Cheviots Drive Profit and Progress at Mains of Inverourie

“The North Country Cheviot is the perfect fit for our situation, we are getting good cross lambs out of them. I can say that with the Cheviot, we are getting a good £10-15 more for our cross lambs than we did with Blackie crosses.

“If we’re doing something, we want to do it right and buy good quality stock. We purchased 40 Keppoch ewes from Dingwall in 2021, they were very good sheep and we wanted to get decent tups to get good ewes out of them.

A trip to Lairg in 2022 resulted in three tups coming home, from the Dalrachie, Armadale and Dunbeath flocks. “We had never spent so much on tups before, spending an average of £2500 but it has been well worth it and we still have them.”

The Dalrachie tup is out of a Torrish ewe put to a home-bred shearling, Dalrachie AC-DC, whose father was Armadale Dirty Deeds.

“The Northie ewes are hardy and they last well. They have a right good skin, last well and you can cross them with anything. At lambing time, we are guaranteed snow so being hardier sheep is a big boost for us, plus we are getting a better percentage of lambs out of the Cheviot. ”

The Cheviot ewes now number 250 along with 300 Blackface and 250 cross Texel ewes plus 50 pedigree Valais Blacknose which Raymond and his partner Jenni McAllister run in partnership.

“My father moved to Inverlochy in 1975 and had Blackies to start with. I introduced cross ewes and cross Texels back in 2000 and we are slowly bringing up the commercial flock. We want lambs to sell and cross ewes are the way to go.

Our plan is to breed good ewes, building up the cross ewe numbers and also to introduce Bluefaced Leicesters to breed Scotch Mules for ewe replacements. It is easier for us to breed them as opposed to paying £200-250 a head and we want to keep a closed flock for health reasons.

Cheviot Mules are a far sturdier type for me and for our situation, the Blackie does not cross as well as the Cheviot does so we are slowly phasing them out.”

The farm receives hill subsidy for its ewe lambs so these are kept until the following April, having been overwintered in Aberdeenshire or Elgin, Morayshire.

“We keep the best of the Cheviot ewes go to back to the Cheviot for breeding and the other half go to the Suffolk and they are producing really good fat lambs, that go on to do really well. These cross lambs are tight skinned, hardier and a better lamb overall to sell fat or store.

With the Cheviot, overall our lambs are better, they have more width and weight to them. We sold lambs fat last year and have sold up to £128/head this year. With the good prices, last season’s wethers were all sold store, saving us times on fattening them up. The previous year, we fattened them yet got the same price.”