Irish Tractor & Agri caught up with Norman Read who has been running a sheep farm in County Fermanagh since the 1960s.
Agriculture is one of Northern Ireland’s most important industries.
As a whole, the agri-food industry turns over more than £4.5 billion every year, and supports one in eight jobs in the UK, making it a cornerstone of Northern Ireland’s economy and farmers play a key role in this.
Currently, there are over 29,000 farmers in Northern Ireland producing the wide variety of raw materials needed by processors and retailers to meet the demands of consumers.
Farming in Northern Ireland is not just a job but it is a way of life and those a the coalface are extremely proud of their family farming structure. Rural communities are extremely close knit and farmers and farming families are at the heart of these communities.
Northern Ireland is definitely a region that punches above its weight when it comes to farming and sheep is one of the largest commodity sectors along with beef and dairy.
Sheep production is the fourth most important animal enterprise on the island of Ireland, operating on both hill and lowland farms.
According to figures for 2015 from the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), the Northern Ireland sheep industry is worth around £63m.
Norman Read bought his first sheep at the age of 12 and 56 years on he continues to oversee a extensive operation which is located in Maguiresbridge, County Fermanagh.
Maguiresbridge is a small village which is named after the bridge over the Colebrooke River, first built by the local Maguire family about 1760 and is located eight miles from Enniskillen and three miles from Lisnaskea.
“I didn’t come from an agricultural background, my father was an engineer who worked in England,” Norman explained. “I inherited a 20 acre farm from my grand-uncle and built up from there.
“I’ve been running and breeding ewes since the sixties and at one time had 1000 acres on the go. I also had 150 bullocks for a couple of years but that wasn’t stacking up for me.”
Today Norman’s enterprise consists of 400 acres and a flock of 1,200 sheep, The flock is made up of 200 Lannark Horned ewes, crossed with Texel and Charollais rams. There is a selection of ewe lambs kept for replacement.
Also there are 180 Cheviot ewes crossed with Suffolk rams. Again the best of the ewe lambs are kept for replacement. The remainder of ewes are made of these crosses and crossed with Texel and Charollais rams.
“I like keeping good ewes, Suffolk and Texel rams and some Charollais. A few hybrids, they are more livelier and easier managed,” Norman added.
“We’ve had a great year. I lambed on March 17. It was a great improvement on previous years. It was a reasonably good spring for lambing ewes. There was no shortage of grass and we were also able to make a lot of silage and round bales to sell off. Grassland management is so important.”
That’s not to say that 2017 hasn’t been without its trials and tribulations for Norman. He had a lucky escape at the turn of the year after his farm was impacted by severe flooding.
“My yard was under two foot of water. It’s great land along the side of a river but that is one of the downfalls. Every four or five years we seem to be hit badly with flooding and we were very lucky this year. The mesh started to flood, it was a flash flood and it was very scary but we managed to get all of the ewes out in time. We were very lucky not to lose any.”
Norman’s son Geoffrey has inherited his father’s passion for farming and is always on hand to lend a helping hand.
“Geoffrey has his own outfit with 200 ewes and 40 suckler cows. He’s also a meal rep with Thompsons as well. He has enough to be doing with a young family as well but we do help each other out from time to time.”
Norman’s other son Barry, has an extensive agricultural contracting business and also runs a small flock of ewes. This contracting business is a major operation for local farmers, but also has time for helping Norman when all the family “muster in” for lambing, silage and other busy periods of the farming calendar.
Profitability and market volatility remain the two biggest issues facing farmers and Norman is no exception. Over the last few years volatility in the prices paid to farmers for their produce has caused significant problems for the industry.
Often, farmers see their profits squeezed by other partners in the supply chain and market volatility across sectors has wrecked havoc with farm gate prices. You can now also throw the question marks surrounding Brexit into the mix.
“I wouldn’t say that I’m happy with the industry as it is. You’d have to be very afraid of Brexit and what the repercussion of that will be. Larry Goodman is not helping matters either. He has become a very big player despite having never been in to sheep before.”
The same can’t be said for Norman whose passion for his flock and farm remains undimmed after all these years.
Norman Read Sheep farmer
86 Curryann Road
Maguiresbridge
Enniskillen
County Fermanagh
BT94 4NR
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 5 No 7, October/November 2017
