Roger & Beth Polson are Organic Arable, Beef & Sheep farmers at Knock, northwest of Aberdeen.
Having previously visited Wairere Romney’s in New Zealand & seeing how the sheep were farmed on steep Hill Country running up to 1800 feet & best described as winter wet, summer dry, Roger came home & pondered how could these sheep fit our system and what did they offer?
Roger & Beth who farm organically have a supply agreement with Scotbeef receiving premiums for delivering high quality beef & lamb annually. A weakness in Roger’s system was having to purchase Blackface ewes annually to breed Mule ewes, Roger was keen to close the front gate on purchasing outside sheep & head down the self replacing flock path, thereby taking full control of bio-security & having only to buy a couple of rams annually. In 2020 4 Wairere UK Romney’s were purchased & joined with the Mule ewes to provide replacements.
Whilst it’s early days with the lambs shown only being around 70 days old, they look to be doing just aswell as terminal bred lambs and will defenitely be joined as ewe lambs.
On reflection Roger & the staff thought the lambs had a bit more thrift & get up & go when they were born & the 4 Rams purchased in 2020 have just been shorn & come through the winter really well.
When I visited in early July & took these photos Roger told me, “the proof will be the killing sheet” but he did order 3 more Rams, so I’ve taken that as a positive.
Roger Polson and his Beef HerdMule ewes with 70 day old Wairere Romney Cross Lambs70 day old Wairere Romney Cross Lambs
Burnfoot in the Ewes Valley north of Langholm in the Scottish Borders has seen a major change in sheep genetics in the last 12 months. Andrew & Gill who now run Burnfoot having taken over from Andrew’s mother Anne & the late Douglas who farmed Burnfoot prior now look to make there mark on 100 years of Elliot family ownership.
Having previously dabbled with a few Wairere UK Romney’s on the flat around the house (Burnfoot is 50 acres of fertile river flat & 3000 acres of Borders hill country with mostly fern & millenial grass with some Peaty Heather tops). Andrew came to look at the Wairere Romney Tups sold ex Jim Logan’s Pirntaton Farm north of Galashiels in 2020. Having decided prior to seeing the Rams that he would probably buy 3 or 4 rams, however on inspection liking the open faced deep bodied sheep, much like he’d seen in New Zealand while shearing there, Andrew described it as a “stuff it” moment, if I’m going to do this, let’s do it & subsequently purchased 15 Wairere UK Rams, enough to cover his entire flock of Hill Country Cheviot Ewes. Andrew did confess to wondering what he was going to tell Gill when he got home!
“Having decided prior to seeing the Rams that he would probably buy 3 or 4 rams, however on inspection liking the open faced deep bodied sheep, much like he’d seen in New Zealand while shearing there, Andrew described it as a “stuff it” moment, if I’m going to do this, let’s do it & subsequently purchased 15 Wairere UK Rams, enough to cover his entire flock of Hill Country Cheviot Ewes. Andrew did confess to wondering what he was going to tell Gill when he got home!” Andrew Scott
Roll on 12 months & with one of his best lambing percentages ever, the lambs looking bigger and meatier than he’s used to Andrew is hoping to kill some of the best male lambs off the mothers & has decided to mate the first cross ewe lambs aswell.
When asked “why the change?” Andrew says to stay the same would have meant gradually going backwards. I’m banking on the Wairere UK Romney’s to lift production & in turn profit without having to expand outside the farm gate. Tongue-in-cheek he adds that if he’d made the change a little sooner he may have more hair than he’s got now! As for Anne, as she looks down the Ewes Valley and looks at the Wairere UK Romney cross lambs now roaming the hills & the new covered yards for handling the sheep, she wonders what Douglas would be thinking.
Given that Anne & Douglas were extremely well travelled looking at what other farmers were doing on the world stage, I’m sure it would have his tick of approval!
Anne and Andrew ElliotEwe’s Valley at BurnfootHill Country Cheviot Ewe with it’s Wairere Romney cross lambsWairere Romney lambs at BurnfootWairere Romney cross lambsWairere Romney cross lambsHill Country Cheviot Ewe with it’s Wairere Romney cross lambs
The annual Wairere UK ram sale is back for another year! Please get in touch with Chris and Caroline on the details above to book a place, and also for a copy of the ram list prior to the sale. We really hope to see some new faces and of course our returning clients who keep coming back each year!
Rest assured that we are of course adhering to all Covid-19 guidelines and the sale will be ran in socially distanced and safe format. If you are unable to make the sale day, but would like to remotely bid, this can be accommodated.
Wairere UK are pleased to announce the appointment of Pierre Syben from Wairere in New Zealand as our assistant for Ram Sales & prospective Clients.
It has always been our intention to give you our valued clients the best possible service & attention. As our Ram Sales have grown each year in the UK & across in to Europe we now feel we need some help with the extension of service in our business. Hence our appointment of Pierre who is totally dedicated to our clients getting the service they deserve aswell as the best possible advice on the use of the genetics they’ve purchased. Pierre has been involved with Wairere for 20 years. He is responsible for overseeing the properties & Ram Sales of Wairere Australia, he has an in depth knowledge of the New Zealand & Australian meat industry having developed & managed a conception to consumption supply chain for one of Australasias largest supermarket chains (Woolworths Ltd).
We think Pierre will add another dimension to our business & take our client service to another level while we continue on the farm to produce the best possible Rams we can & increase your on farm productivity.
This doesn’t mean we are stepping aside, far from it! As a sheep breeding business we need to know;
1, What are our clients needs?
2, How are our Rams performing?
3, What’s going to take your business forward?
4, Understanding the environment & conditions our Rams need to perform in.
No two farms are the same & everyone has different challenges within the farm gate.
The best way to answer these questions is by getting on your properties & seeing what’s going on.
Remember Chris, Caroline or Andy are only a phone call away should you require any advice!
From the importance of ‘good branding’, through to ‘triple drench resistance’, and even a visit from one of Wairere UK’s Scottish clients, James Logan.
Click on the Newsletter to see what Wairere NZ have been up to lately!
Just ask any pre-school child who their favourite person in the world is and virtually in all cases the answer will be “MUM”, once passed their teenage years the answer is usually the same. Mums matter big time and no more so than with sheep, we need our ewes to be maternal, more lambs will survive the first few important hours after birth, lambs grow closer to their full potential if mum is looking after them and milking, if mum can count she does not lose or forget her lambs – It’s the key to cheaper lamb production – she does all the work because she just loves her children. Not all sheep do! A lot of terminal breed ewes are certainly not the best mums in the world. I have been sheep farming for nearly 40 years; the first 20 years running a cross bred flock .I changed to a New Zealand Romney flock in 2000 and have never looked back. I guess this makes me a slow learner!
When we have New Zealand sheep farmers visiting us, they are all surprised at how focused the average UK sheep farmer is on the terminal sires he is going to put over his ewes, but pays little thought to the maternal instincts of his ewe flock and how they can be improved. Yet she is going to have a huge effect on cost of production i.e. extra management at lambing time, lamb survival, lamb growth, creep feed etc.
As sheep farmers we don’t want tups that will throw lambs with big heads and wide shoulders -they don’t pass easily through the birth canal and if stressed at birth they are dozy for hours afterwards and therefore not getting that vital colostrum as soon as possible. Maternal ewes with large pelvic areas are the trick to lamb survival which is a key area of profitability – dead lambs don’t makemoney! It’s not all about lambing percentages – survival matters! The kiwi farmers understand the importance of maternal traits and are constantly trying to improve them within their flock. ”It’s like depositing money in the bank” if she is trouble why breed from her get- those genetics out of the flock! It all comes back to having a self-replacing flock where you are in control of the genetics, the cost of replacements, and the bio security of the flock.
Virtually all dairy farmers breed their own replacements from their best cows- Why don’t you? Do yourself a favour and try a Wairere Ram! New Zealand’s national flock is predominately self-replacing and has been for decades (Ever.) Wairere is the number one ram seller in N.Z which has hugely demanding farmers as its clients. Wairere could possibly be the largest single ram seller in the world as they have joint venture flocks in South America and Australia and well as in the UK. We are not just New Zealand Romneys we are Wairere New Zealand Romneys – there is a big difference.
This spring has not been without its challenges (understatement) and it has been very encouraging to have had a number of clients ring up and say how pleased and relieved they have been to be running Wairere bred stock. The same comments have also been aired as the drought continues to grip. Sheep need to be bred for resilience and constitution and at Wairere they have been doing this for decades, they are not a fancy named x bred, but a proper self-replacing animal that has been honed over 60 years. You can’t sell 3500 plus rams a year in New Zealand without ticking all the boxes.
The icing on the cake is that Wairere UK performance record them on a second quality, forage only diet – NO Concentrates. The Wairere ewe is a deep gutted animal that is very happy to perform on second quality grass, or if you are lucky enough to have a farm that actually grows grass stock her a lot heavier.
Get in touch with us as we would love to hear from you.
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