5 minute read
Females are centre of attention at Drumbreddan
Fundamentals the foundation at Drumbreddan Danny Hair - Stranraer
Having successfully used the Texel as a crossing sire for many years previously, in 2010, the Hair family started their own pedigree flock at Drumbreddan, Stranraer – a decision they’ve certainly not regretted over the past decade.
“We’ve used Texels on the cross ewes for as long as I can remember,” says Danny Hair. “We’ve tried various other breeds, but for us, on our exposed ground, nothing has been as successful as the Texel. We were buying four or five tups a year, so we decided it would be worthwhile breeding our own,” he adds.
Danny farms with his father, Lamont, who moved to the Stranraer area from Ayrshire in 1966, initially to High Balyett Farm. They took on Drumbreddan in the late 1980s and now run 1400 acres in all, with the help of three staff. Within that, they grow 300 acres of spring barley, run 350 suckler cows, finishing all the progeny at home, and a flock of 1100 ewes.
“We have 550 Blackface sheep, 300 of which are kept pure and 250 crossed with the Bluefaced Leicester to produce Scotch Mules. Our 550-strong Scotch Mule flock are then put to the Texel, with the April-born lambs all sold direct to Morrisons, through the Wigtownshire Lamb Group,” explains Danny.
The crossbred lambs are all finished off grass, from the beginning of August, with two-thirds of them away by midSeptember.
Danny with wife Sian and children James and Molly
With a busy farming business, Danny says from the offset, he knew the pedigree Texels would also have to look after themselves as much as possible.
“The main aim with the pure Texels was to breed healthy, commercial sheep that would last and that’s what we’ve tried to stick to. The sheep here need to be able to look after themselves and that includes the Texels – they would never be a pampered flock here.
“We’re very selective in which ones we keep to breed from – any with feet or health issues have to go. The fundamental commercial attributes have to be right,” he adds.
With this in mind, the foundation females included two gimmers from Baltier, followed by a Tophill gimmer for 1500gns at Carlisle and a Millar’s ewe for 600gns at the flock reduction in Carlisle.
“We looked for females that were correct on their legs, with good tops and backends and plenty of width through them. If we could get a breedy head on our budget, then that too, but the basics had to be right,” explains Danny.
In fact, Danny’s superstar last year, Drumbreddan Centre of Attention, which made 32,000gns at Lanark, goes back to the Tophill ewe.
“That was an amazing trade last year, our top price before that had been 3800gns. However, we obviously can’t depend on a five-figure price every year and it doesn’t do any good to put yourself under pressure to try and achieve those kinds of prices. If we can produce a consistent pen each year and a good average, then we’re doing well,” he adds.
To achieve that consistency year on year, Danny says his focus has been on improving the quality of his females, which has been a long-term project.
“With all our sheep, we’ve always taken the approach that if you look after the females, the tups will look after themselves. It’s taken 10 years to get a level of consistency through the females, so that we can now aim to buy stock tups that will suit them all. You can’t get that consistency by buying in new females all the time, it has to come from years of breeding.”
Tups used over the years which have left their stamp on the flock, include Springwell Venom, which Danny says bred a lot of good females, and Midlock Yorkie, the sire of Centre of Attention.
“I loved Midlock Yorkie when he was sold originally and managed to buy him privately a couple of years later from Arkle and Halbeath. He bred really well for us – some of the nicest females we have are by him,” he adds.
“I always have a budget in mind when buying stock tups, but it’s not always easy to find what I’m looking for within that budget and especially difficult to find one with different bloodlines.
“I always look into the back-breeding of a ram and study it’s dam line. This year’s purchases were Clarks Dynamite and Claddagh Dynamite, both bought at Lanark.”
With the aim of keeping the pedigree ewe numbers to between 15 and 20, gimmers have been sold privately each summer for the past few years. This year, all the gimmers bar four have been sold off the farm.
“The Texels are part of the business and need to be making money, so being able to bring in that extra income from selling females is ideal and helps cover the cost of flushing and stock tups,” says Danny.
“This year, we’re flushing eight females, which is the most we’ve ever flushed, but I feel the ewes are now good enough to warrant that. The team includes a gimmer which I think is the best we’ve ever bred, she’s an ET sister to Centre of Attention.”
The embryos are AI’d to lamb around March 10th, which Danny says is the earliest that the weather will allow them to lamb at Drumbreddan, enabling them to get outside a few days later. Tup lambs are normally sold at Lanark, Carlisle and some local sales if numbers allow, although this year, Danny took the chance to sell a few privately, due to the possibility of local lockdowns.
Hopefully next year will see a return to normality, but meanwhile, Danny plans to continue developing his flock by concentrating on the fundamental commercial aspects of the breed.
“For me, Texels need to be healthy, commercial sheep that can look after themselves and go on and thrive and that’s the type we’ll continue to strive to produce,” he adds.
