Bruce Ingram runs Logie Durno Farm in partnership with his brother Gregor and parents William and Carole. Working together, the Ingram family run 2,000 breeding sheep on 1,000 acres of upland grassland near Inverurie in northeast Scotland.

A young farmer, Bruce is highly enthusiastic and positive about his future in sheep farming. He also possesses a clear vision of what he wants to achieve from his sheep flock - to produce prolific sheep to suit a grass-only diet that require minimal labour input and are suitable for commercial finishing.

The Ingram family can be classed as innovators in sheep breeding. The farm traditionally produced pure-bred Texel and Charollais sheep for sale annually. But a decade ago, the Ingrams decided to move the breeding business in a different direction.

By crossing the Texel and Charollais breeds, they produced a hybrid sheep that was geared purely to the commercial market. Since then, they have moved on to develop a maternal strain (called Logie) and a terminal strain (called Durno) of hybrid sheep from this genetic base (photo below).

Lambing

Almost half of the breeding flock lambs outdoors in May. These are the maternal strain of the Logie hybrid sheep crossed with Lleyn genetics to increase litter size.

The overwhelming majority of these ewes will lamb unassisted. Any ewe that requires assistance is marked for culling. Focusing on lambing ease helps to reduce labour requirement on farm.

Lambing outdoors means lamb vigour is important. Ewes are regularly checked during lambing and lamb vigour is recorded. Lambs are caught shortly after lambing. At this point, navels are disinfected, lambs are tagged and tail rings are applied.

Scanning results for 2016 had a lambing percentage of 204%, with a birth and survival rate currently running at 180%. Replacements are bred as ewe lambs, with 230 ewe lambs joining the flock this year.

The breeding season lasts for 21 days in total for both mature ewes and replacements. Yet the empty rate is only in single figures annually.

The remainder of the flock lambs in April and includes the terminal line of the Durno sheep, which has some Beltex breeding crossed with the normal Charollais-cross-Texel genetics. Again, there is a focus on lambing ease, mothering ability and lamb vigour to ensure that more live lambs are born and taken through to sale.

Breeding records

All sheep on farm are electronically tagged and liveweight gains are recorded through a Pratley sheep handling unit. These weights are then linked back to breeding ewes and rams.

Weight gains and carcase data is then used to select breeding stock for the following year. Ewes that do not produce two lambs with high growth rates are subsequently culled.

Along with maternal and terminal traits being recorded, Bruce also records traits such as lameness, resistance to worms and general hardiness. Basically, he does not want sheep on farm that require regular handling to treat some form of problem.

Ewes that are persistent offenders have their ear notched and, after weaning, they are fattened and culled.

So far, the breeding selection is working. Feet problems are extremely rare. Ewes and lambs only require one worm dose, which is usually tied in with another management task, such as weighing lambs at eight weeks of age.

Ewes are treated for external parasites with an avermectin-based injection. Lambs are vaccinated with two shots of a clostridial product shortly after birth.

Terminal

Lambs not suited for breeding are taken through to slaughter. All male lambs are left entire to allow for selection of breeding tups.

No meal is fed to lambs at any stage, just grass. Lambs are sold to Morrisons Supermarket through Woodhead Brothers at a carcase weight of 21kg. Average kill-out is 47%, but there is a big range between different breed types.

The terminal lines, such as the Beltex-cross-Logie Durno regularly have grass-fed lambs killing out at 52%, whereas some of the lambs will have kill-outs as low as 42%.

We select terminal sheep to breed lambs with a long, lean carcase to maximise weight and conformation

As the flock is closed, Bruce has the advantage of having carcase data linked to breeding rams and ewes. Making breeding decisions based on actual slaughter data has seen huge progress being made in lamb performance.

Lambs are drafted for finishing from the start of September. Lambs that reach slaughter weight before this date are usually retained for breeding, as they possess strong growth traits. Fat lambs are all sold by late October.

"We select terminal sheep to breed lambs with a long, lean carcase to maximise weight and conformation. We can also select rams which deliver fast growing lambs from a grass system. Carcase quality is consistently improving and last year we had 18% E grade lambs, 61% U grade lambs and 21% R grade lambs," according to Bruce.

"We are getting more E and U grade lambs each year. The slaughter records give valuable information for breeding decisions. Some sheep are plain looking visually, as are their lambs, but they kill out exceptionally well."

Grazing and feeding

The 1,000-acre farm consists of 215 acres of owned land. The remainder is split between several rented farms for summer grazing.

Rented land is on an annual agreement similar to the Irish con-acre system, but for a shorter period from 1 May to 31 September. Land rent costs €50 to €100 per acre (€65 to €125).

Bruce also makes use of winter grazing on some dairy and cattle farms in the area. Winter grazing costs 50p/ewe/week. Ewes return home to graze 15 acres of turnips from the start of March. They move back to grass after lambing.

Farmland is generally good-quality free-draining soils, but it is located in an upland area and is quite exposed. Weather in winter can be severe, with snow and heavy frost common. Silage is fed to ewes ahead of lambing.

No concentrates are fed to any ewes before or after lambing. Mineral licks are the only purchased feed, with 0.5t of lick blocks used.

Ewes with triplets are left to rear three lambs, as no time is spent cross-fostering on to single-bearing ewes. To date, there have been few problems with ewes carrying three lambs.

The farm is quite extensive and only 3.5t of fertiliser is purchased annually, with 900 bales of silage made for winter feeding.

Part of the 15-acre turnip crop will be used to out-winter ram lambs also. These rams are returned to grass and then sold in a special on-farm sale in August.

Breeding sales

Since 2005, the Ingram family has held an on-farm sale where it sells up to 500 shearling rams, which are a mix of hybrid sheep and pure-bred animals.

Sales are well attended and normally consist of repeat buyers looking to source grass-fed naturally reared tups with proven performance and longevity.

As mentioned earlier, the original Logie Durno hybrid sheep has evolved into maternal and terminal lines.

Along with the Lleyn-cross and Beltex-cross hybrid sheep, Bruce has been using Blueface Leicester crossed to Texel and produced a dual-purpose sheep called Fronteira.

These sheep have high levels of milk and mothering ability, along with growth rates to match any of his pure terminal sheep.

Future plans

The plans are to grow the flock to 2,500 ewes in the coming years using home-bred genetics to produce breeding ewes that suit the farming environment and deliver fast-growing lambs that suit a grass-based system.

Other plans will be to continue to improve the flock genetics to produce more sheep that are suited to lambing outdoors unassisted and able to finish lambs off grass by September.

As Bruce states, the less inputs required for the flock means the more profit they can generate.

Read more

Breeding starts at lambing