High health and easy case system at Whatriggs

On Matt Mitchell’s farm near Whatriggs in Ayrshire, the focus in the past four years has been promoting both herd and flock health as well as easy-care animals.

Matt, along with his wife Yvonne, farm 950 acres of land, of which 295 acres are rented ground. Matt calves 100 suckler cows every year as well as lambing 250 ewes.

The farm is located on relatively wet land that gets upwards of 65in to 75in of rain a year. It creates a challenge in making the most of the grazing season as midsummer weather is often wet and mild. This leads to great growth conditions but a high risk of poaching.

Easy calvers, easy lambers

In recent times, there has been a change in the breeding of the suckler herd to match that of the sheep flock with easy-care one of the main priorities.

Before, Matt ran a Belgian Blue with his suckler herd but it is now 100% Angus. There are a number of reasons for this, Matt says: “I’m coming towards retirement age in the next 10 years or so and I can’t maintain the same level of work I once did. With an Angus herd, the majority of them are easy calvers and require little intervention.”

Matt has also taken other steps to minimise the labour around calving time and this includes dividing his cows into different groups.

“I calve 25 in August, 25 in February and the other 50 in late April. Not only from the point of view of maintaining a certain workload but also due to shed space constraints,” he points out.

The aim is to have tight calving periods and therefore bulls are only with the cows for eight to nine weeks. If a cow is not bred within this time window, she will be allowed to slip once but if she slips again she is culled. This helps keep the three distinct calving windows separate.

This year is Matt’s fourth breeding Angus cattle and another key reason he decided to move to an all-Angus herd is due to the marketability of the beef. “Whenever you see an ad campaign on TV or you pick up a packet of beef in your local supermarket, it’s an Aberdeen Angus you’ll see. That’s why we decided to go with them rather then something like a Shorthorn.”

The sheep flock is 60% pure Blackface and 40% Bluefaced Leicester Blackface crosses. The ability of the Blackface to lamb outdoors with minimum intervention is important to the farm system.

In both the sheep flock and suckler herd, all replacements are sourced from the progeny as Matt operates a closed system. This has also been a key development within the last five years.

Promoting herd health

In order to improve the health status of his flock, he joined the Premium Sheep & Goat Health Scheme run by Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC). “It’s been very successful up to this point,” Matt says, “at the end of the day I want to keep mortality to a minimum. I’m BVD free, and I’m nearly fully clear of any cases of IBR and Johne’s.”

This has been achieved by not only the closed herd but also by a stringent culling process and thorough vaccination programme. All cows are blooded every year to detect any problems before they become an issue and the herd is vaccinated for BVD and Lepto.

Matt, however, does not vaccinate for IBR. “As I come across each case I cull them and I’d imagine in two years we’ll be IBR-free.”

The added benefit of the high-health status herd is improved fertility as well as high-quality replacements being available to replace any animal that has to be culled. “When it comes to breeding time, the weighing scales becomes one of my most important tools,” Matt says. “Any heifer that does not hit a target of 1kg/day average daily gain from birth to breeding will not be bred.”

By breeding to set weight targets and culling cows that are prone to not going in-calf, he can maintain the tight calving period. He also applies the same principles to his sheep operation.

“Tups are with the ewes for five weeks and I find that 95% of them will lamb within the first three weeks of lambing.”

Through breeding selection for easy-care animals along with an emphasis on herd health, Matt hopes to maximise the productivity while minimising labour. “We’re now heading into a time where subsidies are likely to be drastically reduced in the near future. I’m trying to prepare the farm to be self-sufficient and not depend on those subsidies. Therefore, it cannot afford to carry passengers.”

Alternative energy

Back in 2001, Matt planted 105 acres of woodland as part of a scheme for Scottish Woodlands.

He hopes the timber will be used for biomass or as biofuels due to the growing number of houses and businesses that utilise this energy source.

“It’s planted just over 15 years and I’d say it could be harvested in the next 10 years. Before, it might have been 40 years but much like they want animals younger they also want trees younger too.”

Along with the alternative income from the woodland there are also three wind turbines on the farm.

“A company came in and built them and I get a rent from them. It’s not half as much as people might think it is but it’s something at least.”

The alternative income streams are also important as Matt sees himself approaching retirement or at least a reduced role on the farm.

“After university, I spent a year travelling New Zealand and there’s a system out there where you can start out as a small percentage holder in a farm. You can then work your way up from there and build capital but there’s nothing like that here.”

With no immediate family member interested in taking the farm, Matt has struggled to see viable alternatives. That said, any decision on the farm’s future is still some time away in his mind.

“I have plans to add another 250 ewes to the flock. I got rid of them because I thought I was going to lose my rented ground to a development which hasn’t materialised yet. My wife jokes it’s the strangest move towards retirement she’s ever seen,” Matt laughs.