Never buy a gimmer lamb for today, always buy it for tomorrow
In 1985 I was farming with my twin brother, Alan, and mother. We went to Hawes in the September and bought 110 mule gimmer lambs. We lambed them and kept them as replacements in our own flock. In 1986 we again went to Hawes and bought another 110, this time we sold them as shearlings at Leyburn. Two of the buyers there that day were Philip Hayward from Derbyshire and William Smith our neighbour, each purchasing some of the shearlings, and now twenty years later they are still coming back to Leyburn to buy from us, along with Sam and Stuart Hudson, from Derbyshire,who come for our best two or three pens of shearlings.
My motto is: “Never buy a gimmer lamb for today, always buy it for tomorrow.”
I know tomorrow never comes, but I look for something that will hold its colour, it MUST have a big head, with plenty of width between the 'lugs', because they only grow to the size of the head, followed by some neck. I know its worth nowt but its the most important thing on a shearling , because its the first thing the buyers see when they come into the ring. A big head and neck they need to look over a gate not through it. Leg colour is important too, I know it doesn't really matter for fat lamb production, but it is one of my fads, and most importantly it should have a good white. I don't want much do I?
It's all credit to the breeders, they have got harder colour over the years, a lot of people like it, some don't, but when you sell a shearling the harder coloured ones sparkle with a good white.
When we get the ewe lambs home from the sales we let them settle for a week or two. The tups we use are Beltex, they go in in mid October. We use the Beltex as they produce a lamb with a smaller birth weight to the Suffolk, which we first used, and are our preference as they do not take as much out of the hogg when she has lambed.
This year our first draw of fat lambs off the hoggs went in June to Kirkby Stephen Auction Mart where they averaged 34kgs at £44, which we thought were better gone at that price. We end up keeping some shearlings that are not fit to go on sale day, a lame one etc. we have some 6 shear ewes fit and well. One old lass, Roly (left), as she's known at home after her breeder, was bought as a gimmer lamb in 1998, she is now cutting her teeth second time round and has just been tupped again, she is now beginning to look her age but is fit. She has had 6 crops of twins and 3 crops of triplets, granted they have not all lived, and has been seen by everyone who gets a copy of the Mule News, as she was on the front cover in 2004 with twin lambs. This shows how prolific and hard wearing a mule is, much better than a Lleyn which never looks anything but old and broken bellyed. Last year our hoggs lambed 83 twins, 77 singles, 3 triplets, 1 quad and 11 geld.
Its the first time we have lambed a hogg with quads, she had been scanned for 3, which is not unusual, we normally have a least two sets of triplets. They were all strong lambs, she got gathered up and made it into our third pen and made £180. While she was inside a neighbour came into the lambing pens and thought she was a shearling.
Since 2002, I have been farming with my wife, Val, and daughter, Hannah, who are both very keen on showing and preparing the shearlings for the sales. In 2005 I bought Hannah a pen of lambs, she lambed them and sold them as shearlings last year, went to the sales and eventually ended up with 19, she looked after them, got them to the sale and won 3rd prize. Her ambition is to beat her dad and mum at the shearling sale at Leyburn. It'll happen one day I'm sure.
We all say if we can't sell these good shearlings at a premium price to our regular buyers who are like me not proud but particular then the sheep job's buggered.
MARTIN BROWN
