Building
a profitable sheep enterprise with economies of scale and the prolific Lleyn
One Northern Ireland sheep producer has set a five year goal to turn his
sheep enterprise from the bottom 25% to the top 25% of DARD benchmarked
flocks by increasing ewe numbers and introducing a low input easy care system,
high SRS terminal sires and the prolific Lleyn as a damline to produce quality
finished lamb.
Sheep remain the preferred livestock option at Brookmount Farm, Saintfield, in County Down for Crosby Cleland. "Europe is still only 76% self sufficient in sheep meat which gives me confidence in the marketplace, a sheep enterprise without volumes of slurry is the most conducive to the Nitrates Directive, and while some farmers are regarding the SFP as a simple way of getting through life, I will need sheep to manage my grassland," he explains.
Such is his confidence in the sector that he has commenced a flock development programme at Brookmount which will virtually double up flock size to 700 breeding ewes bringing the 148 acre unit to stocking capacity, and change the entire damline from Continental cross, Greyface and Mule ewes to a closed flock of pure Lleyn and cross Lleyn ewes. Achieving greater economies of scale, coupled with improved performance is scheduled to virtually double gross margin from £20 per ewe to between £35 and £40 per ewe and achieve sustainability.
"This is a family farm that has always carried sheep. In fact, sheep are in the blood," he says. "However I'm the first to admit the flock has been neglected in the last 10 years as I've focused on developing a successful fencing business. Overall flock performance took a nose dive to 130% lambs reared, and while we were producing quality Continental cross lambs, they were too heavy and we were penalised on price. Furthermore, both our fixed and forage costs per ewe were too high and I'd lost my way buying rams - I was selecting on appearance rather than records," he explains.
The development venture
was launched two years ago, Crosby explains. "We've only just started,
however so far so good," he says. "We believed the Lleyn with
its strong maternal characteristics and prolificacy had the potential to
help improve overall flock performance to an average 160% lambs reared.
In 2004 our crop of pure Lleyns achieved 165% reared, they finished solely
off milk and grass at an average 19.5kg from 12 weeks and 83% graded within
the top specification.
"I am budgeting
an extra £8 per ewe gross margin for every 10% increase in lambs reared
per ewe, so working on the initial target figure of 160% lambs reared will
bring an instant gross margin boost of £24 per ewe. However, this
year our pure ewes have been scanned to carry more than 200%."
Crosby Cleland initially invested in 215 pure females secured from the major
Lleyn Sheep Society sales in Carlisle and Ruthin. One hundred and thirty
ewes have been selected to create a nucleus flock to breed replacements
and ram and ewe lambs surplus to requirements will be traded on.
We are also developing a commercial flock of crossbred Lleyn ewes by taking our pure Lleyn hoggets and crossing them with high SRS Charollais rams, and the mature Lleyn ewes are being put to high SRS Texel rams. This new flock will eventually be crossed with either high SRS Suffolk or Texel rams and all progeny finished and sold deadweight through Strangford Down, a 160 member lamb marketing group that Crosby helped to establish almost 20 years ago and with a current annual turnover of the 12,000 finished lambs.
Apart from their prolificacy, confirmation, and above all natural motherability, Crosby says the Lleyn is a slightly smaller framed ewe and enabling stocking rate to increase from four ewes per acre to five ewes per acre. "This winter we proved our Lleyns clearly had reduced forage requirements. We placed one block of silage in front of 30 Texel cross ewes and it lasted two days, while the block we introduced to the 30 Lleyn ewes took three days to eat."
Furthermore despite increase sheep numbers at Brookmount, Crosby Clelands says he will not be stepping up labour, usually a farm's biggest hidden cost. "This enterprises has been set up to be managed by one person with a quad bike, with additional labour required at six so called annual 'round ups' which include scanning, lambing and shearing. "We're fortunate in that help is usually to hand from the fencing teams. We have invested in housing and handling equipment and the unit is well fenced. To make handling even easier, we have set up some a series of 0.75 acre to 1.5 acre paddocks around the steading."
At lambing, Crosby says the Lleyns have reduced labour requirements to minimal. "Lleyn ewes do not need help, and their lambs are lively, they're soon up on their feet sucking. We're optimistic these ewes will produce an average five to six crops." As far as other inputs are concerned, clover rich swards are being established at Brookmount in order to reduce fertiliser requirements to 40 units N/acre twice a year.
He adds: "Life is a gamble no matter what we do, however we believe we have made carefully calculated decisions on the best options for this unit based around the Lleyn, which will deliver sustainable solutions, and a profitable future."
· In 2004, Brookmount agreed to work with Hillsborough Research Institute as a research farm, part of its Easy Care Sheep management initiative. Crosby Cleland subsequently signed up with DARD to become a Focus Farm, a demonstration unit with an average 150 farmer visitors plus students per year