Efficiency in sheep farming is determined by productivity and profitability and by switching to composite breeds, SRUC's Barony campus based in Dumfries are reaping the rewards and cutting input costs at the same time.
The educational farm is home to three flocks comprising 300 Scotch Mules, 300 Highlander ewes and 50 Dorsets, all of which are managed by the Barony's full-time shepherd, Perry Parkinson.
"My main aim is to make the flock more efficient and utilise the farm's assets, whilst still maximising the year-end balance. I hope to build the Highlander flock up to around 600 ewes, as well as maintaining a steady flock of 300 Mules to provide lambing experience for our students on campus," explained Perry.
The main driving force behind Perry's plan for efficiency and sustainability at Barony are the Highlander ewes – a composite maternal breed developed by Focus Genetics to deliver improvements in production and performance. Having purchased some 200 ewes back in 2021 from Mike Tewson, Devon through Innovis as the farm's foundation females, Perry added a further 100 ewes last year with the aim of eventually producing his own replacement females and managing a closed flock.
"We find the Highlander to be a more efficient breed as the ewes are smaller in size and they don't require additional concentrate feeding to produce the goods, having a body weight of around 70kg," he stated.
"I like them for their ease of management, great maternal instincts and the ewes are very prolific – in my opinion they are the perfect example of a 'no hassle' breed."
With the majority of the foundation Highlander females being crossed to the Primera sire in their first year at Barony, Perry has since selected the Abermax and New Zealand Texel – sourced from Innovis and Pirtaton Farm, Galashiels, respectively – as his chosen stock tups in a bid to find the right match for producing the ultimate cross lamb.
Prolificacy rates across the flock have remained consistent too, with the Highlander ewes scanning in at 218% for the second consecutive year, with 96% of the flock holding to the first cycle.
"The Primera tups did a good job for us but I want to keep trying new terminal sire breeds to find the best match for our system and our ewes, and something that will produce a consistent crop of lambs that grade R3L and can be killed out at 43kgs off grass alone, with no inputs," he commented.
Throughout pregnancy ewes are reared on grass alone with mineral licks made available. Ewes are lambed outdoors in April with no concentrate introduced, and lambs are weaned at three-months-old before being moved onto a fresh bite of grass in order to maintain daily live weight gains (DLWG).
Last year's Primera-sired lambs performed well with 300 sold deadweight through Farm Stock Ltd, levelling at £105 per head at an average weight of 19.75kgs, whilst around 100 ewe lambs are retained each year for replacement females.
Across in the Mule flock, a closed system is also in place with the Barony relying on replacement females being brought down from SRUC's Easter Howgate unit, in Edinburgh, where trialling tups again is proving a beneficial move for the farm.
"Instead of the normal Scotch Mule ewe, SRUC will be relying on Aberfield genetics to cover their Blackface ewes at Easter Howgate in a bid to breed a more efficient Mule. This will produce a more compact and smaller ewe that can utilise the farm's forage amenities with an aim to reduce the amount of concentrates required," Perry explained.
Teasers head in with ewes 14 days before the Abermax and New Zealand Texel rams are released in September and are left for two cycles, with the flock scanning in at 201% this year – an increase of 22% from the 2021 scanning.
Lambing kicks off indoors in February to allow students the opportunity to gain some first-hand lambing experience and whilst indoors, ewes are fed a high protein blend sourced from Tarff Valley which is mixed with the farm's own baled silage that is chopped through the feeder wagon for palatability.
Once lambed, sets of ewes and lambs are kept indoors for observation before being moved outside into lambing parks at a few days old. With grass availability being limited at the beginning of the year, ewes are fed 19% ewe rolls through the snacker.
Lambs are weaned at three-months-old and all are sold deadweight through ScotBeef.
"The Mule-reared lambs have phenomenal growth rates and work well for our system, utilising the good dairy grass and we do manage to get some of the early lambs sold deadweight before they are weaned," said Perry.
With early season lambs being able to be sold from 36kgs upwards to 43kgs, Perry aims for a 19-22kg carcass deadweight with last year's crop of lambs balancing out at £160 per head for 650 sold in total and to a top of a £187.
An additional 50 Dorsets are also lambed at the campus having been introduced back in 2020 with the aim of introducing students to an out-of-season lambing system.
The flock are split 50:50 into October and February lambing groups, and rams are left for a duration of two cycles before being pulled from the ewes to maintain a tight lambing period.
With a drive to producing a higher quality crop of lambs which can be sold into other breeding flocks, the Barony invested in a new stock tup – Duneidan Earthquake – which was purchased from the premier breed sale at Carlisle in May last year for 1000gns, having stood champion at the pre-sale show.
"I bought him for his sheer style and presence. Earthquake is a strong, flashy tup that has put a nice stamp on our lambs," explained Perry.
Lambing takes place indoors, with ewes and lambs moved out to grass once weather and grass availability has improved. Lambs are creep fed a 15% lamb pellet concentrate mix if grass in short supply, with a total of 10 ewe lambs retained for replacements.
"Having rung all our ram lambs last year and then selling them for meat, and following our investment in a new stock ram, this year I plan on leaving all the ram lambs entire with a view to selling vasectomised MV teaser tups, as well as selling top end tups to other breeding flocks," he added.
Wormer resistance is a growing, yet invisible threat across flocks in the UK but one that Perry is overcoming by relying on FECPAC to monitor worm counts across the three individual flocks.
"We are only dosing sheep when required to avoid resistance, as well as reduce input costs. Our ewes only receive a mineral drench pre-tupping and maintain a good BCS right the way through to lambing," he said.
With quality always at the fore, a strict culling policy is also in place at the Barony too. Ewes are culled for bad bags and teats, poor mothering qualities and low BCS – with the aim to eliminate any potential iceberg carriers within the flock.
In a bid to achieve faster growth rates in lambs, Barony Farm are also planning on planting a herbal ley this year.
"All going well, I plan to move the Highlander lambs onto the new herbal ley at weaning time, which will hopefully put that extra carcass weight on them in a shorter period of time and allow us to get them away faster too – as well as reducing the risk of nematodirus.
"I also plan on carrying out faecal egg counts on the herbal ley ground – due to it's anthelmintic properties – as well as mapping the whole farm for FECPAK monitoring, which will allow us to identify high risk areas and prevent young lambs grazing those fields," Perry explained.
With the aim to breed lambs with even better daily liveweight gains, the Dorset lambs will be undergoing CT (Computed Tomography) scanning next month, which Perry believes could hugely grip the attention of potential commercial and pedigree buyers – with CT scanning providing a 96-98% data layout of an animal’s carcase tissue weights, killing out percentage, muscle to bone and fat ratio, and gigot shape.
"I also hope to start signet recording the Dorsets too, in order to give our students more of an insight into the genetic side of sheep breeding, as well as showing potential buyers that we have nothing to hide."
In regards to the future of the Highlander in a competitive sheep market, Perry is a firm believer that breed is only going to gain popularity with sheep farmers.
"The Highlander is too much of an efficient breed to not be utilised by farmers across the UK in a post Brexit and subsidy free market. They thrive on a very low input system, although I am aware they work for our system as we have the grass availability. The breed is like Marmite – you either love them or hate them – but it's all about changing peoples perception and moving away from the traditional options.
"This is why I'm trialling different tups each year over the ewes to allow other farmers to make a more informative decision after seeing real live data as to what the breed can offer them and their system. The Highlander is definitely a breed to keep an eye on," he concluded.
FARM facts:
Sheep – 300 Scotch Mule ewes, 300 Highlander ewes and 50 Dorsets are run on SRUC's Barony campus which is managed by full-time shepherd, Perry Parkinson.
Tups – The Mules and Highlanders are crossed with Abermaz and New Zealand Texel rams this year, with the Dorsets bred pure.
Lambing – The Dorsets are split lambing between October and February, whilst the Mules lamb down in February and the Highlanders kick off in April, outdoors.
ON THE spot:
Biggest achievement? Samuel Wharry memorial travel bursary
Favourite place to go on holiday? New Zealand, looking forward to going back in November
Breed outwith what you work with? North Country Cheviot and Blue Texel. I intend to use the Blue Texel over the Highlanders next year to improve carcass quality whilst hopefully maintaining ease of lambing.
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