North Country Cheviot semen being exported from Scotland to the US for the first time in 30 years, looks set to make a huge improvement to the genetics of Graham and Margaret Phillipson’s flock from Littledale Farm in Richland Center, Wisconsin.
The couple who have been breeding Scottish Blackfaces and North Country Cheviots for 40 years, took the opportunity to bring new bloodlines into their flock following the lift in the ban in UK semen imports, when their 100-ewe originates from the 3000 North Country Cheviots which were exported to Nova Scotia, Canada in the 1970s. Over the years the Phillipsons have built up the flock as a labour of love beside full time employment. Graham started in machine tool manufacturing in 1954 at Churchill Machine Tool Co Manchester specialist in precision grinding machines.
Following many years as managing director and founder of Butler Newall Machine Tools USA and Danobat SA Machine Tools USA, he founded his own company in 1989 prior to retiring from manufacturing engineering business in 2019, whilst Margaret ran a bed and breakfast business on the farm.
Their 170 acres is home to a pastoral flock which produces hardy breeding stock to sell across the US with the sheep kept outside 12 months of the year and in temperatures ranging from 30c above to 30c below.
“We like the Cheviots and the Blackfaces as they are hardy breeds that can cope with our conditions,” explained Margaret.
“A lot of sheep farmers in the US take their sheep inside at night or over winter, but we run an outdoor system. By breeding from the best within the flock we have been able to produce robust sheep that can cope with all the Wisconsin conditions thrown at them.”
It’s not just the massive fluctuations in temperature that the sheep have to cope with but also predators.
Graham said: “There are coyotes about which will take sheep if given the chance. After losing 16 sheep to a coyote attack in 2011 we got two big livestock guardian dogs which are a mix of Anatolian shepherd, Italian Maremmano and Spanish mastiff. There are black bears and wolves around 300 miles north and some reports of them in the district but we have not seen any on the farm.”
On the 90 acres of native pasture, the Phillipsons graze sheep and make hay to feed to them through winter. The rest of the farm is in trees and rough ground. Lambing usually starts outside, around St Patrick’s Day in March. The Phillipsons are great believers in letting the ewes get on with it and very few lamb through the night.
Despite being in their 80s the couple still do all the lambing themselves and they lamb in March so that ewes and lambs are ready for the grass growth in April and May after the snow melts. The sheep are bred to be hardy with the only veterinary cost being an annual wormer. They are in a scrapie monitoring programme but have never had any sign of the disease.
The couple also have Border Collie sheepdogs which was the original reason sheep came onto the farm, to support their love of working dogs. They are nevertheless unusual in North America, in that they aim to breed sheep true to the characteristics in the UK.
Graham explained: “A lot of our sheep breeds come from the UK, but breeders here change them and cross them. Part of this is out of necessity as there are only so many bloodlines in the country. One of the most popular breeds here is the Suffolk which on the show circuit looks very different to the sheep in the UK. They like long legs and necks here for showing and many farmers will feed grains like maize through the winter, which also influences the look of the animals.”
Graham and Margaret don’t generally show their sheep but have exhibited them them in carcase competitions in Illinois in the past.
“We are usually put bottom of the class for the live judging but then come out first when they assess the carcases,” Graham said.
Lambs are raised on the pasture with the aim to sell them for breeding which usually earns between $400 and $800 each. However, the offspring from the imported semen should command a premium with plans to charge between $1000 to $1200. Lambs which are not destined for breeding are slaughtered in the local small abattoir known as a ‘locker’.
Usually, the Phillipsons kill six to eight lambs at a time weighing around 100lbs liveweight (45kg) which are then butchered and sold to local customers. The last lot they sold went for $2.25/lb which puts a 100lb lamb at $225 (£175). Alternatively, lambs can be sold store for further finishing where feeders look to take lambs to 130lbs (59kg) however Graham admits he doesn’t think his lambs will get to those weights.
The US is not a big lamb eating country, but Graham believes there is a growing market with many Hispanic people keen to eat lamb in their traditional dishes. A leg of lamb costs around $50 (£40) and most of the product in supermarkets comes from New Zealand or Australia.
“There is also lamb sold for Muslim festivals, but people often want to slaughter the sheep themselves on the farm,” added Graham. “We do not allow it as we want to make sure of high welfare and they like to leave the offal behind on the farm. Which with coyotes going about, is a bad idea.”
This is not the first time the couple have imported North Country Cheviot semen from the UK as in 1998 and 1999 they imported semen from the Longoe flock in Caithness, owned by HM The Queen Mother Trust and from the late Tommy Dun’s Brotherstone flock in the Scottish Borders.
And, in 2005 and 2006 they used three lines of imported Scottish semen to enhance the genetics in their Scottish Blackface sheep. It was imported from the Gilmanscleuch flock in Ettrick, Selkirk.
Relying on artificial insemination (AI) in sheep is not easy in the US as very few vets have much practical experience. The last time AI was practised, it produced a scanning rate of 30%, leaving just 11 lambs, six male and five females. Previously they had managed to get conception rates of 88%. It is expensive at the minimum order is 100 straws at $38 (£30) each plus the vet charges $40 per animal (£31.25).
The Phillipsons have now AI’d two batches of ewes in 2021 and 2022 which they believe will bring them enough new genetics for the flock for a number of years. “We just love the sheep and the breeds” they said. “If we had our time again we would live in the UK as sheep farmers."
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