Hamish Mitchell has travelled the world shearing sheep

Hamish first left the country aged 18, working as a livestock adviser for the Moredun Research Institute, travelling to the USA and working with sheep on a large farm for a year. As well as being a great learning experience in its own right, it also forged a future for Hamish, as he explains: “When it came to shearing time, the shearing gang came in and I thought this is something I really want to get good at.”

Hamish has travelled the world shearing but is now settled in Perthshire with his wife and family

At 19, he embarked on his next journey, travelling to New Zealand – without a job lined up.

“I contacted a man called Steve Cotterall and he said to me if we could shear 300 between us each day of the weekend, he’d give me a job on the Monday. And that’s just what we did.

“It seems like there was a lot more emphasis on the quality then than there is now. That probably comes down to the lack of shearers in New Zealand these days, and being pushed on to get through them. There are probably the same amount going over from the UK as there were 30 to 40 years ago.”

Hamish and his son Norman are passionate about Blackface sheep and show their stock at local shows with ram lambs entered for Dalmally

Brought up on the Isle of Skye, Hamish always had a competitive streak. He spent his early days showing sheep and playing rugby, with equal measures of enthusiasm. He had trialled dogs from a young age and ran a dog on the TV programme Grampian Sheepdog Trials in 1987 as a young handler.

More recently, Hamish has qualified to run a dog as part of the Scottish team in the upcoming International Sheepdog Trials at Lanark.

Hamish adds: “When it comes to shearing, I have always wanted to be the best and have continually pushed myself.”

Hamish and his wife JJ who was unavailable for a photograph, son Norman and daughters Johanna and Christine live at East Letham

While he has sheared sheep in 23 countries, the majority of Hamish’s career, which commenced in the early 1990s, has been spent in the UK, New Zealand and Norway. Since then, he has travel to the Falklands, South Africa, India, and many other far-flung places shearing. During the end of this time, he was also travelling as an ambassador for Heiniger.

Hamish comments: “In every country you visit you see good ideas and similarly bad ideas. I love shearing in the South Island of New Zealand. The people are just great and, of course, I love shearing on the Isle of Skye.

“I am very keen to encourage young people to take up shearing and see the world in the same way I did. Although I do tell people not to start too young.”

Adding to the stamps on his passport have been his nine World Championships, where he has made the final several times. He has been placed second in the team event on several occasions and won at the 2014 World Champs in Southern Ireland with Gavin Mutch.

A regular visitor to Norway, he has shorn lambs in the abattoir to help with meat hygiene before slaughter. “Norwegian sheep produce good quality wool and the industry doesn’t want to waste it,” he says.

It was here Hamish met his wife Jorunn, known as JJ, who worked as a wool classer. JJ herself has competed in wool-handling competitions around the world and represented Norway as a judge in the World Champs as well as competing in its final many times. “JJ’s mum, Borgil, ran the wool station in one of Norway’s abattoirs and JJ took her learnings home from countries she visited,” he said.

Hamish manages the farming enterprise at Letham for Ewan Cheape

Hamish and JJ decided to settle in Norway and together bought a small traditional hill farm about an hour away from JJ’s family farm. Here, they milked 25 Norwegian Red Friesians and ran a flock of 200 Norsk White ewes, which Hamish describes as similar to a good, big cross-bred. As time went on the couple also fattened 5000 turkeys a year.

The Norwegian agricultural industry has heavy government control. In the 1980s, the country’s national flock was decimated by scrapie, and certain areas of the country saw many sheep culled. As a result, there are strict rules on the movement of animals, with a new farmer only able to buy breeding stock once and from one farm only to start a flock.

Furthermore, only Norwegian natives are able to purchase a farm. Farms’ market values are controlled so they are priced directly in correlation to what the holding can produce.

Hamish says: “The Norwegian government’s control is designed to keep farmers on farms and make a living. I really liked living in Norway, although I did struggle with the language a bit. Our farm was idyllic. We had a lake and a boat house, and views of snow-capped mountains.”

Here, the couple started their family and together had Johanna, Christine and Norman. He continues: “It was an amazing place to bring the kids up when they were little. We spent the summers back in Scotland and here the family enjoyed attending shows which were very far and few in Norway. With that in mind, we decided to move back to Scotland. We sold the farm lock, stock and barrel. It was only on the market for two weeks.

“We all moved to Scotland two weeks before Christmas 2016 and a week later I was on a plane to New Zealand for a few months of shearing. It was these times, I think, which were the hardest for JJ – when I was away and she was in a new country with the kids.”

A year after moving back, the couple purchased the 150-acre East Moss-side Farm in Thornhill, Stirling. In addition, JJ was contract shepherding for hill farmers and Hamish was also driving a lorry. They also rented parcels of ground which enabled the couple to grow a flock of 500 breeding ewes.

Not too long afterwards, Hamish applied for the position of hill shepherd with Ewan Cheape at Letham Farm, Glenfarg, Perthshire, where he and the family now live. Hamish now works full-time as livestock manager with JJ also working on the farm where together they manage a flock of 1100 ewes. The flock is made up of three groups – a nucleus flock of Blackfaces from which Scotch Mules are produced which are then crossed with Texel rams with the resultant progeny finished off grass. Alongside the sheep, 140 Simmental cross cows are kept, put to a Charolais bull with the calves sold as stores.

They also still run the farm at East Moss-side, where they buy in ewe and lamb couples and fatten the lambs. During the winter and early spring they take in hoggs.

This year, Hamish has also been part of the first cohort of British Wool ambassadors, which he believes he is well placed to carry out alongside his work as a shearing instructor.

“If I can help British Wool make any more money for farmers, I will do whatever I can. Because of what I do, I know a lot of people around Scotland. The most valuable place for me to be as an ambassador is in the mart where farmers can broach any questions or concerns with me. “I am passionate about getting youngsters into shearing. For this to be sustainable, we need the quantity of wool as well as the value to keep the shearing industry alive.

“I also think it’s important for farmers to understand what goes into the process at British Wool. There’s a huge amount of work that goes into scouring, grading, selling and marketing farmers’ wool,” he adds. 

Role of British Wool ambassadors

* Promote the values of British Wool as an organisation and quality fibre.

* Be an advocate for the organisation.

* Promote the importance of British Wool’s role within the wool sector.

* Promote shearing and wool handling courses.

* Promote strong characteristics of British wool as a quality fibre.