Farmer Focus: Delighted by latest lift in lamb trade

More than enough has been said by other columnists about Brexit, so my comment is short and sweet: it has happened, there will be challenges and opportunities, and collectively as an industry we need to get on with it.

The result of the vote surprised me less than the lamb trade in the past few weeks.

I’m delighted that it has taken a lift and hopefully will remain ahead of last year for some time to come.

See also: Read more from the Livestock Farmer Focus writers 

We are sending lambs to Woodhead Bros on a weekly basis now.

Our main mobs at Fearn have been weaned weighed, dosed and given a trace element boost, before being put on to some decent grass.

Anything above 34kg will be finished on farm, while the remainder will be sold at our on-farm lamb sale on the 9 August.

See also: Grass deficit curbs lamb weaning weight

This is the second year we have done this and we have made some alterations to the way we run the sale, which will hopefully see a lift in trade.

Last year, lambs were penned up and sold very quickly.

This year, we will run the lambs through a ring so buyers can see them on the move.

All lambs will also have been double vaccinated against clostridial diseases, and will have been dipped one week prior to sale, which will hopefully give buyers extra confidence.

Following our lamb sale, our attentions switch to our ram sale on 26 August, when we sell 120 Texel, New Zealand Suffolk, Aberfield and Beltex rams.

Again it is on farm, so we will need to spruce the place up a bit before everybody arrives.

It is not for everyone, but so far it’s worked really well for us.

It gives us a chance to speak to our customers in greater depth and help them if needs be when trying to choose a ram.

See also: Buying land most stressful thing we’ve done

For those of you who follow what we are up to on social media, you will have noticed that our old beef shorthorn stock bull Dakota had to leave the farm recently for the final time.

I don’t know if we will ever have a bull on the farm like him again.

He was a real gentle giant and the bond that we had with him was special.

He will be sorely missed.

Another July departure was that of Ben and his family, who has been with us now for more than two years.

They are off to try their luck in the sunnier climes of Australia.

We wish them all the best and now the quest begins to replace him, which will be quite a challenge.

John and Fiona Scott farm 200 suckler cows, 4,500 breeding ewes as well as some crops across 2,226ha. He also has two contract farming operations and generates energy from a small scale wind turbine and biomass boiler.