texel primestock
‘Ensuring
premium lamb prices at Guise of Tough’
Edited feature courtesy of Scottish Farmer.
“You need economies of scale to make any type of business work,”
Lambing is the most important time of year for all sheep farmers but when there’s no single farm payment coming in, then optimum flock management – both pre and post lambing – is crucial to ensure any sort of nett profit at the end of the day.
Liz was brought up to farm at Glenbuchat and it was here that she and young Lloyd spent many a happy hour amongst the sheep with his grand-father before then leaving school to work at Meadow Farm, Tarland, for Richard Anderson.
That’s exactly the case at Guise of Tough, Alford, where mother and son team, Liz and Lloyd Fowlie, attend to 1600 commercial ewes and 120 Limousin and British Blue suckler cows, while father, also Lloyd, manages his successful electrical business.
However, when Liz’ father died six years ago and the Fowlies opted to buy Guise, Lloyd left Meadow Farm to come and work at home. He certainly has his hands full now, with just him and his mother working on the unit, although casual labours are employed when necessary. Twins Megan and Katie both of whom are in their final year at high school, help out at lambing time, while their older sister, Jane is an SAC consultant at Forfar.
Fortunately, this scenic 340-acre Aberdeenshire farm – which sits at 9001000ft above sea-level – is owned, but having only been purchased five years ago, the family didn’t qualify for any SFP. Since then, the Fowlies have bought low value SFP entitlement, but rather than plough all available hard cash into future payments, they opted to rent additional grazing therefore allowing them to upsize numbers. As it is, they already rent a further 400-500 acres on an annual basis, and by taking on even more ground in future they hope to eventually expand to nearer 2000 ewes and 200 cows. “You need economies of scale to make any type of business work,” said young Lloyd, who at the age of just 23 is the main man at Guise, managing this expanding unit with his mother Liz.
www.texel.co.uk ten
It pays to produce quality so we crossed everything to a Texel. It was sheep that appealed most to Liz and Lloyd with the flock having been built up from Texel cross Lleyn ewes bought privately from Meadow, all of which were then crossed to a Texel tup. “Having the current number of sheep does have its disadvantages, but it’s the sheep side of the business that is at least making some money,” said Lloyd adding that by concentrating on producing top quality Limousin and British Blue cross calves, he hopes the cattle side of the enterprise will