Situated north of Kinbrace on the banks of Loch Badanloch is where you will find husband and wife duo Hugh and Jan Mackenzie who farm 2120 North Country Cheviot ewes.
Hugh is a farm manager while Jan tenant farms. The pair work individually with their own flocks across a few holdings, but they are based out of the Badanloch Estate where Hugh manages 48,000 acres.
“It will be 17 years this October since I started managing things here at Badanloch,” said Hugh, whose sheep are spread across two holdings at the main farm at Badanloch and Harvestin.
The estate is home to 1050 ewes and gimmers which lamb from April 20 onwards.
“Ewes and gimmers are put to the tup and while all the ewes lamb outside, I try to get those carrying twins and gimmers lambed inside if there’s space. We have problems with ravens up here so we have to try to protect as many newly born lambs as possible from them.”
At Badanloch, most of the sheep are sold through United Auctions’ Lairg mart and occasionally Dingwall, with around 400 to 500 lambs cashed as stores at Lairg next week.
“We keep roughly 320 replacement ewe lambs every year and the rest are sold as store lambs. We tend to sell tups as three shears at Lairg in October but this year, for the first time, I’m selling a few as two shears. Usually we sell 10 tups and aim to buy in one or two good ones that catch my eye. I like tups with a bit of size about them and good skins. They need to have a bit of flash – you just know it when you see it.”
It’s a strategy that is paying dividends too as Hugh has brought out several rams at four and five-figure prices, with his most notable – Badanloch Xtra Special – which made £16,000 in 2021.
“The year I sold Xtra Special I did stand back and think, wow you are the best tup I’ve ever seen – and then I saw Stouphill Ambassador in the next pen over and realised he was one better. I ended up buying him for £24,000 that year. He’s bred quite a few two shears that I will hopefully be able to sell at Lairg in October.”
Ambassador was sired by Badanloch Tip Top, a former Highland Show champion and the sire of a few top-priced rams at Lairg.
He was bought by the Allen family of Stouphill at Lairg for £11,000 in 2018.
Breeding females are also sold at Lairg in October with Badanloch selling 60 to 70 gimmers a year. In the past, these have averaged as much as £300 per head while draft ewes from the estate have topped the sale at £290.
Breeding sheep are wintered at Badanloch on blocks and hay up until scanning time. After scanning, the twin-bearing ewes are fed ewe rolls up until three weeks when all in-lamb sheep are fed concentrates
Wife Jan has her own flock of ewes at Langdale, a croft that has been tenanted by her family for four generations, where she runs 270 breeding ewes and gimmers over 240 acres.
“Langdale has been in my family since 1901 when my great uncle built the croft.
“I am still based at Badanloch with Hugh but the croft at Langdale has always been in my family and I inherited the tenancy from my father. It will hopefully stay in the family when my nephew takes over,” she said.
Jan’s sheep are treated similarly to the flock at Badanloch. However, they do lamb earlier, at the beginning of April. When lambing starts she moves back to Langdale for the two months and has help from her nephew. Lambing at Badanloch is mostly down to Hugh with assistance of a lamber at his Harvestin hirsel.
Jan sells a small number of Langdale gimmers at Lairg, where in the past she has topped at £230 per head. She also has success selling tups with her best bloodlines coming from a loan of Inkstack tup Inkstack Insignia.
“I was loaned Isignia and he was my best breeding tup. He went on to sire my best pen of tups from Langdale in 2020. My top price was £7000 for Langdale let’s be having you which Inkstack bought. I ran him with both my flocks and sold sons of his for £6000 to Heatherlee in 2022 and Langdale Bruiser to Whitehope for £6000 in 2023.”
Last year, Jan bought another son of his from Inkstack for £6000 at Dingwall. “I’m seeing his progeny now and he has bred very wellm” she said.
She also has a small flock of 60 pedigree South Country Cheviots based at Langdale. “I sell the Southie wedder lambs alongside the Northie wedder lambs but I do travel down to the Lockerbie ram sales to sell my Southie tups. It’s not too bad – we usually make a wee holiday of it and I get a good trade,” Jan added.
Hugh and Jan are also well known on the show circuit, securing numerous rosettes not only at their local Caithness Show but also at Sutherland, the Black Isle, and the Royal Highland.
Jan said: “We like showing, the Highland was good, but after Covid we felt like it was a lot to be travelling down there and staying for so long. We do well showing independently at the local shows and this year Hugh won champion at Sutherland and I took the reserve. Hugh also the championship at the Black Isle.”
Outwith working at Langdale, Jan contract farms 500 Cheviot ewes and 300 gimmers over 24,000 acres at North Loch Naver.
“I started working there in November 1999 so I have been there a while,” she said, “I routinely check on them as I do my other sheep but they are out on the hill most of the time, only getting gathered in for dosing and clipping. They are able to be left to their own devices and are good hill ewes that lamb outside.”
The flock at North Loch Naver are the only sheep not tupped as gimmers and they lamb at the end of the April.
“I feed the ewes rolls before they lamb at North Loch Naver as they used to get blocks but we had a lot of problems with deer eating the blocks.”
With farming in such a remote area there are few options to branch into outwith hill sheep and the Mackenzies are not interested in diversifying into tourism, given the fact they are so close to the North Coast 500.
“The campervans are up and down the roads all the time, so we are quite happy to stick to the sheep. It’s what we know and what we do well. I don’t think either myself or Hugh would ever want to cater to agritourism!”
For now it’s Hugh and Jan’s hard graft and the tough nature of the North Country Cheviots that works for them over Badanloch and Langdale.
“We always want to be working along the same line consistently – we are able to sell to good prices and it means we can buy in the genetics we want. Hugh and I swap our tups around every so often to mix up the bloodlines.
“That’s one of the many reasons why it works for us having our own individual flocks that we manage independently while still helping one and another out.”
Farm facts
Farm size and topography: 48,000 acres at Badanloch rising to 2000ft, 240 acres over two crofts at Langdale, and 24,000 acres contract farmed at North Loch Naver.
Livestock: 1050 ewes and gimmers at Badanloch, 270 ewes and gimmers at Langdale, 500 ewes at North Loch Naver all North Country Cheviot. Alongside 60 South Country Cheviots at Langdale.
Who’s all involved: Husband and wife duo Hugh and Jan McKenzie with help from longtime lamber Derek Stewart.
Sales: Sell stores and breeding sheep at Lairg, Stores at Dingwall, and pedigree southies at Lockerbie.
On the spot
Best investment? Hugh: North Loch Naver Nomad tup. Jan: A loan of an Instack tup that led to my best-bred bloodline.
Something you can’t live without? Both: Dogs!
Where would you be if you were not farming? Hugh: No idea. Jan: I’ve thought about this before and I really don’t have a clue what I’d be doing instead.
Favourite thing about sale days? Jan: Coming home with the one you want. Hugh: Definitely the craic.
Where do you see yourselves in ten years? Hugh: Hopefully still here! Jan: Doing something along the same line, if you give up that’s the end of you.
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