Limousins after purchasing females from the Shannas and Craigiebank herds in 2003, which in turn has led them to selling bulls privately at 22 months of age. 
The bulls which are forward for sale are fairly naturally reared with minimum feeding which is proving popular going by the number of repeat buyers. 
Keen to improve the herd further, John has recently completed an AI course, ensuring the cost of using AI sires, is kept to a minimum. 
Hence, most of the herd was AI’d to various sires this year and then ran with the new stock bull, Cilcon Hip Hop, an Irish-bred son of Wilodge Vantastic, bought at Stirling. They have also have high hopes for embryos bred from Breedies Gail, a Rocky daughter, and sired by the popular Limousin bull Loosebeare Fantastic.
For now, though, the team at Hilton of Culsh, has a busy time ahead of them preparing breeding sheep for the various sales which include Huntly’s tup sale on September 24. At this they will have 40 shearlings forward, with the remainder heading to two separate sales in October at UA, Stirling.