Livestock Farmer Focus: Mathew Cole is focused on marketing mule ewe lambs
Flaming June and July passed and the fine weather stayed for a fantastic wedding.
Unfortunately it has passed us by, the summer solstice has long gone and the weather seems to have an autumnal feel as the low cloud and rain seems to hasten the shortening of the days.
With grass still to cut and bale, let’s hope there will be a break soon. This damp corner of Dartmoor has quickly resembled scenes from the past couple of summers, with us snatching at dry days. That said, I am sure the rain is a welcome relief for those in drier areas.
As we start weaning lambs and sorting ewes we look first to our mule ewe lambs. For our farm high on Dartmoor with its short season it suits us to market mule ewe lambs as early as possible and effectively sell half of our mule lamb crop at a premium early in our sale season.
We do invest a lot of faith in a couple of markets but it seems to works for us. The South West Mule Group has grown its sale at Tavistock Market in early September and October and it goes from strength to strength. The lambs are looking strong and we will now concentrate on ensuring as many lambs as possible are ready for that first sale.
Tavistock Market also recently hosted the first pedigree Galloway Cattle sale on Dartmoor, with a good trade for bulls and breeding females. Dartmoor is home to many Galloway cattle and it is a welcome sight to see a sale in this part of the world as we would normally have to travel to Scotland to source this type of cattle. Well done to the group of Dartmoor farmers who worked hard to put this sale together.