The Farmers Mart Oct-Nov 2019 - Issue 65 | Page 26

26 COLDWELL FARM OCT/NOV 2019 • farmers-mart.co.uk DERBYSHIRE GRITSTONE SHEEPBREEDERS SOCIETY derbyshiregritstonesheep.moonfruit.com Derbyshire Gritstone Sheep Society are proud to be associated with Clive Mitchell and family. To join the society, learn more about the breed, buy some Derbyshire Gritstone sheep, or for any general enquiries... Please call: 0788 907 2948 or email: derbyshiregritstonesheep@outlook.com Here at MDL, we are suppliers of Agricultural machinery. As a family business whose roots are firmly grounded in a farming background. We stock grass and hedge cutting implements such as Verge mowers from £1295, Flail Mowers from £895, Hedge cutters from £3295, We also stock machines such as Log splitters from £695, Log saws from £1095 and Chippers from £1295. Alongside digging Equipment priced from only £2300 for our smallest Backhoe up to £5595 for our NEW mini Excavators. For more info, please call us on 01228 712121 or email info@mdlpowerup.com, www.mdlpowerup.com Shearwell Pleased to supply tags to Clive Mitchell FABULOUS YEAR FOR CLIVE’S GRITS & LONKS Chris Berry talks with Clive Mitchell at Flush House. AD CODE MART YOU cannot help but like Clive Mitchell. He’s FREE Cal or go l us onl toda ine y! Replacement Cattle & Sheep Tags For life - Even when sold Please call us for details Tel. 01643 841611 www. shearwell .co.uk Goldthorpes Cornmillers Ltd Animal Feed & Pet Foods Supplying farms & the pet shop trade Proud suppliers to Clive Mitchell of Coldwell Farm 01226 762180 eMAIL: info@goldthorpesltd.co.uk Lee Lane Mill, Millhouse Green, Sheffield, S36 9NN one of the sheep showing world’s characters and his Lonks, Derbyshire Gritstones and Whitefaded Woodlands sit near the top or at the top of many classes. That was certainly the case at this year’s Great Yorkshire Show when he had Lonk breed champion and Derbyshire Gritstone reserve and female champion. Not bad for a lad who had a heart attack two years ago! Clive farms up high in the hills at Coldwell Farm in the village or hamlet of Flush House near Holmbridge, which sits above Holmfirth. He was aware of the task he faced when he started showing Lonks at the main breed show near Cliviger in Lancashire, home of the Lonk. ‘Years ago when I first started with them one of the local farmers from around here, knowing I was going to the Lonk breed show at Holme, Cliviger near Burnley said: ‘You’ll not win there you know. You won’t get a thing.’ And he was quite right. I didn’t. But I kept persevering with the job, going and going, and a few years ago I won the breed show two years in succession. That same farmer then came to me and said: ‘I think you’ve infiltrated them.’ It was a good feeling.’ ‘ Clive had a fantastic Hope Show with his Derbyshire Gritstone not just breed champion, but also champion of champions ’ ‘I’d always like the power of them. They are similar to Grits, but they lamb easier and live higher up. The Grits are a bit more marginal. I started with Grits when my granddad George Henry died. Uncle Harold, who lived at Flush House Farm, and his son said I could have my pick of his stock and I remember picking a ewe with two tup lambs on. My dad told me I should have wanted the one with two gimmer lambs, but I’ve always known one of the biggest earners in sheep is breeding tups.’ ‘I built up my Derbyshire Gritstones but when I married at 23 and moved to Edale in Derbyshire where we rented three farms from the National Trust I had mostly Swaledale and Swaledale X of my 500-600 breeding ewes. When we divorced about eight years later I sold up and moved back home.’ Today Clive farms across 200 acres, partly owned and rented. ‘It’s all down to grass and we have 150 Lonks, 150 Derbyshire Gritstones, 20 Whitefaced Woodlands and odds and sods of different breeds. We only keep the best for replacements. I sell gimmer lambs and sometimes shearling ewes if I’ve kept too many. Our breeding ewes will generally do four crops unless we have something special that keeps giving a good tup. The Grits and Lonks will average 1.5 lambs.’ ‘This past winter I started feeding fodder beet a lot sooner than normal and the result was we had some lambs at 16lbs that took some getting out. The ewes milked better for being on the fodder beet longer.’ ‘I buy all my fodder beet from Stuart Oldfield who is local, takes it wherever I need it and never lets me down.’ ‘Lambing starts around 12-15 April and is all outside. It has got earlier over the years, but there’s no good lambing up