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sheep . Those who buy down country sheep will try different breeds for a year or two but will come back to the Blue Faced Leicester X Swaledale mostly for the mothering ability .
‘ Swaledale ewes will have two lambs and look after them whereas other hill breeds will have two , might look after just one and then not even bother with that if it ’ s poor weather . That ’ s why other hill breeds will buy a Swaledale tup every so often , sometimes once every four generations , to put the mothering ability back into their flock .’
If Malcolm sounds like the ultimate Swaledale protagonist you ’ d not be far from the mark . I met him just prior to the annual Swaledale tup sale at Hawes Mart . He ’ s chairman of the
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Swaledale Breeders ’ Sheep Association B District – a role he took over from his Uncle
William .
‘ The only stock we ever buy are rams . We buy four Swaledale tups and one or two Blue Faced Leicesters every year and that ’ s it . When I ’ m looking at them I want a good carcase , big grower and a leg on each corner . It ’ s only then that I ’ m bothered about them being a good black and white . Those other characteristics are what I ’ m looking at first . Shearling tups are what I ’ m after and as big as possible . I need them to cover 100 ewes and I let them on to them on November 12 .’
The Allisons sell their own rams and have had good prices in the past with a top price of £ 17,000 . This year they took nine to Hawes .
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‘ We ’ re not quite at the top of the league at the moment . We had one that made £ 8000 in 2015 and a £ 10,000 a few years ago . It is as important for us to buy good tups as it is to sell them because you need good new stock tups every year and everyone is trying to improve all the time . We like to buy as good an animal as we can for as little money as possible just like everyone else . It doesn ’ t always have to be a big priced ram that will do the job .’
They ’ ve had success in the past at shows such as Reeth and won at Moorcock Show three years running .
Fat lambs are sold mainly through McIntyre ’ s at East Borwins near Bainbridge .
‘ We will sell around 650 of our 750 fat lambs through them with the rest sold at Leyburn or Hawes Marts . The split is usually around 350 Mule wethers and 400 Swaledales with the Mules going first and
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the Swaledales following on after them generally in late January and February . We ’ ve recently upped our Mule ewe flock to 500 from what used to be 420 and reduced our cattle numbers from 100 to 80 .’
The suckler herd of 80 cows is made up of Belgian Blue X Limousins and the other way around . The heifers out of the Belgian Blue cows are kept as replacements .
‘ We produce beef to sell to local butchers and to go to Darlington Mart . We also supply two or three cattle a year to The Charles Bathurst Inn in Arkengarthdale .’
Seal Houses in Arkengarthdale runs from 1200ft rising to 1800ft at the top of Arkengarthdale Common . Land at Cogden Hall , Grinton runs from 650ft to 1000ft .
INFORMATION Malcolm Allison 07854 743657
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