I farm: “About 50 acres. We have 80 commercial ewes and 15 pedigree ewes. My dad and uncle are in partnership on the farm, I’m involved as well.”
Stock: “We went for pedigree Texel ewes. Dad had them years ago and then we got out of them. I was going around shows and I was buying Texel rams at the premier sale, and I got a notion that I wanted to go back into them. We bought our first couple of pedigree ewes and built on it from there. We’re very happy with them.”
Demand: “There’s a good demand for lambs and they produce good lambs. There’s a good commercial market for Texel ram lambs and hoggets. We also have suckler cows and we kill bulls.”
Lambing: “This year for the commercials, lambing went very well, but pedigree wise it wasn’t great. The main problems were ewes getting mastitis and lambs not sucking. It was a difficult year with them, but you have those years.”
Growth: “We’ve had good crops this year on silage, and good grass growth. We’d be heavily stocked so its not getting much of a break, not with sheep going around it.”
Sales: “We’ve 70-80% of our commercial lambs gone. We topped at €220 for lambs earlier on in the year. We got €182 for some lambs in the factory recently so they’re still doing good.”
Butcher: “We sell most of our commercial lambs to a local butcher. Lambs he doesn’t take are sold in the mart or factory. We try to keep the pedigree ewe lambs, saves us buying them in. It’s mostly ram lambs and hogget rams we’re selling.”
Shows: “This year has been great, we can’t complain, once you get a prize at a show, it keeps the thing going. We’d a great weekend at Mullingar Show recently, we had a ewe win overall interbreed champion. We also had great success at Nobber and Longford Shows.”
The McPhillips run 80 commercial ewes and 15 pedigree ewes. \ Barry Cronin
I farm: “About 50 acres. We have 80 commercial ewes and 15 pedigree ewes. My dad and uncle are in partnership on the farm, I’m involved as well.”
Stock: “We went for pedigree Texel ewes. Dad had them years ago and then we got out of them. I was going around shows and I was buying Texel rams at the premier sale, and I got a notion that I wanted to go back into them. We bought our first couple of pedigree ewes and built on it from there. We’re very happy with them.”
Demand: “There’s a good demand for lambs and they produce good lambs. There’s a good commercial market for Texel ram lambs and hoggets. We also have suckler cows and we kill bulls.”
Lambing: “This year for the commercials, lambing went very well, but pedigree wise it wasn’t great. The main problems were ewes getting mastitis and lambs not sucking. It was a difficult year with them, but you have those years.”
Growth: “We’ve had good crops this year on silage, and good grass growth. We’d be heavily stocked so its not getting much of a break, not with sheep going around it.”
Sales: “We’ve 70-80% of our commercial lambs gone. We topped at €220 for lambs earlier on in the year. We got €182 for some lambs in the factory recently so they’re still doing good.”
Butcher: “We sell most of our commercial lambs to a local butcher. Lambs he doesn’t take are sold in the mart or factory. We try to keep the pedigree ewe lambs, saves us buying them in. It’s mostly ram lambs and hogget rams we’re selling.”
Shows: “This year has been great, we can’t complain, once you get a prize at a show, it keeps the thing going. We’d a great weekend at Mullingar Show recently, we had a ewe win overall interbreed champion. We also had great success at Nobber and Longford Shows.”
The McPhillips run 80 commercial ewes and 15 pedigree ewes. \ Barry Cronin
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