Spring 2008 Newsletter

Congratulations to two of our members, Peter Baber of Devon, awarded the Farmers Weekly Sheep Farmer of The Year and John Vipond of The Scottish Agricultural College, the runner up in the Farm Consultant of The Year. I’m reminded of Spike Milligan’s response when honoured – “And about bloody time too!”

The annual meeting and open day will this year be held at Glenapp Estate, Ayrshire by kind permission of the owner, The Earl of Inchcape, on Friday 13th June. Please make an effort to come and bring your friends. There is no admission charge and you will be very impressed with the management and the location. The AGM will be at 10.30am; all paid up members are requested to attend. The annual membership of £20 will be due by then!

The event will be well signposted on the A77 just south of Ballatrae. Our hotel for the event will be The North West Castle at Stranraer, Wigtownshire, DG9 8EH  01776 704413, www.mcmillanhotels.com. We have negotiated a fee of £60 per person sharing or £75 single occupancy - Dinner, Bed & Breakfast. The Annual Dinner on the Friday night will be inclusive for those staying at the hotel, £20 for others. Please book direct with the hotel and mention that you are part of the ‘Easy Care’ group.

On Saturday 14th June we will visit Mr Jim Kennedy of Lydnton Maybole, a well known farmer and exhibitor of stock, then lunch at Culzean Castle (National Trust) and grounds.

The scrapie testing programme is coming to an end and the results show that the ‘Easy Care’ have fared very favourably.

I recently had the honour of giving a talk about the ‘Easy Care’ breed at a prestigious conference in Osnabruck, Germany, organised by Dr Rolf Minhorst, who was our keynote speaker at last year’s open day. The hair sheep and woolshedding breeds – there is a difference – also included the Nolana, Dorper, Wiltshire Horn, Barbados Black Belly and Camaroons. After an inspection and comparison of the breeds we had a very comprehensive talk by Dr J Winkleman of the Chamber of Agriculture on the Blue Tongue Disease. He has confidence in the vaccine, the only hope we have.

The whole of Europe as far as the West Coast of Ireland is in the firing line depending on the wind and climate. Type 8 is the one that is causing most problems at the moment and is rife in North Central Europe, but type 1 is also in Spain and present vaccines do not offer any protection. As breeders we can only use the vaccine, if available, and pray for a strong North Westerly from May to November followed by a very cold winter!

Other speakers at the conference were Dr Frank Glorie of Holland, who bought some ‘Easy Cares’ two years ago and was very complimentary. Dr Clara Penon on recording and Dr Minhorst on the ten year progress of the Nolana. They have started to breed two types, lowland and a hill type – food for thought!

The outcome was a great interest in ‘Easy Care’ with at least two prospective customers coming to our Open Day.

Dr Minhorst is also making arrangements for entertaining a party of us to visit Farms in Germany & Holland for four days from 1st to 5th October. The numbers will be limited to one busload (approx. 45). Those interested please contact Jo Hewitt, White Ash Farm, Staverden Lane, Sissinghurst, Kent, TN17 2AN  01580 715001 or email johewwitt@btinternet.com.

Recording is a subject that concerns some breeders and I know that some are recording already. I have started with ‘Signet’ but I find tagging newborn lambs causes more stress and disturbance to the flock than any benefits achieved. D.N.A testing would be the ideal, but at about £10 per sheep it would not appeal to all. I hope we will have time for a discussion on the subject at the AGM.

With the invoice for membership I am asking for an indication of numbers of purebred females you have for sale this year, so that we can explore the feasibility of holding a society sale. Hopefully we can continue to find customers for all our stock at home as in the past, especially now the country is split into restricted movement regions due to Blue Tongue. Also those of you who have not yet included your email address, please do so.

I sincerely hope to see you all at Glen App on June 13th. We shall also have a stand at ‘Scots Sheep’ in Hawick on June 4th and at Sheep ’08 at Malvern on June 29th.

Iolo Owen M.B.E., F.R.Ag.S., N.Sch.