As well as being one of Northern Ireland’s leading sheep farmers, Crosby Cleland is a successful fencing and gate contractor and is halfway through his term as Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) beef and lamb chairman.
Crosby’s Brookmount Farm in Saintfield, Co. Down, which has been in his family for at least four generations, consists of 166 acres on which he keeps approximately 750 Lleyn and Highlander (Maternal) ewes crossed to Primera, and New Zealand Suftex (Terminal) sires. The farm produces over 1,200 lambs each year which are supplied to Linden Foods through the Strangford Down Lamb Group for which Crosby is the coordinator. There are about 150 farmers in the Group who supply 18,000 lambs to Linden Foods each year.
To ensure the very best returns, Crosby monitors, benchmarks and analyses every aspect of his sheep business, from the cost of his silage to the number of lambing ‘assists’ per breed. The management and selection of the best stock to keep for breeding is achieved with the aid of EID using the Shearwell and Frameworks programme. This allows Crosby to choose and keep the best progeny from each of his main 3 breeds Lleyn, Primera and Highlander to further improve his breeding stock. He would have home sales of these recorded Sheep Ireland rams.
His key objectives are to increase growth and numbers of lambs weaned achieving greater output, i.e. kilos produced per hectare, and to have an easier care system which increases the number of ewes per labour unit. Crosby’s ram selection criteria are focused on maternal ability, growth rate and ease of lambing, R3 is what the retailers want. He also places a strong emphasis on the management of his grassland. The flock is rotationally grazed and he has roadways throughout the farm which allow one man and quad bike to easily move the stock.
“Sheep production is really about chasing kilos per hectare and I believe that keeping meticulous records is the only way to achieve that. Regular conversations with your vet and careful analysis of your figures allow you to make informed decisions about how to move the farm forward,” he says.
Two years ago, Crosby received the M&S Livestock Award at the Balmoral Show for commitment to renewable energy and long-term sustainability on his farm He submitted a comprehensive entry outlining his carefully planned, simple infrastructure on Brookmount Farm that allows the movement of his 750 ewes and their lambs, as well as 230 replacement stock. This means that even at lambing time, most of the work can be shared between him and just one other member of staff. Also a few years before that, he was awarded the UK Sheep Farmer of the Year.
Lambing time has been made considerably easier by the decision to change the flock from Continental Cross, Greyface and Mule ewes to predominantly Lleyn. As Lleyn ewes don’t need assistance when giving birth and the lambs are very quickly up on their feet suckling, this has reduced the need for additional labour during a traditionally busy period and has freed up more time for the Saintfield farmer to concentrate on his fencing business and office and boardroom commitments.
With the environment being extremely important to him, Crosby has been experimenting with agro-forestry – planting trees on less productive land that can still be grazed by sheep. He works closely with those in his local producer group and regularly plays host to Department of Agriculture Farm Focus visits.
In recent years, Crosby has finished his ram lambs indoors and housed his ewes from December to March, with the result that there is a terrific sward come the springtime. Lambing takes place at the end of March and beginning of April, generally 18 days has 650 ewes lambed thanks to the use of teaser rams for 15 days before the ram is introduced. Single sire mating has been used for the last 12 years with each recorded ram covering between 80 to 100 ewes. This allows Crosby to spend more money on a good ram giving him, in particular, better live weight gains.
“The lambs have been good and strong. We don’t complain about multiple births, between adopter pens and wet fostering plus good triplets going to the field, we have raised the kilos per hectare, hence a better profit margin. We’ve been sheep farming only since 2000. Before that, we were also into suckler cows and beef, but we’ve been able to cut our costs by concentrating on one enterprise,” he explains.
Crosby is heavily involved within the sheep industry in Northern Ireland. He is a founder member of the Northern Ireland branch of NSA and acts as a trainer in various rural skills at Greenmount College. In addition, he operates a loading point in Saintfield for the Strangford Down Lamb Group, is the Co. Down representative for the British Wool Board and, of course, is beef and lamb chair of the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU), which represents about 20,000 Northern Irish farmers. A long-time member of the UFU, Crosby is just starting his second year term as beef and lamb chairman.
One of the big concerns of sheep producers in Northern Ireland at the moment is the large amount of New Zealand lamb on shop shelves. Crosby is urging consumers to show their support by buying Northern Ireland Farm Quality Assured lamb.
The collapse in value of the euro has had a devastating impact on meat exports, leading to a prolonged period of unsustainable prices for local sheep producers, he says.
“With so much pressure on our export trade, this makes the home market all the more important, so we need strong support from both the Northern Ireland retailers and shoppers. What hasn’t helped is the fact that some retailers have kept high levels of New Zealand lamb on their shelves during our lamb season. This has created additional price pressure for local farmers who endured one of their toughest ever years in 2015.
“We need lamb prices to increase because we simply can’t sustain prices at their current level,” he warns.
For the past 40 years, the busy Co. Down man has been providing a professional fencing service to farmers throughout the province. Specialising in stock fencing and wooden fencing and gates, Crosby Cleland Fencing & Gates is an agent for AJ Charlton & Sons wooden gates and Gallagher Electric Fencing products. A hedging and trees supply and planting service up to CMS (Countryside Management) standard is also available.
“The farm and the agri-fencing business go hand-in-hand. Between everything, it’s all go, but I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he concludes.
Crosby Cleland
Brookmount Farm,
21 Greens Road,
Saintfield,
Co. Down BT24 7EE
Telephone: +44 (0)28 97510289
Mobile: +44 (0)78 60610987
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.crosbyclelandfencing.com
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 4 No 4, April/May 2016
