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Ken Lamb – Percy Farms, Northumberland

Ken Lamb

Ken Lamb has seen a lot of changes to agriculture over his 31 years of working at Hulne Park, a 3000acre estate run by the Duke of Northumberland. The estate has around 1400acres of grazing which used to carry 340 suckler cattle and around 3500 head of sheep with seven full time workers. Nowadays this is down to 40 Lim X Angus suckler cattle and 1400ewes with Ken the only full timer, aided with some self employed help at lambing time and clipping.

This is sheep country, with gentle rolling hills, sheltered pastures and magnificent views over the Cheviot Hills and up into the Scottish Borders on a clear day. It seems apt that a farm very much part of history, belonging to the Duke of Northumberland and running alongside the famous Alnwick castle, is very much at the forefront of the quiet revolution taking place in agriculture at the moment, maximising quality output from traditional systems, to secure the future of the industry.

In keeping with the rest of the agricultural sector quality rather than quantity has become the buzzword, and the system now used at Hulne Park has put the emphasis firmly on quality within a closed flock system, with breeding sheep from the hill to lowland, filling each niche on the farm. And central to this developing flock system is the Beltex, which is leaving its mark on the flock like nothing before.

For the last 5 years, since they were first tried on the farm, the quality and consistency of the lamb carcases have improved, leading to better prices both in the live market and deadweight, where the majority kill out as E3L.

As the lambing takes place outside from mid April, Ken likes the fact that the newborn lambs are quick on to their feet, even in the worst conditions, suckle well and thrive from the very first day, which allows for quick development, and can get the first draw of lambs in late August or early September. The first draw of the 2008 lambs saw 92 lambs selected saw 69 lambs E3L grade @318p/kg with an average 18.5kg carcase weight, 13p/kg over the base price of 305p/kg, straight off their mothers.

The hardiness of the lambs was shown this last summer, when even with such wet conditions the Beltex X lambs held their flesh better. The lambs are left outside on grass to mature naturally and selected about a fortnight before sale and put in on a diet of creep pellets and whole barley, to finish them off properly.

The system at Hulne Park is based around Cheviot ewes, with around 120 North Country Cheviot ewe lambs brought in each year with 400 Cheviots going to the Blue Faced Leicester to produce the Cheviot Mule, which Ken feels is a great mother and provides consistent, tight skinned lambs, ideal for the market. The Cheviot mule gimmers are retained and about 600 cheviot mule ewes are put to Beltex, Texel and Suffolk tups, and again the Cheviot Mule x Texel gimmer lambs are retained for running with the Beltex tup.

Around 400 Texel & Beltex ewes out of Cheviot Mules are put to the Beltex, producing some outstanding lambs that would grace any market or show. Hulme Park lambs have been doing well over the last couple of years, taking overall championships at Wooler and reserve at Acklington Christmas shows

When looking for a tup Ken likes a more traditional type. “I like a tup which is good on its feet. Each tup is run with around 50 ewes so it needs to be mobile to serve the ewes. The mouth is very important too, as is a good skin and shapely backend”. The tups are carefully selected, mainly at the Carlisle sale in August.

It is good to see such a great system in work, with an emphasis on quality to the fore all down the line, with the Beltex sire at the sharp edge of the system, bringing extra return for no extra work, which has to be the main thing in modern agricultural terms. Ken wanted to lift the quality of the fat lamb when sheep numbers were being reduced, and with the Beltex sire this has exceeded expectations, both in the market place and the ease of handling too. Could it be that the Beltex is the ideal sheep, whatever the system?