The Farmers Mart Jun-Jul 2023 - Issue 87 | Page 57

• JUN / JUL 2023

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“ We are generally thinking a year ahead . If we buy a tup in August the first thing we will do with it is have a load of semen taken off in case it pops its clogs . When we do AI on the day we will also jump the tups for fresh semen . We have frozen semen from tups years back that we can go back to . All ours are tupped around August 6th .

“ We started with half a dozen Zwartbles . I now only keep a couple of tups a year . If they ’ re not absolutely bob on for me , they go at Easter time . If I keep them right through to August there ’ s all the feed costs , a £ 20 registering fee and it ’ s just not worth it .

Raymond says the Zwartbles is still commanding a decent price .

“ At last year ’ s breed sale tup lambs averaged £ 864 across 37 of them . That ’ s good for a Zwartbles tup when you ’ re trying to breed a decent lamb . My best prices have been £ 1400 for a tup lamb and I had a ewe lamb that made £ 1600 in November 2013 .

Raymond works at Bentham Mart and sees what goes on . He does not follow quite the same method of many sheep farmers that will only send commercial lambs into market when they have reached say 43-45 kilos .

“ We start selling commercial lambs at Easter and we topped the price on pence per kilo at £ 4.31.6p at over 36 kilos . Anything that is about 36 kilos we send because we creep feed them and I ’ m happy with that . Some people don ’ t fetch them in until they are 45 kilos-46 but I don ’ t see the point in keeping them until that point because you ’ re talking more feed , more cost . It ’ s the pence per kilo that should be looked at really . I think some are just stuck in the way they ’ ve always done it .

Raymond tells of the amazing Wednesday nights at Bentham Mart .

“ I work at the mart droving on Tuesdays and Wednesdays . We finished selling last Wednesday ( in May ) at 2.40am after having started selling at 2.30 in afternoon . Over 12 hours ! We finished the ewes at 8.30pm and had over 6000 hoggs after that . We had 3100 ewes , 6100 hoggs , 9200 going through . It was rammed and was taking people 2 hours to unload with queuing starting before 11 o ’ clock in the morning .

“ It ’ s an amazing source of income for businesses in the village .

Raymond is judging Zwartbles at this year ’ s Scottish National Zwartbles Show at Nairn and has judged at Balmoral Show in Northern Ireland and the Royal Highland .

He also has a flock of 12 Dutch Spotted and 3 Valais Blacknose .

“ We ’ ve actually had the Valais a few years now . I bought them to make money out of them and sold one last year for £ 2000 . Mine are all MV-certified .

Tel : 015242 61353 | Fax : 015242 62565 Email : info @ paxtons . co . uk Green Smithy , Bentham , Lancaster , LA2 7DH