Northies suit the system for a family farm in Ayrshire

On the lookout for longer-lasting ewes that would produce the goods and thrive on an upland farm with high rainfall, the Walker family bough their first 20 North Country Cheviot females in 2011

 It was not long before the Walker family decided to in­crease significantly the number of Cheviots they owned, after realising the full benefits of the breed.

Within the sheep system on their 332 hectares (820 acres) at Laigh Alticane, Pinwherry, in south Ayrshire, father and son Da­vid and Ian Walker now run 485 North Country Cheviot ewes, with 270 pure-bred and 215 crossed with the Border Leicester to pro­duce Halfbreds.

They then keep a flock of 320 Halfbred ewes, which go to the Texel tup, and have flocks of 30 pedigree Border Leicester ewes, and 40 pure Texel ewes.

“The Cheviot ewes are long-lasting too, which means we have more cast ewes to sell.

“The last time we were drawing out cast ewes, only two out of the whole lot had one tooth missing. They keep their condition well and are great mothers too – sometimes too good, as they can be prone to stealing other lambs. I would say their mothering instinct is better than any breed I have seen.”

Switching breeds proved an easy transition, as tupping and lambing dates remained unchanged. The ewes are tupped in fields for 21 days, before heading back out to the hill – with five tups needed to serve all the Cheviot ewes. Lambing then takes place from April 10, with the Cheviots scanning at around 160% or above.

“We are definitely getting more weight on the fat lambs, and they seem to be more uniform – there is no gap while we wait for some to fatten now,” says Ian.

When buying Cheviot females to begin with, the Walkers predominantly focused on good hair and skins, and Ian says a pen of ewe lambs from Inkstack and a pen of ewes from the Attonburn dispersal were the two lots they were particularly impressed with.

Ian says: “Those two lots bred well and got us going. We had not initially planned to get into tup breeding, it just progressed that way naturally.”

They are glad it did. In 2021, they took three two-shear rams to Locker¬bie and averaged £1,066 for the three. The following year their pen peaked at £3,800. Fast-forward to Lockerbie 2024, and the Alticane pen achieved the highest average of £4,983 for six tups, with the top three making £10,000, £8,000 and £5,000. They were sired by Attonburn Allnight Baby, with the dams by Hownam Grange Virgin – two of the stock tups that they have been particularly pleased with over the years.

Another worth a mention is Philiphaugh Van Percy, bought the same day as the Hownam Grange tup.

Ian says: “Any tups we consider buying have to be commercially sound, with good skin and white hair. We have found it fairly easy to buy the tups we wanted within budget and have found that they breed very true to type.“

Up until last year, we did not have to spend too much to get our stock tups, but we had to stretch a bit further to get last year’s choice, Benger Dambuster, at £12,000. Luckily, we had sold ours beforehand, so we knew we could up the budget a bit. We are pleased with the first crop of lambs off him, so he is looking a good buy so far.

“We have noticed at sales that everyone tends to look round every pen, no matter if they know the name or not, which was good for us as newcomers to the breed. “It is a very commercially mind¬ed breed – there is no flushing involved and it is possible to buy the tups you want, without having to share them.”