If there’s one piece of advice I could offer to a young person starting out it’s to listen. I’m 40 years in this line of work and I’m still learning,” says Brian Mactaggart, farm manager at Douganhill Farms. Brian has been working at Douganhill for the last 40 years, having joined the business as a shepherd stocksman in 1978.

For the last 25 of those 40 years, he has been managing the 1,500 acre estate that runs 200 suckler cows alongside 530 North Country Cheviots, 120 pedigree Texels and unusually 220 Herdwicks. Brian is employed by the Weatherall Scottish Trust along with Kenny Irving and Stewart McCrindle.

Foraging a career in agriculture

Brian is from a farming background and had a keen interest to work in the industry from a young age. “I always knew that I wanted to operate a farm,” Brian explains, “but my options were limited in terms of owning my own. That’s why the option of farm manager was very attractive.”

As Brian points out, there is little that sets him apart from someone who owns the farm they run. “I treat this place as if it were my own. There are no decisions I make here that I wouldn’t make if I owned the business.”

Of course, he had to start at the very bottom of the business and work his way up, but he has enjoyed every step of the way. “When you’re starting out, you really have to work hard and earn the respect of your peers. After that, you just need to be able to take things on board and adapt to the ever-changing environment that is agriculture.”

One area in which Brian thinks young people enjoy an advantage compared to when he started is on the paperwork side of the business – and particularly computer skills. “When I started, there wasn’t the same level of paperwork,” he admits. “It’s something that I’ve had to work hard on, because it’s as important as the ability to spot a sick animal or an animal that’s not performing. At the end of the day, a good farm manager needs to be able to blend skill sets together.”

Biggest of the British

Douganhill Farms has a 200-strong suckler herd made up of South Devon cows. These cows are then crossed to an Aberdeen Angus bull or, more recently, a Simmental bull. The progeny of this cross will be used as replacements or crossed with a Charolais bull to produce terminal offspring.

Formerly a dual-purpose breed, in that they were also milked, South Devons are renowned for their milk production ability and that’s something the farm has identified. “The two major pluses for us,” Brian elaborates, “are their milk and their docility. The cows we breed are quiet and easy to handle, and when crossed to a Charolais produce top-quality terminal stock.”

All stock that are not kept as replacements are sold as yearlings to private finishers within a 20-mile radius. The farm is a split-calving herd with 130 calving in the spring and the other 70 calving in autumn. It is restricted both in terms of a grazing platform and winter accommodation, so selling spring yearlings off slats reduces the demands on their grass and selling the autumn yearlings a month after they are weaned ensures that sheds are not overcrowded.

Heard of a Herdwick?

When it comes to the ewes on the farm, one fraction of the population stands out among the others. Herdwicks are a native breed that come from the Lake District. They are renowned for their ability to not only survive but thrive in less-than-optimal grazing conditions – and this is the niche they have found at Douganhill.

“There’s 260 acres of land on a peninsula here, and that’s where the Herdwicks spend the majority of their time apart from when they’re brought in for lambing. All they really have is scrubs rocks and a lovely sea view,” Brian laughs.

The ewes are purchased as four-year-old ewes in late October. They are then crossed with a North Country Cheviot in mid to late November and lamb in April and May. For Brian, their main advantage is their low inputs compared to their high outputs.

“They’re the most tremendous foragers. I can’t think of many other breeds that would do as well off the feed available to them on the peninsula. We regularly wean 1.5 lambs/ewe and – given they get no other feed bar what they forage themselves – we’re delighted with them.”

The lambs that have been recently weaned from the ewes have been moved to fresh silage aftermath in order to limit any checks in their growth rates, and the farm will now aim to finish them in December or January.

The Cheviot tups used with the Herdwicks come from the farm’s own 530-ewe flock. Although traditionally the farm kept Blackfaced Mountain ewes, these were all sold following the BSE outbreak. The flock is divided into 200 pure Cheviot ewes and 330 ewes that are crossed to a Blue-faced Leicesters. These mule ewes are used to breed replacement ewe lambs that are sold to Yorkshire, while the pure Cheviots produce lambs that are sold at market.

In addition to all that, there is also a large amount of work that goes into breeding the farm’s 120 pedigree Texels. “I suppose, initially, we kept a few of them to breed our own terminal sires, and it kind of got out of hand,” Brian laughs.

“We sell them as shearlings at Kelso, Carlisle and Castle Douglas, and we also do a lot of showing locally. The shows are a shop window for us, but like everything: if you don’t put the work in, you don’t get the results back out. You have to be dedicated and it is hard work. But when you sell stock for £12,000, like we’ve done in the past, it’s very rewarding.”

Storm Ophelia

The farm had a busy few days earlier in the week, moving livestock indoors and preparing for the arrival of the remnants of a hurricane. “Luckily,” says Brian, “the damage hasn’t been too severe. There’s a few trees down, but mainly it’s just fallen branches.”

Overall, he said, this has proved to be a challenging year weather-wise. “It’s just been so wet. We’ve moved the cattle to hillier ground before they’re housed in three weeks to prevent poaching on the land that we need for the sheep. We also struggled to get our straw baled, but we managed to in the end. Definitely we’ve had less challenging years than this one.”