Ewan Brewis
Ewan Brewis
Ewan Brewis 700ha(1750-acre) farm is split into two units. Lempitlaw, the main 420ha (1037 acre) holding near Kelso, Scottish Borders and Gattonside Mains with 180ha (455 acre) grass (LFA) plus 80ha (198 acres) rented. Stocking is 340 sucklers, a 40-cow pedigree Aberdeen-Angus herd, 20-cow pedigree Charolais herd, 60 pedigree Suffolk and 960 commercial ewes.
BACK from South Africa – one of the best trips we have ever had – back to reality.
Gattonside silage took three weeks to make in our absence due to the weather, but there were only about 10 acres of dodgy bales made.
The rainfall in the past two months has amassed 213mm, fortunately most of that while we were away. Since our return we have baled some excellent hay, completed second-cut silage and started harvest.
The new baler, a Class Variant, which did well in silage, is now chopping and baling winter barley straw for incorporating into rations. After the fire in January, we have replaced the straw chopper with a chopper mixer wagon. That should prevent any more fires, but we are not sure how the chopped bales and mixer wagon will perform together.
The show season started at the Border Union at Kelso, where we were upstaged by our own cattleman, Iain McGillivray. He won the overall championship with his heifer out of a cow bought from us a few years ago. It was encouraging to see a new breeder taking the honours, even if it was at our expense. The Berwickshire Show at Duns the next week brought Iain back down to earth, though, as his heifer certainly did not catch the judges eye – thats showing for you.
On the pedigree front the Iloma ET saga continues and we are now at the stage of AIing her before flushing. We have 10 donor cows ready and hope they will all be required.
Pedigree calving is in full swing and has been relatively uneventful, the score standing this year at 17 bulls and 17 heifers. At Gattonside Mains, heifer calving began a fortnight ago with no problems other than one caesarian.
Sheep dipping came and went in my absence. Unfortunately, lamb prices seem to have subsided; having hovered about the 250p/kg price in June we have now slumped to 220p.
I am pleased to say we are still supplying lambs to our local butchers, David Palmer, and more recently to Mitchells of Kelso. Logan Brown of Border Livestock Exchange tells me that nobody else could get as much for my lambs as he does!n
Pedigree calving is in full swing, with 17 bulls and 17 heifers on the ground so far. Next on Ewan Brewis agenda is flushing Iloma the pedigree Charolais cow, which is due to have been done this week.