Quality Ryeland Sheep

Location: The home of the Broomwell flock sits in the gently rolling landscape of Dumfriesshire in south west Scotland at an elevation of 150 feet. The flock was started in 1982 by Susan and her father Drew Taylor and Broomwell is the family home where Susan was brought up. The Broomwell approach appears distinctly natural and unfussy – sheep being very successfully reared on pasture that surrounds the house and is traditional grassland that is not fertilised or intensively managed. The total grazing area is ten acres, divided into five fields. I visited half way through the Broomwell lambing and although the day was grey and misty, there were week old lambs already roaming happily outside. The land is clay over sandstone which can be very wet in some winters, but has the advantage of not drying out too readily in summer, with never any shortage of grass.

How did you get into Ryelands?  We chose the breed on a visit to the sheep lines at the Royal Highland Show and started with four ewes. Do you keep any other breeds?  Only our one pet black Blue Faced Leicester!

What is the size of your flock?   Breeding ewes: this year, nine, seven of which are lambing. This is the smallest number we’ve had for a while and we generally lamb around ten to twelve. Breeding rams: two, with two others out on loan. Shearling rams: three; two to keep and one to sell. Shearling ewes from last years lambs: three to keep and one to sell. One of these was bought in as a lamb and we generally make around a couple of ewe replacements a year. Do you keep any wethers?  Yes, we have one, but we don’t castrate ram lambs as routine.

How would you describe a sheep as typical of your flock?  Good conformation first, of course, but in terms of breed characteristics, a medium sized animal, not the largest nor smallest, with good length but it must have a level back - ‘blocky’ would be a good description. Darkish ears, but not necessarily grey, as coffee coloured are perfectly fine and with a decent amount of wool on the face.

What is your attitude to producing coloured lambs?  We get a small proportion, we’re happy to have them and they sell well. This year we have one coloured lamb out of seven so far.

When do you usually plan to lamb?  Mid February. Your facilities?  We have a range of traditional buildings that date back to the 1700’s that adjoin the fields. We lamb inside but turn out the ewes and lambs during the day when they are a couple of days old, bringing them in at night. Do you have any help?  The sheep team is me, my husband Robin and Dad (Drew). Have you ever used sponging or A.I.?  We tried sponging, but wouldn’t bother again.

What proportion do you usually send for meat?  We rarely have any ram lambs that go for meat as the ones not good enough to register are nearly always sold to other sheep keepers for crossing. We never need to send any ewe lambs for meat. Do you eat your own meat? No.

Shearing: when do you shear your show sheep? In January each year and we have a shearer who visits. They have coats for the first week, but are outside. Describe your preparation of your show sheep: We wash them a couple of weeks before the show and trim at least twice, when the fleece has dried. What do you do with your wool? It goes to the Wool Board at Carlisle.

Do you feed hay, haylage or silage?  Only big round bale hay. Do you make any?  No, we buy it in.

What concentrates do you feed?  Four to six weeks before lambing we’ll feed a Rough/Coarse Sheep Mix to the ewes in lamb – an increasing amount up to about a pound and a half before lambing. We give tup lambs the same Rough Mix, again about a pound and a half a day, once the grass has gone off in autumn. Gimmer lambs get a bit less. Do you use feed blocks or mineral supplements?  We use Rumevite 22kg round feed blocks starting in the autumn when the grass ‘goes off’ which also helps encourage the sheep to eat the lower quality grazing. We don’t use any other supplements or mineral drenches.

Health products and routines:  We worm twice a year, we use Cydectin and also Fasinex fluke drench in the autumn. We foot trim as necessary, not to a routine. All our sheep are on the Heptavac P+ system.

What equipment do you have?  Turning crate? Yes. Weigher? No.
Handling system? No. Creep feeder? Yes (a clever construction by Drew that is bars to a hatch in the wall between two halves of the shed!) Field shelters? Only one, as the buildings join onto the other fields.

Susan and Drew’s passion for Ryelands is clear and their commitment to the breed was severely tested after having had to rebuild the flock completely ten years ago after the devastation of foot and mouth. When asked ‘Why Ryelands?’, Drew’s answer was, ‘it’s simple, they’re the only breed I can catch!’