The Borders Lamb Supply Chain Group is holding an information afternoon at Greenend Farm, St Boswells on Tuesday (July 15) from 1.30pm.
The group, which aims to develop a more competitive, profitable sheep sector, will focus on lamb drafting and live/dead carcase assessment, understanding processors’ issues, reducing stress and impact on weight gain at weaning, and will ask: does creep feeding pay?
Grant runs 1,050 ewes on the 500-acre farm, where he also grows around 150 acres of grain, putting most of the remaining 350 acres down to temporary grass. The farm is well set up for sheep, with a lambing shed holding 1,000 ewes and covered handling pens in the other shed. The majority of ewes are now Suffolk cross and Texel cross bred from Scotch Mules, crossed to Suffolk and Texel tups, with most lambs sold finished through Farm Stock (Scotland). Ewes lamb from March 10 over a two-week period, thanks to the use of teaser tups. Grant uses creep feeders from an early stage to ensure lambs are finished as quickly as possible to get maximum numbers away before the summer price decline.
“This is an excellent farm for a discussion on lamb finishing and one point will be whether spending an average of £4/lamb on creep feed is giving Grant a better margin. We will also discuss lamb performance and health,” said a Farm Stock (Scotland) spokesperson.
The meeting is funded by QMS, Farm Stock (Scotland) Ltd and the Scottish Government and facilitated by SAC Consulting (part of SRUC).