Neil McGowan talks Olympic champions at Incheoch Farm

I’m not a big sports fan, but I do like watching rugby – especially 7s – so I was a bit disappointed not to find much of that televised. However, when I opened my mind there was a fantastic array of all sorts of sport. It was a bit like going to Kelso Tup Sales – there was something for everyone, and most of it very good.

We saw a big, lanky kiwi lad jump a 7ft 6 gate (onto a soft landing mind), and the happiest looking lass from China lift the equivalent of seven bags of feed over her head. We saw a breakdancing competition, wind surfing, and a crazy sport called canoe cross.

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Skye's litter of pups has helped to bolster Debbie and Neil's spirits after the fire

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I believe that we are all ‘Olympic-Class’ at something. For me, it’s probably mashing tatties – but I feel there would likely be a time element where I’d come to grief. So my best hope would be in the ‘skinning a lamb’ team. There’s bound to be a champion of sorts among the livestock too, if we could just find the right class.

The last time I wrote this column all was going well and I was pleased with the quality of our first-cut silage, well filling the pit and neatly sealed with a row of straw bales over the plastic sheet. Within a few hours of writing that, we had a fire go through the top of the pit, losing the straw, spoiling silage, and damaging the shed roof. It was a frightening experience – and many thanks to the guy in the tractor who pulled in off the road and helped until the fire brigade arrived.

The initial inferno didn’t last long, and the fire crew decided that the tightly-packed straw would smoulder for weeks unless they helped it burn as quickly as possible. They removed some sheets to fan the flames, but it took two days with our telehandler under fire crew supervision to get the smouldering straw and silage off the pit. It was dropped in a field around the corner, where it smoked away for three weeks.

Analysis of the crop left in the pit is good, but just how much wastage there will be from a disrupted fermentation is unsure. Overall, I’d like to think we’ll still have two-thirds of the crop.

The cause was purely accidental, but it has brought a few things to our attention. On one hand, we were fortunate there were no tyres on the pit as the contamination of the silage would be much worse. On the other hand, the fire probably wouldn’t have taken hold if that was the case. We built a yard-water treatment pond last year (complete with reed beds), and this became a useful source of water.

We also now know where the nearest high-pressure water hydrant is.

We are mighty grateful no people or stock were harmed, although the toll on folk dealing with it was sore. The messages of support from friends and neighbours have been a massive positive to us all, and offers of excess silage and grass for second cut have been tremendously helpful. A litter of pups squirming around in the farmhouse really helped boost moral too!

We sold some store cattle soon after the fire, in a bid to get some mouths off the farm. That was a few weeks earlier than when we sold Angus cross Luing yearling heifers last year. They weren’t such a good group as last year’s and were 30kg back but came to £40 more. Round figures, they averaged £1200 for 450kg stots and 425kg heifers.

Lamb growth rates are looking good, although a couple of batches have been needing a drench when we’ve got to them. We are doing a bit more rotational grazing, and I think we need to be on the ball with egg counts and stockmanship with that system. Pure Texel lambs weaned at about 100 days from peak lambing with both ewes and lambs looking the better for it, so Lleyns won’t be long now.

There is a significant pile of wool awaiting collection, and a bill for four days of shearing, of which last year’s wool cheque will cover just over half. Yet Debbie threw half a dozen fleeces in the back of the pickup to take to a local market last week and to my surprise sold them all at £5/fleece for weed-suppression in gardens. My admiration was tempered by losing a bet – but I don’t think she could have sold many more!

The potential value of the product keeps us minded to stick with breeding sheep with wool, despite the current economics.

The main job now is compiling data for catalogues for our on-farm ram and bull sale, under a month away, on September 10. Rams especially are looking grand – they’ve had a good summer and are looking in real bloom.

The next challenge is photographs and videos. We don’t creep feed – rams were wintered on forage – and they are presented for sale from grass only and no hard feed. They have been bare-clipped with no trimming, part of our ‘what you see is what you get’ ethos.

I was rubbish at drawing at school, although I did enjoy art – but I think my ‘medium of preference’ was a pair of shears. I miss the ‘arty’ bit of dressing stock, but there is still an art to getting a decent photograph and that is becoming more important. We have had to learn that, but are far short of ‘Olympic class’.

So what of those ‘Olympic class’ ewes and coos?

I once bought a ram by the name of Jack Flash and it turned out he could jump gates for fun. He’d have made a good hurdler, but we sold him on to an island, where he couldn’t do much damage.

I decided while doing my Nuffield studies that we aren’t actually looking for the astounding achievements of the biggest/fastest/strongest in our herds and flocks.

What we are really looking for are the ewes that we never notice, that give us a good set of twins every year with no hassle, and the cow that blends into the middle of the herd and quietly gets in calf every year while rearing – not a hit-or-miss great calf – but a good one, every time.

The real champions are those consistent, midfield finishers.

We need to celebrate them more – and spare a thought for them when we are looking for the next maternal ram or bull.