Terrys farm: quality sheep for prime sales at Kirkby Stephen

Using a combination of genetics in order to sell lambs from April right through to December, is a family affair at Terrys Farm, near Ormside, which is run by brothers, Ian and Michael, together with Ian’s children Kevin, John and Susan.

The next generation is showing keen interest too as Kevin and fiancée, Sam’s children, three-year-old Hollie and Louie, 10 months, while only young, love to be out shepherding while John and partner Michelle’s daughter, Georgia, is certainly making the most of getting on her feet having recently turned one.

There have been Sowerbys farming in the Ormside area not far from Kirkby Stephen for eight generations and having been tenants for 68 years, the family got the opportunity to buy Terrys Farm some eight years ago. There they now run 470 ewes and 150 suckler cows on the 350 acres.

Ewes are virtually all home-bred bar half a dozen or so cherry-picked gimmers bought from Paul Slater each year, and feature continental genetics with Texel, Beltex and Dutch Texel blood, put to cross-bred tups. Around 50 Suffolk Mules enable the Terrys team to produce lambs to meet that early trade from around the first week in April.

A strong batch of ewes with lambs run as potential tups or breeding females

The recent loss of some rented ground resulted in a change of farming policy, as Ian explained: “We used to buy in around 450 Mule ewe lambs each year to turn around and sell as hoggs with lambs at foot in the spring, but this will be the first time in 65 years there were no Mules at Terrys Farm.”

Stock rams tend to be Texel cross Beltex sorts to keep some size and bone whilst retaining shoulder and gigot.

“We have a few pure Texels kicking about, including a tup we bought as an embryo that has been a great female getter. He’s just our type, being bare skinned with a great carcase and skinny tail,” said Kevin.

“But even though we’re just breeding for prime lambs, it’s all a balancing act of keeping the size while not losing the muscle, and keeping the muscle while not losing the size. Our ideal tup is of medium size with plenty bone and a good skin, but he’s also got to have a good backend and he must be hard fleshed.”

Lambing takes place from the start of February right through until mid-May. It kicks off with the Suffolk Mules ewes before moving on to gimmers in the middle of March. Hoggs lamb early April, with the Sowerbys being firm believers in getting a crop of lambs from young females whenever possible and will always put the bigger end of ewe lambs to the tup.

They like to get the most out of good tups and will give each around 100 ewes spread across the 12 or so weeks of tupping, with ram lambs used to chase up any stragglers.

With a mineral drench given pre-tupping, ewes respond well and often produce lambing percentages of 180%. Raddle colours are changed each cycle, they’re brought into lambing sheds in their colour batches and managed in those groups thereafter. This means each group can be vaccinated with Ovivac as soon as they hit the four-week mark, with lambs also scratched for orf.

“It might be the last thing you want to do when you’re full on lambing, but each and every lamb is ear notched depending on its sire so we can match them up and watch their progress as they grow. It also means we have no danger of putting daughters to fathers at tupping time,” said Kevin.

Ewes are offered Rumenco Lifeline buckets in the lead up to lambing which Kevin says helps keep condition off and lambs at smaller birth weights but most importantly makes for fantastic colostrum. Once lambed they are moved on to North West Farmers champion ewe nuts which they perform well on and produce plenty milk which the lambs thrive on.

All prime lambs and cast ewes are sold through Harrison and Hetherington’s Kirkby Stephen Mart, which lies just nine miles along the road. Prices have peaked at £255 and £252 so far this year with ewes above £300.

Two of the tups that will be on offer at J6 Kendal later in the year

“There will be 14 buyers at Kirkby every week and we’ll have sold to all of them throughout the years, but a regular buyer is N and J Dowdings Butchers in Appleby who buy two or three from us week in week out. He likes them at 45kg to 50kg and likes to buy the best, it’s great to have someone like him at the ringside,” pointed out Ian.

Regular support from buyers has helped keep the Sowerby name at the top of sale reports and they’ll have topped many of the spring lamb sales so far, but backing it up are the results at the auction shows including, most recently, the High Fives show and sale at Kirkby where they secured both the champion and reserve tickets and topped the entry at £205.

This is a sale they’ve won for the last three years and they do well in the pairs sale at the end of May too where this year’s champion duo realised £250 at 41kg with their reserve pair making £232 at 40kg.

Typical Terrys Farm breeding ewe rearing a strong pair of lambs

Helping them achieve these results is the offering of creep feed from a young age, as Kevin explained: “As soon as the lambs start to come in to feed on ewe cobs at the trough we put the hoppers out and use the super lamb pellet from North West Farmers which they perform really well on.

“This helps get that extra bit of finish on them and we pick away a few each week in the early season. We get most of our early lambs away by the end of June and by the time the weather turns in October and November we’ll have the rest – which are mostly hogg’s lambs so a bit smaller – inside to finish and get away before Christmas.”

Like many producers across the county, the spring of 2024 is one they won’t look back on fondly but with careful management Kevin is proud to say they didn’t lose a single lamb to the weather.

“We had a lot of our ewes lambed in February when the weather was kinder so by the time it turned in March the lambs had a bit of age behind them and knew where to find shelter,” said Kevin.

Cousins, Holly and Georgia, catch up with one of their favourites

Ian continued: “Spring was challenging as we’re quite heavy ground and it puddled up everywhere. We’re a fairly sheltered farm with tree lines bordering a lot of the fields, but lambs got so wet and muddy we brought 50 to 60 sets of twins back inside. But then of course the mastitis started which was something else to contend with so we ended up buying some hoggs with lambs from Bentham Mart to keep numbers up.”

It’s not just the prime lamb ring that the Sowerbys are making their mark in as shearling tups sell well too, with runs of around 30 taken to North West Auctions’ J36 Kendal centre where they’ve hit tops of £1800, and averaged a flock best of £950 for a very level batch of 30 in 2022.

The suckler herd, too, features a strong mix of continental genetics with Limousin and British Blue bulls including a few home-bred Limmy bulls over the years. Calves also sell through Kirkby with the recent sale in May peaking at £2000 for yearling heifers and the Luke Fair in the backend also hitting £2000 for a dozen that were around 18 months old.

“We have a pedigree Limousin cow or two and sell an odd bull here and there but we’ve been a closed, high-health herd for around 25 years and often use some of our home-bred bulls in the herd ourselves,” explained Ian, adding that calves often go on to do well on the show circuit for their buyers and they have a strong customer base for breeding heifers too.

“Home-bred bulls seem to do well for us and in fact Terrys Pilot bred some of the £2000 yearling heifers sold recently, but Mystyle Rambler, an Ampertaine Elgin son from John Richardson, is proving to be a good getter.”

A firm understanding of their local market and breeding premium stock to suit buyers demands is standing the Sowerby family in good stead and no doubt that will continue for the generations to come.