Sourcing easy managed, profitable breeding sheep may sound easy, but after the recent cold, wet spell, and the resultant loss of lambs, flockmasters could well be forced to rethink future terminal and maternal sire policies.

While bare-coated, white-faced sheep have been the order of the day for many over the years, such has been the horrendous April and early May weather, and resultant lack of grass, that many ewes have struggled to produce sufficient milk thereby increasing the risk of mastitis and other diseases in lambs.

Give it another six weeks or so when the weather improves and breathing difficulties and 'couping' can also become an issue.

For Lanarkshire farmer Russell Gray, Langside, Kirkfieldbank, the answer very much lies in the under-rated continental Charollais sheep breed, which can be used as a terminal sire over many breeds and cross-breeds and also produces a good breeding commercial ewe.

"Charollais sheep are easier cared for and don't have the problems associated with other breeds. They are great mothers with the majority of them lambing themselves and the lambs are up and 'sooking' in no time," he said.

"They do have a reputation for being bare coated and headed, but the breed has changed beyond recognition over the past 25 years, and they have much more strength, cover on their heads and a denser coat now.

"They can be lambed outside and they make a great cross for putting onto white-faced sheep, hoggs of any breed and Blackfaces because they are so easy lambed," said Russell, who alongside his wife Margaret and their seven-year-old son, Matthew, farms in partnership with his parents, Alex and Grace Gray.

However, while the breed has never proved to be the most popular north of the Border, Welsh hill farmers are huge fans of this big French breed, and Russell believes an increasing number of flockmasters are now taking to the fast growing, easier managed attributes of cross-bred Charollais.

"There has been an unprecedented demand for pure Charollais females to breed to a Texel or Beltex for breeding cross-bred tups and females in recent years. We have a huge number of customers looking to buy ewe lambs and gimmers privately every year, when the resultant cross-bred tups can sell for £1000 or more and the females make great mothers."

The family, who run pedigree flocks of Charollais, Suffolks and Texels alongside a registered dairy herd of 140 Ayrshire and Red and White Holsteins, also find the big continental breed is ideal for producing early lambs.

Sponged to lamb inside mid December – albeit while the run outside during the day depending on the weather – while their Suffolk ewes lamb at the end of the month, Charollais produce offspring which can easily match the daily liveweight gains of the native blacks, with the first of the progeny away just before Easter, through United Auctions, Stirling, to catch the early lamb market.

This year, the business sold 55 lambs – a mixture of pure Charollais and Suffolks – before Easter to a top of £181 per head or a phenomenal 385p per kg. This compares to the norm of 250-285p and a previous high of £3 per kg.

"Unfortunately, when you sell through the live ring, you never get the feed back on how the lambs grade, but they must be doing ok, as it's the same butchers who buy them. Charollais are bound to kill out better than other breeds though purely because they are finer boned," said Russell.

"We get Charollais lambs away quicker and off less feeding than Suffolks, too. You can't even run the two breeds together as Charollais tend to nibble their feed and eat slower and less compared to Suffolks which are more like 'hoovers'.

"Charollais also weigh a lot heavier than they look. You can look at a Charollais lamb and be confident it'll be 42-43kg, but put it across the scales and it'll read nearer 44-45kg."

Russell, who is is the current chairman of the Scottish Charollais region and council member of the Ayrshire Cattle Society, added that the adult females don't have the disease issues of other breeds either. While the Grays do see an occasional case of mastitis in their Charollais and Suffolks, there are few major outbreaks.

"Charollais sheep have a different teat structure compared to other breeds in that the holes of the teats are smaller which therefore helps keeps the bugs out. It's the same in dairy cows. Cows with big open holes in their teats are more susceptible to disease."

Furthermore, as a breed, they hold their condition better than other breeds, as Russell has found they will still put on fettle even when they are weaned on to a bare ground in March.

However, while the Charollais is the easiest kept of all the sheep breeds at Langside, flock numbers are the smallest, purely because there is not the same market for the rams in comparison to Suffolks and Texels which the farm is well renowned for breeding.

No stranger to the big prices at the Kelso Ram Sales, the father and son duo have sold numerous four-figure priced sheep, to a top of 14,000gns for the Texel shearling, Brackenridge Strongbow, a tup whose sons sold the following year to average in excess of £2300 for 25 for the Langside flock.

Their Suffolks have also hit the headlines, peaking at 7000gns on two occasions, while Charollais have sold to 2500gns for a ram lamb that had stood first in his class at the Royal Highland Show.

While it's the Suffolks and Texels that make the big money, it's the Charollais that Russell and Margaret who also works for LS Smellie and Son and is the former secretary of the Scottish National Fatstock Club, prefer to show, and, extremely successfully at that.

Just six years ago, the couple took the Royal Highland Show by storm to win not only the breed's champion and reserve honours, but also the inter-breed individual and pairs competitions.

Add to that numerous championships at local events and two supreme breed titles at the Great Yorkshire out of three years exhibiting at Harrogate and the breed will always remain close to their hearts.

It was Russell who also instigated the introduction of the breed to Langside, some 27 years ago, with foundation females purchased from Graham Reid, Netherallan and Austin Hyslop's Logan flock. It is however, a ewe lamb purchased at Ian Innes' Tullochallum dispersal for 300gns that has had the biggest influence on the flock, with all females tracing back to her.

Stock rams that have stamped their mark include Banwy Moonshine, along with Oakchurch Ozil, purchased at Worcester in 2012 and 2014, respectively, with the latter going on to secure the inter-breed sheep honours at the Highland Show champion in 2015 and breed a lot of top show females.

The family also bought a ram from Myfyr Evans' Rhaeadr flock that has made his mark breeding shearling rams to average in excess of £1000 at Kelso.

With so many positive attributes to the Charollais, there has to be a negative and ironically, it appears to be the opposite to what many perceive. Far from being too bare, they have wool in every corner so much so the shearers hate them purely because they are so big and they hold onto their wool," Russell added.

They might not be ideal sheep for clipping, but you would think any sheep farmer would be glad of them and especially this year.

FARMfacts

Farm size: 380acres.

Stocking: 35 pedigree Charollais ewes; 50 pedigree Suffolks and 80 pedigree Texel ewes. 140 Ayrshire and Red and White Holsteins producing average yields 8000litres at 4.7%BF and 3.2%P.

Sheep policy: Breed pedigree rams for Kelso Ram Sales and Builth Wells, with females sold privately and at Carlisle. Lambs not good enough for breeding are sold as early lambs through United Auctions, Stirling.

Staff: Family all helps out on the farm with assistance of full-time general farm worker, Keith Lang.

ONTHEspot

Best investment? "The best advice I got and would give, is for any farmer's son or daughter to spend a period of time working away from home. It helps broaden your horizons, lets you see other ways of doing things and gives you new ideas to take home."

Biggest achievement? "Winning the sheep inter-breed at the Highland show in 2015 and what made this even more special was the Queen's cup was presented to the sheep section that year too."

Where do you see yourself in 2030? "Running 'Matthews Farm Park' We joke about this at the minute, but Matthew has his plans drawn for the development of the steading and a list of all the animals he will have. So you never know what might happen next."

What have you missed most during the lockdowns? "A change of scenery! Days away to sales or shows, either for judging, showing or selling."

Best investment? "The Texel tup, Brackenridge Strongbow. It's just a pity we had so much similar breeding to this tup already in the flock, therefore we could only use him for one season. Yes we topped Kelso with him when we sold him but his sons the next year averaged £2300 and you often found that his daughters were breeding a lot of the better shealings in the years to come.