Livestock Adviser of the Year Finalist – John Vipond

SAC sheep consultant

There can be few names more synonymous with driving change in the sheep industry in recent years than that of John Vipond, sheep consultant with SAC.

By his own admission Dr Vipond has made it his personal mission to promote easier care sheep systems in the UK, encouraging farmers to change their enterprises so they are less reliant on bought-in inputs and have significantly reduced labour needs.

“For sheep farming to be profitable without subsidies there has to be less reliance on labour, particularly at lambing,” he explains.

And there is no doubt he has been successful in his mission with easier care sheep systems – the key talking point of the sheep industry in recent years. While many may disagree with some of what Dr Vipond has been promoting, there is no doubt everyone in the sheep industry has learned something from what he has said in recent years.

Working largely with groups of farmers, he has helped them focus on production costs and identify where savings can be made. Indeed two of Dr Vipond’s clients, Marcus Maxwell and David MacTaggart, were Farmers Weekly Sheep Farmer of Year in 2005 and 2006, respectively. Both these farmers have adopted systems which rely on sheep thriving with limited human intervention.

With a history of instigating change, Dr Vipond was a key figure in driving the development of the Highland Mule Association and subsequent to that the Highlands and Islands Sheep Health Association. Both these organisations helped farmers to help themselves, encouraging them to breed higher quality stock and market them at as a premium product with high health status.

“This role of facilitating change and allowing farmers to take control of their destiny is one I continue to this day, recently helping in the establishment of the Sheep Easy Group, which aims to produce and sell rams with enhanced production and easier-care traits. These rams have the added value of being capable of serving 100 ewes a year through improved nutrition.”

And while he has been instrumental in pushing the easier care message, Dr Vipond is equally at home helping clients make the most of more intensive sheep enterprises. “What I aim to ensure is that the system operated is the most appropriate one for the farm.”

With visits often requiring a highly detailed investigation into many different aspects of a sheep enterprise, Dr Vipond aims to provide a full written report on his findings, giving clients a full briefing of his thoughts and suggestions.

“Earlier this year one farmer came to me with a report I compiled for him in 1992. Over the last 15 years he has enacted many of the suggestions I made and he’s now farming profitably and sustainably.”

Well recognised in the wider industry as an innovator, Dr Vipond has in recent years helped identify research results ready for application. One of these was work on the role of environment and genetics in the survival of newborn lambs. This has now been successfully incorporated into new outdoor lambing systems and trait selection in Texel and Suffolk breeds.

Additionally, he has held a number of roles in industry organisations and was president of the British Grassland Association in 2004-05 and has been called on by a wide range of organisations to assist them and their members in finding routes to profitable futures.