Producing environmentally sustainable lamb is key to success for Sutherland farm

The enterprise comprises of a low input, moderate output, pure grass-based flock together with a complementary suckler herd based in Sutherland, one of mainland Britain's farthest-flung counties.

Vic Ballantyne farms Clynelish near Bora, a 125-hectare (309 acre) tenanted unit with additional rented grazing, with her husband Jason.

She says: "This season our 700-ewe Aberfield cross flock scanned 173 per cent, with 90 per cent survival from scanning to tagging and minimum shepherding or intervention."

The sheep are run alongside 90 suckler cows, while Mrs Ballantyne also runs a bed and breakfast plus self-catering accommodation in the summer.

The entire flock is lambed outdoors over 25 days starting on April 20, with outdoor calving beginning the same day.

Mrs Ballantyne says: "We set stock twins about 40 ewes per 3ha paddocks and singles about 100 per 3ha. We drive around three times a day, though could probably reduce this as intervention is absolutely minimal.

"Aberfields are milky and make great mothers who stay with their lambs, so we have adopted a policy of leave well enough alone. We no longer number anything and have not had any problems with mismothering. A portion of the flock is bred to the Primera meat sire."

Weaned

Lambs are often weaned at nine to 11 weeks, depending on grass availability, by which time singles are averaging 32kg, and twins 28kg. The majority are sold store either in the ring or privately at 15 weeks, though some of the heaviest and lightest lambs may be finished. Flexibility is key to the business, with decisions made annually to reflect weather and market conditions.

"Our mission is to produce high-quality, high-welfare, environmentally sustainable lamb and beef. We try to reduce financial risks so we are able to cope with market volatility. It is a case of pushing around the edges to see what we can do without. We stopped feeding concentrates in 2007," says Mrs Ballantyne.

"Boluses and mineral buckets were also gradually phased out. This year, just 120 twin-bearing ewes were supplemented with two silage bales and 5 tonnes of swedes in the two weeks prior to lambing. Triplet-carrying ewes are rotationally grazed after scanning in early February, while most of the remaining ewes are wintered away on good rough grazing."

Success

Mrs Ballantyne says robustness and resilience are key to the flock's overall success given the environmental and nutritional challenges of the north Highlands, with a very long, dark and damp winter. These are the two values which led the Ballantynes to introduce the Aberfield to their mostly Cheviot cross flock in 2015.

Mrs Ballantyne says: "Innovis genetics and their ethos just fitted what we were looking for - selection pressure, forage bred and reared, and the ability to manage in a commercial low input environment. We want sheep that fit the environment rather than always trying to adapt the environment to the sheep. We have increased conception and improved survival with a ewe that does well on our ground in our system.

"We visited Southfield, home to Innovis' 1,000-ewe nucleus flock, in the Borders on a wet miserable day last November. We have always been convinced by the Innovis philosophy. However, it was good to see it in action.

"All the sheep were managed in commercial systems similar to our own - they are certainly not pampered. We witnessed rams bred, reared and selected from systems that apply both environmental and nutritional pressure, something that is all too rare when it comes to ram breeding. That thorough selection process - which includes performance figures, structure and temperament - is very reassuring and why we continue to go to Innovis for our rams. We focus on estimated breeding values that are high for maternal ability, fat, body condition score (BCS), and growth, though structure and ‘type' are also important.

"Our Aberfield cross ewes are maturing at 65-70kg, enabling us to maximise stocking rate and overall efficiency of our grazing system. They are easier for me to handle and preferred over more extreme types. I do not mind if they are a bit heavy or if they are fat, but we do not want tall, big-framed, lean animals here.

"After July weaning, they have plenty of time to recover, and they are used as a grazing management tool to tidy up behind the cows. The really impressive thing is they go into winter in good nick, and without anything more than good rough grazing, and they come out for lambing in tremendous condition and lamb with very few issues.

"The ewes have that ability to carry a bit of weight, retaining themselves in BCS 3-4 right throughout the year. We make sure there is no reason for them not to be fit and healthy, and then it is their job to look after themselves. I am more and more convinced that an animal's ability to retain BCS is key to their health and fertility, which is why we have been able to reduce the use of other products. This also benefits our carbon footprint as we increase stocking density, lamb survival and longevity - ewes are averaging five lamb crops."

Focus

Mr and Mrs Ballantyne place a big focus on reducing worm burden and use of wormers by home FEC counts and strategic grazing. The cattle are essential -they follow the ewes, clean up the grazing and help reduce the worm burden.

"Most ewes have not had a wormer for over two years; only ‘high risk' animals are done prior to lambing. This year, we got to weaning without worming the lambs and the FEC results were still showing very low counts," says Mrs Ballantyne.

Seeking to add hybrid vigour again, the Ballantynes introduced the performance-recorded Highlander damline to the flock in 2021.

Mrs Ballantyne says: "We wanted to give the flock an extra boost and add some head wool - so far, so good. We ran the ewe lambs with the Hebridean and they have proven to be great mothers - they are milky, look after their lambs well and are agreeable."

Grazing

To maximise grazing potential, the entire farm has been sub-divided with semi-permanent fencing into 35, approximately 3ha (7.4 acre) paddocks with water to enable a leader-follower rotational grazing system. Post-lambing, ewes with twins are mobbed up and stocked at 270 ewes per paddock and moved on every second day. There are 50 cows and heifers which follow on to tidy up. The singles are stocked similarly on the other side of the farm with the rest of the cows and heifers behind them.

"The rotation is naturally determined by grass growth; ideally, we take the covers from 2,500-3,000kg of dry matter (DM) per hectare down to 1,500kg DM/ha. While I occasionally plate meter, we have come to know when we need to move them and when we can start dropping paddocks out for silage a bit later in the year.   

"We aim for a full rotation to take approximately three weeks. We are careful not to hammer the grazing through the winter when we ship the flock off to local rented good hill grazing. It allows us to bring ewes home to really good quality pasture in early April."

"Profitability is number one at Clynelish, otherwise we could not do any of the extra stuff that we take joy from, like planting new trees and hedges and time out for trips away," says Mrs Ballantyne, who is a 2022 Nuffield Scholar, a role which has taken her all over the world in the last 12 months. Mrs Ballantyne was brought up on an 800ha (1,976.8 acre) mountain farm in New South Wales, Australia. She left to go backpacking in 2006, arrived to Clynelish for lambing, and the rest is history.

Farm facts