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THE TRANSFER WINDOW has gone for another year with the Swaledale sales completed. New signings have been made and sales too. By the time you read this the new strikers in the form of tups and regardless of whichever farm they have joined should all have done their job, scoring quickly from the end of October! That’ s certainly what the Porters will be hoping has happened once again at Low Oxnop and

Low Row in Swaledale where Steven and son William, Steven’ s brothers, Bryan and Greg and Greg’ s son, Chris are all engaged in the family enterprise producing Swaledales and Mules.

New signings and the sale of tups were once again completed at this year’ s breed sales held in each of the Swaledale Sheep Breeders’ Association’ s five districts in October. It is a time that Steven, who lives at Summer Lodge

Farm, Low Row with wife, Carol, son, William and daughter, Rebecca still regards as fraught with stress no matter how many years he has been involved in buying and selling‘ strikers’. He’ s good-humoured about the season but there is inevitable concern as this is perhaps the most serious time of the year and as any professional practitioner knows, to fail to prepare is to prepare to fail.‘ As you get older you’ d think it should get better, but

I’ d started having sleepless nights before the sales as I always do,’ says Steven.‘ You’ re all the time thinking what will our own tups do? Will we buy the right ones? And will ours sell? I guess I’ m not the only one who feels this way and at least the tup sales take our minds off Brexit for a while.’

The twin threat of how lamb exports may be affected by European shenanigans and how hill farming subsidies may