Flexibility breeds success
Flexibility breeds success
Flexibility is the name of
the game for
the producer hosting
this years Sheep South
West event. Polled Dorsets
fit this requirement well,
allowing him to combine off-farm work with flock
management.
John Burns reports
ANDREW Mather, the host farmer for the National Sheep Associations Sheep South West event, is a young man determined to establish himself in the industry and prepared to adapt and do whatever is necessary to get there.
In 1990 he bought 30.7ha (76 acres) of land from his father and erected a livestock building on it. Nine years later, he seized a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity when another 13.8ha (34 acres) of land next to his own came on the market. That brought his farm up to its present 44.5ha (110 acres). He had already twice extended the buildings and built a neat bungalow to complete the unit known today as Hallsdown Farm, Arlington, Devon.
His land runs from 274m (900ft) to 305m (1000ft) above sea level, but is reasonably level and from the higher fields both Dartmoor and Exmoor can be seen. "At the height of the foot-and-mouth outbreak, I could see 11 pyres at once from those fields," he says.
Each year Mr Mather grows about 6ha (15 acres) of spring barley – without benefit of arable area payment – and this year he followed 2.8ha (7 acres) of it with grazing rye for December-lambed ewes from early March onwards.
Grassland receives 125kg/ha (50kg/acre) of 0:20:30 in autumn and 125kg/ha (50kg/acre) of urea in February. Mowing fields get 250kg/ha (100kg/acre) 0f 25:5:5 before cutting and muck afterwards, explains Mr Mather. "When grazing is short, more nitrogen may be used. We usually make at least 350 round bales of silage and there is often a surplus to sell."
For many years, Mr Mather has had off-farm income from contract round baling and wrapping for other producers. At first he worked with his father, but now runs the business himself with hired help during summer. "I typically wrap and stack about 8000 bales for customers."
At home, Mr Mather has always kept Poll Dorsets. When he started, he aimed to produce lambs for sale when the market was short rather than in the autumn, as most others in the area do. "Then I became hooked on them. The great thing is the flexible lambing time. I can adapt my system to suit market demands or to fit in with my other work.
"They can be contrary, but they are good mothers, milk well, have good quality wool and we have few lambing problems," he adds.
Until this year, he has lambed three times a year – June/July, November/December and March. He expects 1.6 lambs/ewe at the December lambing and 1.3 at the other two lambings.
Movement restrictions and other F&M-related difficulties last year, combined with disappointing prices for spring-born lambs, led Mr Mather to cancel the March lambing this year.
"Not having the March lambing has allowed me to lamb on other farms, earning more than I could through lambing some of my ewes at that time. On this farm, March lambing has proved consistently less profitable than the other two dates."
The main flock at Hallsdown is 350 Poll Dorset ewes. Until last year, replacements were bought in, he says. "Last years intake was selected from the March lamb crop, which is ready when market prices are relatively low. But having abandoned March lambing, replacements will be December-born."
July-born lambs sold between January and March are the most profitable, even though lambing percentage is low for this period. For the July lambing, ewes receive no concentrates and lambs hit the market when prices are increasing.
Mr Mather likes to sell lambs at South Molton auction mart, 15 miles away. "Its good to be able to take a batch of lambs and let people see you take a pride in your job. You get a price for the lot and know where you are as soon as you sell, not like deadweight selling where every lamb can be a different price."
However, recently he refused to take £40/head at auction – having made £55/head the previous week – and took lambs home even though he knew it would trigger a 20-day standstill. His only option was to sell them deadweight.
To comply with DEFRA requirements, South Molton had to switch from selling in purpose-built sheep pens outdoors, to using its covered cattle ring, says Mr Mather. "I like the new arrangement apart from lambs are now selling about 1kg lighter because they are weighed as they enter the ring, whereas previously they were weighed on arrival, long before they were sold."
Always willing to try something different, this Easter he sold 20 lambs at 30-31kg liveweight to a local abattoir for a special order at £50/head flat rate.
Over the years, Mr Mather has experimented with various breeds crossed with the Poll Dorset in the hope of producing a saleable ewe lamb for breeding. An early choice of ram was Bleu du Maine, but demand for crossbreds was poor.
His most recent trial is with the Blue-Faced Leicester. Six crossbreds lambed in March to a Charollais ram and produced an excellent crop of lambs. "However, ewes were not quite as milky as I hoped."
About 300 of the Poll Dorset ewes go to Charollais rams which sire lambs leaner and longer than pure Polls and are willing to work outside the normal sheep breeding season.
In recent years, he believes demand for indoor intensively-finished early lambs has declined, so he has been gradually adapting his system to suit the market. "The July batch easily fits an outdoor largely forage-based system. December lambers stay indoors until late February and then go out onto grazing rye." *
Poll Dorsets allow a flexible approach to sheep production, believes Andrew Mather.
• Poll Dorset flock.
• Lamb twice a year.
• Liveweight selling.