ORKNEY may suffer from its geographical location, with some of the harshest weather and long winters, but there’s one thing for certain, some of the country’s best stockman and livestock can be found on the island.
The past six months have been one of the toughest yet, with Orcadians not only witnessing one of the earliest winters, but also one of the wettest with October, 2017, seeing an extra five inches of rainfall on the island compared to the previous year. But despite the climatic challenges, the Coghill family, from Birsay, are continually achieving the best of results for their mixed farming business.
“The biggest saviour for us Orcadian farmers is that we are nearly all owner occupiers. If you own your farm, you always have something behind you,” said Lee, who farms with his father and mother, Terry and Sheena, across 400 acres between the two units, Muce and Newbigging, and an additional 150 acres of rented ground.
“Last year’s harvest was absolutely horrendous. I go out contracting with our own combine and I was cutting barley as high as 30% moisture, in fact one field was cut at 32%. Only once in my lifetime can I ever remember cutting a field of barley at 15% and a few fields at 17% but there’s a very small chance of seeing that again.”
Backing up those statements, Terry, who is based at Muce with Sheena, while Lee, his partner Megan and their seven-month-old son, William, live at Newbigging, said: “It was so wet in the back-end last year that we had the first cows and calves in on October 10, and that’s the earliest we have ever had them in. Considering they go out so late too, they’re near enough inside more than they’re out.”
The Coghills, who previously bought in stock for fattening each year, including 800 store lambs and 500 store cattle, have since made a slight move from that market and have concentrated on their suckler herd.
They still, however, buy in 130 Texel hoggs which are sold on as gimmers and 150 store cattle in the spring, all of which are sourced locally at Kirkwall mart.
“I liked the finishing job but when we wintered as many as 800 store lambs and you consider the poor, wet weather we get here, it just didn’t seem viable. Finishing a lot of cattle is costly, too, so that’s why we have focused more on breeding stock,” said Terry, adding that the new shed built in 2008 at Newbigging and the chance of more ground allowed them to increase the original 35-cow herd.
Looking down the cattle shed – a portion of the annual calf crop are sold as big stores, while the rest are finished on Orkney
As a result, the family now run 135 suckler cows alongside Sheena’s Hekra pedigree Charollais flock which numbers 40 ewes.
The spring-calving herd, which calves inside from the beginning of March, is predominantly made up of Limousin cross cows which have most recently been bulled to the Charolais and the Salers to produce good, hardy and milky replacements and progeny which are either sold as stores or finished.
Each year, 20 heifers calve alongside the cows in the spring and although they have usually been bulled to the Limousin to produce a shapier calf which is easily calved, this year the Coghills opted to go with the Salers to introduce a bit of hardiness into the cows as well as hybrid vigour.
“We always used to bull the heifers to the Limousin but because we were mainly breeding with Limousin genetics, they didn’t produce a lot of milk,” commented Lee, who added that they used the Simmental on the heifers but found that cross led to cows having bad feet.
“The first cross makes the best cow but it’s hard to keep up the consistency. We need replacements which can not only produce a good calf at the end of the day but females that are hardy enough to be housed inside on slats throughout the winter.”
Terry, who has judged cattle at national shows across the country and buys a number of breeding bulls each year at premier sales for Orkney beef producers, added: “Our aim is to breed 30 good cross Salers replacements to eventually run with the Charolais bull. We are fortunate to have strong buyers from Aberdeenshire at the mart in Kirkwall, and they like the Charolais calves for finishing.”
To be as self-sufficient as possible in terms of feeding and bedding, the Coghills grow between 80 and 90 acres of spring barley each year which allows them to sell straw off the farm too. The cows are housed in the typical Orkney fashion of slats and fed home-grown silage and straw, along with Harbro’s Super Suckler mineral, which Lee said had made a dramatic difference in the condition of the cows’ feet.
The best of the calves most suited to the store ring at Kirkwall are sold the following year in September, while others are carried on until October onwards and go direct to either McIntosh Donald or ABP, or through the fat ring at Kirkwall to local butchers.
All calves are speaned in October when the cows and calves come inside for the winter. Thereafter, they thrive on Harbro’s Champion Rumitech 35 alongside home-grown barley and soya before heading out to grass for the summer.
This year, however, the Coghills introduced an amino beef supplement to boost growth rates with the result that the following summer, stirks come back in at the end of July and are straight onto ad-lib hoppers and fed a diet of bruised barley and Champion Rumitech 35, supplemented with Biocell blocks to provide maximum growth after grazing. Housed on straw-bedded courts and fed and watered on slats, the Coghills have not had to clip a belly before slaughter for a number of years.
The latest batch sold through the store ring last September at Kirkwall included 27 bullocks which averaged 515kg and 235p per kg, or £1200, with 12 heifers at £1100. Meanwhile, finishing heifers and stots regularly produce R and U grades and the most recent lot of heifers sold through the fat ring averaged £1350.
On the pedigree side, the Coghills run a few Limousin and Charolais females alongside the main suckler herd to produce breeding bulls which are sold direct to farmers on the island.
Pictured in January are two 21-month-old Limousin bulls, by Ronick Granville and Grahams Iceman
Notably, some of these Coghill-bred bulls have went on to produce some of the best Genomic Estimated Breeding Values for customers which have finished calves.
As well as maintaining a profitable cattle enterprise, Sheena’s well-known Hekra Charollais sheep flock is proving to be just as successful, producing quality commercial shearlings each year for the Kelso Ram Sales, where they have been in the top five for averages in the last few years and have reached a healthy £1200.
These shearlings certainly pay their way as Sheena has never used hopper feeders and they’re on grass right up until sale time. They do, however, receive a little feeding before being transported as Sheena finds the long trip down to Kelso takes a toll on them.
A selection of Sheena’s Charollais ewes in her prize-winning Hekra flock
“The Charollais is an easy lambing and low maintenance breed which can survive some of the roughest days here in Orkney,” said Sheena, who founded her flock in 1994 with an importation from France and other females from Auchenlay, Breck and Cairnhill flocks.
“When we previously ran a commercial flock,
the Charollais always outweighed everything else and the Charollais cross lambs were always the heaviest. Charollais tups do well crossed with any breed of ewe as in the past I’ve tupped them to Suffolk ewes and that cross worked well, producing good, growthy lambs,” said Sheena, who added that the bottom end of Charollais females are tupped to a Texel to produce cross shearlings for Kelso.
With lambing commencing indoors at the end of January, an 18% protein nut is normally introduced just two weeks before lambs are due and hay is only added if there has been snow.
For ease of management and considering the island’s unpredictable climate, the last two years’ weaning process has taken place in May before the ewes and lambs head outside. In contrast, ewe lambs are either kept on as replacements or sold privately, while cross ewe lambs are sold privately off the island.
There’s been plenty show success for Sheena, too, as last year she stood inter-breed sheep champion and reserve Charollais at Dounby Show with two of the best females in the flock and days later, picked up champion and reserve in the Charollais section at the County Show.
The flock's show gimmer
The Hekra flock is also a previous winner of the society’s flock competition and not so long ago attracted interest from overseas as Sheena sold two tup lambs and a shearling to a breeder in Germany.
Needless to say, there’s never a dull moment for this farming family, but with superior stockmanship and a constant eye on what is an ever-changing market and climate, you can be
rest assured the Coghills
always aim to achieve the best results for their business.
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