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www.beltex.co.uk
Beltex Sheep SocietyShepherds View,
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Brickrow Beltex
John Cowan’s small flock of pedigree Beltex sheep has put the Brickrow name on the map in the last 10 years with a ram selling for 8,000gns last year going on to sire top commercial lambs. The 2002 August’s Beltex Society sale in Carlisle proved the worth of nine years of selective Beltex breeding when the home-bred ram Brickrow Dazzle sold for the sale’s second highest price of 8,000gns – equalling the breed’s previous auction sale record for the ram’s grandfather, Viagrow. Dazzle was bought by commercial sheep and cattle breeder and showman Richard Colegrave, of Inchture, Perth, who had spotted the ram when it was supreme champion at the 2002 Royal Highland Show. After the Highland Show he also bought Dazzle’s full brother. Dazzle sired the group of three carcase lambs were champion at this year’s Highland Show for Richard Colegrave. At the sale, nine Brickrow shearlings
averaged 1,195gns while six gimmers averaged 920gns. The single ram lamb
entry sold last year made 1,000gns.John Cowan has been dairyman at SAC’s
Auchincruive, near Ayr, for 14 years which runs a pedigree herd of 170
Holsteins and 30 red and whites averaging just over 8,000 litres a year
and rising on twice daily milking. He runs his ewes from the college’s
Brickrow Farm where he lives with his wife Caroline and children Lynsey,
aged seven, and Ross, three, who are already proving to be Beltex enthusiasts!It
was in 1993 that he began his Beltex flock when he bought two gimmers from
good friend Alan Thom’s Alan’s flock at Kilmarnock.
The Brickrow flock has been bred up to a maximum of 30 ewes and the emphasis is on breeding from the best bloodlines using embryo transfer and AI, selecting for scrapie resistant genotypes.With the commercial ram buyer firmly in mind, he is breeding a bigger sheep without losing the extreme shape in the hindquarters and gigots. The selection process is now further complicated by scrapie genotyping which John Cowan welcomes wholeheartedly and is keeping only the top resistant bloodlines. He also believes that all genotyping must be carried out by one company to ensure authentification of records. One of these a 1992 born gimmer bred by Belgian Tony Van Esser is still in the flock. She has produced twins every year with the exception of one having a total of 16 lambs. This year two embryo lambs from her were born and she produced a single lamb herself, proving to be an excellent breeder. The second gimmer, although not so long-lived, has so far been the flock’s best breeding ewe, producing a gimmer which sold several years ago in Carlisle for 1,600gns. She was also mother to Brickrow Angel, champion ewe at the 2000 Royal Highland Show and this foundation gimmer has been the backbone of the Brickrow embryo flock. Angel has produced into the teens of lambs and has been flushed three times. To speed the genetic progress
of the small flock, four to five of the top ewes are flushed each year
by Penrith vet Dan Fawcett who carries out the ET work. All the ewes,
with the exception of one from Northern Ireland breeder Fred Coulter,
are home-bred. Recipient Rouge ewes produce the pedigree lambs which
are either retained as flock replacements or are sold as gimmers. Corstane Coulter paved the way as sire of Brickrow Dazzle and another shearling ram by him, Brickrow Ego sold for 2,800gns at Carlisle last August. Bought from Mary Dunlop at Carlisle in 1999 for 800gns, Corstane Coulter was taken in the foot and mouth cull at Ian McMillan’s farm during 2001. Sire of this year’s Brickrow shearling ram crop is Eebygum, bought for 1,050gns at the Lanark video sale in 2001 and the newest stock ram is Glebe Equity, which was used on one of the Brickrow ewes last year. He was bought in Co Antrim last year for 640gns and he looks a promising sire from this year’s first lamb. The Brickrow flock was scrapie genotyped in early July and of the 46 lambs tested, 40 were ARR 1 and 2 and six were Group 3. This is the second year running that the flock has been scrapie tested and John sees the society’s introduction of the need for the scrapie genotype to be declared of all males entered at official sales this year as a move in the right direction. For this year’s Carlisle sale, 10 ram lambs, eight gimmers and six shearling rams were entered with the outstanding sheep in John’s eyes being the shearling ram Foryoureyesonly, a natural son of Angel by Eebygum. While the top prizes and prices are the icing on the cake for John Cowan, he recognises that probably as many as 90 per cent of breeders who buy his rams are commercial lamb producers and there is a steady return of buyers for Brickrow tups both through the ring and privately. Crossbred lamb producers have quickly seen the improvements the Beltex has made on their prime lambs, with them grading Es and Us. All ewes will be synchronised this autumn to achieve a tight lambing pattern and they are housed at Brickrow 10 days before lambing from early February through to March. Ewes and lambs are turned out a week to 10 days after lambing. Molasses liquid is fed to the ewes up to a week before lambing when they are fed concentrates and hay. Lambs are creep fed at grass until weaning which is generally at the beginning of June. August 2003. |
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+44 (0)17683 41124
John
Cowan works closely with Ian McMillan, of Newton Stewart, who runs
20 ewes in his Clary flock. Together they have established the Jock’s
flock and they also share rams. 
