46 OX HOUSE FARM FEB / MAR 2022 • farmers-mart . co . uk
looked at every breed . The Herdwicks were my choice . They just stood out from the rest .
“ Mum and dad bought me two Herdwick tup lambs and I ’ ve built up to 100 from that start . Our neighbour had a gimmer lamb that always used to jump in with them , which we bought too and now dad says it is like being in Cumbria not Marsden !
“ We ’ ve done well with the Herdwicks at the breed sales . I had two Herdwick tups at Cockermouth that sold for 350 guineas and 250 guineas and I pay good money for tups too . If you buy better there ’ s more chance you ’ re going to get better and hopefully what you produce from it will make more .
“ I ’ m just trying to better the lambs every year so that I get better ewes and then buy better tups to put on to them . Good bloodlines make a real difference . I watch for which ewes click best with each tup . William already has a reputation in the show rings . “ We show the Herdwicks and the Lonks . The best I ’ ve had at the Great Yorkshire Show with a Herdwick so far was third place last year with a gimmer shearling , but I ’ ve had breed champion at Hope Show with a really good Herdwick shearling that went on to become Reserve Interbreed Champion . We also take them to the Westmorland County Show .
William and his dad aim for lambing time to occur mainly while William is off for the school holidays with some lambing taking place at February half term for the Mules and the rest at Easter .
The ewe numbers are presently made up of 100 Herdwicks , 100 Lonks , 50 Swaledales , 10 Bluefaced Leicesters , some Cheviots and with the rest made up of Mules and Texel X .
“ We didn ’ t start all this for the money ,” says Daniel who works as a haulier for Fred Greenwood livestock transport . “ But it ’ s gone way past a hobby now , so it has to work and William wants to farm . He ’ s getting an idea of how much everything costs .
“ My dad has some land that we use and although we are currently in a terraced house at the bottom of one of our fields in Marsden , we are going to live on the farm and the house building has just started . We also help an older feller in the village who has Swaledales on the moor , on Pule Hill . I had asked whether we could run some sheep with him . We now buy all his draft ewes and put some back to the Swaledale and some to the Leicester to breed Mules . We also have another piece of moorland which we can only graze from April to October .
“ We have been selling the Mules with lambs at foot and last year was the first time we sold shearlings . We keep the gimmers , run them to shearlings and tup them with Texels to then sell at Gisburn with lambs at foot .
“ The Mule job was William ’ s idea . I ’ d never run a Bluefaced Leicester because I always thought they would be too soft for where we are , but William persuaded me and it has worked .
Daniel says their enterprise usually sees them selling as stores , mainly at Gisburn but also at Holmfirth and Clitheroe .
“ We have a bit of a trade out of Gisburn and we also buy some ewes there too . I buy Lonks out of Clitheroe and I will be buying Swaledales out of Hawes this year .
“ The Lonks are my department for showing , but William now picks the show lambs . He has a good eye .
We ’ ve sold a few at decent prices . I had one at 520 guineas and last autumn I had one at 400 guineas .
Daniel has had some success in the show ring too , but he ’ s now got his son for moral support – and he ’ s not afraid to give his dad a gentle kick up the backside too !
“ I ’ ve had reserve male champion at the Great Yorkshire Show with a Lonk tup and I ’ ve had a breed champion at one of the smaller shows but my results had gone a bit downhill and William said I needed to up my game . So we bought a good tup in autumn , which has cost far too much in my eyes , but William said we needed it to get better .
Daniel also tells of how William is steering their course even more lately .
“ He comes up with good ideas . He had suggested feeding the sheep fodder beet and it has been the best thing for them . I was against that at first . He ’ s sponged the Mules to bring them all on together . That ’ s worked too .
“ He is also very definite about things . He now won ’ t buy drench from one man and he ’ s keen as anything to watch over Rob Garth when he ’ s scanning . He can remember what every lamb has had and can recount it to Rob if it is different to what he ’ d said when he comes back the next year . Daniel lets William tell the drench tale : “ I had more geld ewes and more ewes coming into second cycle among my Herdwicks than I ’ d ever had buying the drench off another man . I went back to the other and haven ’ t had the problem since . William has started shearing too . “ I did some on a course and now I shear some for Paul
Thorp , for my granddad Clive and for some neighbours . Sheep shearing , sheep rearing , lambing , showing and selling – watch out for William Mullin in years to come !