James Roulston is a young farmer who is putting his own stamp on the family farm at Bready, Co Tyrone.

Although he has just turned 14, James has already developed a wide range of skills from working with livestock, to tractor work and, more recently, branching out into engineering.

His passion for farming is huge and when he leaves school in a couple of years, his eyes are firmly set on coming back home to farm with his Dad, Tynan and this will make him the eighth generation to farm the land.

Since 2019, the Roulston farm is mainly a spring-calving dairy unit, although calves are reared for beef. There is a small sheep flock of 30 ewes which James’s sister Bethany helps look after. Before then, the farm had a large suckler herd and having grown up with beef cows, James is naturally drawn to the suckler side of farming.

Pedigree cows

Two years ago, he took his first steps to setting up his own enterprise on the farm with the purchase of some pedigree Beef Shorthorn heifers.

All heifers were maidens which James put in calf. The first calves were born in 2021 with the second calf crop born this spring.

I bought Shorthorns because I liked the look of them. They just have a lovely colour. They are also quiet and a nice size of cow to work with

With the support of Dad Tynan, and Mum Noreen, James has grown his own herd to 20 cows, 11 of which are pedigree Shorthorns. The rest are mainly Hereford breeding.

“I bought Shorthorns because I liked the look of them. They just have a lovely colour. They are also quiet and a nice size of cow to work with.

“I am hoping to increase numbers to around 20 pedigrees and start selling bulls and heifers to other farmers. My cows are all pedigree-registered under my own herd prefix, which is Gortavea.

“I have used AI on some cows, but we have a Shorthorn stock bull now to breed the cows this year as it is easier to manage,” says James.

James has set up in own workshop on the farm, making and repairing items used on the farm.

Engineering

The other area where James has come into his own on the farm is the engineering side. After converting an old garage into a workshop, he now spends his spare time making gates, or other pieces of kit for the farm and repairing machinery.

One of his biggest contributions so far was fabricating all the gates used to make the holding pen for the milking parlour. More recently, he has made a slat lifter and has repaired an old grass topper.

“I would have been watching and helping Dad welding things and wanted to have a go. He taught me some things and the rest I taught myself from watching YouTube videos. I like making things and having the workshop is great as it is my own space to work in.”

Tractor work

An accomplished tractor driver, James undertakes a lot of field work, as well as feeding livestock during the winter.

“I mostly do things like raking silage, topping grass, spiking fields and spreading dung. I have helped out a few neighbours as well with some tractor work when they needed a hand.”

There is also a digger on the farm and when converting to dairying, James spent a lot of time digging new laneways for getting cows access to grazing paddocks.

Future plans

When talking about his future in farming, very little seems to faze James. He sees a role for his pedigree cows on the farm alongside the dairy herd and he would like to push on with engineering.

His love of machinery could also take him in the direction of doing some contracting work for neighbours.

One thing for sure is that he does not lack ambition or drive and when he does come home to farm full-time, the business will benefit from it.

Farmer profile

  • Started his own pedigree Beef Shorthorn herd in 2020.
  • Set up his own engineering workshop on farm.
  • Completes most of the tractor work on his family farm.
  • Plans to farm full-time on leaving school.