Hill Cheviots work at Attonburn

All the livestock on the farm are fed by Davidson Animal Feeds products, which Robert and Becca cannot criticise, they stay loyal to the one business. “The order and delivery service at Davidsons is excellent, they will never see you stuck and really care about you. It is a simple system for ordering, and we have never had any complications, the customer care is exceptional,” said Robert. The Cheviot’s are fed on ewelac rolls, with a 18% protein it is a high energy feed, whilst the lambs are given Pearl lamb pellets, 16% protein, to help support them through the winter, to fatten any cull tup lambs which didn’t make the grade. The Texel’s need strong power to compete in the industry, so they are on the TNT Nut, to give them the final condition they require for sale time. “The Cheviot’s we have found to have fewer prolapses and the ewes are a lot milkier, whilst the TNT Nut brings out the Texel tups seriously, it fills them out, and produces big strong powerful tups,” said Becca. As a result of this feeding, the couple have managed to produce top-end sale prices, travelling all across Scotland – Lockerbie, Lairg, Oban, Dingwall and Kelso – to keep their markets wide and gain new customers constantly. It was worth the trip up to Lairg last year as they sold their best, the two-shear, Attonburn Watch Out for £3800 to Andrew Elliot. Another two-shear, Mowhaugh Warload, made the same money at Lairg, this time heading home to Murdo MacDonald. On the flip side, Robert and Becca will buy in two or three tups each year. The first purchase for the estate was Thistle Venturer, which cost the couple 2100gns from Rosemary Cameron. The team have eight sons to sell next year which are looking ‘very promising’. “Venturer has shown strong breed characters, confirmation and good skin, so we are hoping the sons will develop over the next few months,” said Robert. Last year the flock bought in 11 new stock tups to make their own stamp on the flock and to get the flock going. One of the stock tups this year is Woodside Wahoo, which came from Michael Elliot, Kelso, when they both ventured up to Lairg. The two-shear is a son of Inkstack Victor, and took the second top price that day. The flock’s store lambs are mainly sold privately, with the bottom end going through United Auctions, Stirling. Last year, the ewe lambs averaged £75 for 620. Lambing is always a busy period for the Rennie’s, a worker from Ireland comes over to help them through the busy time. Everything is lambed inside so that all sheep can be recorded, everything can be kept an eye on more through a shed than it can be out on a hill… Across the two farms, the flock scans around 157%, with only an 8% loss from scanning to weaning. The couple believe this is due to watching everything so carefully, there is someone with the sheep 24 hours during lambing. For hygiene purposes, they put shavings down in lambing pens rather than straw to reduce the risk of spreading any diseases. “Not only is this a cleaner method but it is better for lambs for getting up on their feet,” said Becca. There is many things Robert and Becca wish to change to make things more practical and to suit their way of doing things. The future of the contract farming for the Rennie’s is to produce high quality stock, get them hardier quicker and cull anything that brings problems to the flock, for easier management in later times. The flock want to produce only the best, to keep up with the times. As for the breed, the couple believe there is a strong demand with many new breeders jumping ship to join the Cheviots with a lot of current breeders expanding. “It is easy to see the benefits with the breed, whether crossing or kept pure. They are hardy, well fleshed and flashy sheep, they are easy management and produce plenty of lambs,” commented Robert. With just being newly into the contract the couple will be taking on a few shows, to get their name out there, over the forthcoming years to include; the Royal Highland and Kelso. There is a lot set for this couple in their contract farming, so watch this space…