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Messrs Bindloss, Shap Abbey

The notorious Shap summit on the M6 often seems to get the headlines for the weather conditions, wagons blown over, snow storms sweeping across its exposed quarters. Ideal place for the native Swaledale, Rough or even Herdwick sheep, but Beltex? Yeah, right!

Shap Abbey Farm

It has however been the ingredient for a successful farm policy at Shap Abbey, farmed by Edwin Bindloss and his 3 sons, Aaron Simon and Adam, who after foot and mouth in 2001 decided that the Beltex was the ideal commercial sheep to suit their system, having tried them for a few years prior to FMD. Not only are they crossing the local Swaledales as well as the Cheviots they restocked with, they are running a 200 head commercial flock of Beltex ewes.

One of the team, Simon Bindloss

The Bindloss family moved to Shap Abbey, right on the edge of the Lake District, since 1936, and now run to some 700 acres of inbye land as well as 5300 acres of enclosed moorland, running up to around 2200feet above sea level. All the land is in an ESA agreement, with over 3000 acres designated as a SSSI. They now run a hill flock consisting of Swaledales and Cheviots, which are self contained, breeding their own replacements. The cheviots are kept pure for the first two seasons then crossed with the Beltex ram for the rest of their breeding lives, with all the better gimmers retained for breeding. The swales, which tend to roam a bit further and higher up the fell, have also been crossed with the Beltex this year, and they are looking to possibly keep some of the stronger cross bred females to breed off, as they seem to have a decent reputation locally.

Lambing doesn’t start until the 1st of April. Any sooner and there is no grass for the sheep, and with the fell sheep not lambing until the middle of the month it keepens a tighter rein on the lambing window. The Bletex ewes lamb around 160-180% which gives a workable percentage as opposed to the ever popular mule, which can produce too many lambs Simon feels. “We get a manageable amount of lambs out of the Beltex, and find the lambs get up and go really well” he says. And they need to too at the top of Shap! The sheep also manage well without having to feed them to heavily, as they tend to naturally keep their condition, and over feeding can lead to problems.

A sample of prime lambs destined for Penrith Auction

Producing a quality product is what is preached nowadays from the agricultural pulpit, and that is what the Beltex is providing at Shap Abbey. The Bindloss’s are noted stockmen, and their lambs are regularly topping the local mart at Penrith, where they sell the majority of their lambs. They have sold further a field as well, taking the Championship at the Penrith Christmas show and Reserve at Longtown this year and winning at Wigton and Longtown in 2006. They took the championship at Penrith in 2005 as well, selling their champion lambs for £140 to the Greyhound Pub in Shap, who now buy 4 lambs a week through the mart from the Bindloss’s this last year too. showing that the Beltex must be doing the job on the hill tops!

Edwin has kept meticulous records of all the wether lambs he has sold since he started farming, and reckons that the Beltex pays best of anything. Everything is sold live weight through the auction mart as Edwin believes that they are the best place to value stock, and Edwin says that the Beltex lambs come out about £12 a head above his other lambs, which is a huge amount over the course of a year, quite easily the difference between a profit and a loss. Lambs start going to the market when they get to the right weight, usually between 38-43kg are what they aim for, and can kill out at up to 57%, but mainly just over the 50% mark providing that lean, much sought after carcase.

Beltex cross ewes

The hill sheep has traditionally been seen as the backbone of the British Sheep flock, and now it seems that the Beltex is holding its own amongst the hard Shap hills. I don’t suppose we are going to see Beltex ewes ranging around the crags of the Lake District mountains, but they certainly could be challenging the Mule ewe as a viable alternative as well as crossing successfully with the hill sheep too, making it the complete sheep breed, a good crosser, a great carcase and a good mother. If it can do that in the hills, chances are it can do it for you too! What else do you need in a sheep?