Breeding top-notch sheep is a family affair for one north-east farming business.
The Ingram family – William, Carole and children Gregor, Bruce and Amy – are on a mission to breed the best possible tups for commercial farmers.
Some 10 years ago the family made the bold move away from selling all their tups at pedigree sales with the launch of an on-farm tup sale. The fixture has gone from strength to strength. This year’s sale, which takes place on August 13, will see around 250 tups from eight breeds go under the hammer.
“Over the last 10 years the sale has developed a lot and become a much bigger event. However, the basics remain the same,” said William. “All sheep are naturally reared and presented, and are sold with full performance recording figures.”
He said the idea for holding an on-farm sale first arose following a visit to the Isle of Lewis to scan sheep for crofters.
“I was told about a guy’s trip to New Zealand where he had seen a tup sale and I thought it was something I’d like to do. They [farmers in New Zealand] sell all their rams on-farm,” said William.
In all, the family runs 1,800 ewes at Logie Durno Farm, near Inverurie.
As well as keeping pure Bluefaced Leicester, Charollais, Suffolk and Texel sheep, they have developed four other breeds over the years.
The first two are the Durno and Logie hybrid breeds.
The Durno breed is a hybrid mix of Texel and Charollais genetics, which the Ingrams claim creates the “ultimate terminal sire”, while the Logie breed is a hybrid mix of Durno Hybrid and Lleyn genetics to produce an “easier care maternal sire”.
And for this year’s sale the family will be selling tups from two new breeds: the Fronteira and the Beltex x Durno hybrid breeds. According to Gregor, the Fronteira breed is a cross between a high index Bluefaced Leicester and Texel.
“It’s a new maternal line to produce a very saleable ewe lamb, and also a great carcased wether lamb,” he said.
“The other breed is the Beltex x Durno. We have picked a selection of our Durno ewes and AId them with the best rams in the Beltex breed.”
William said all rams at next week’s sale will be priced at between £400 and £650 each, with all stock on offer performance recorded.
Gregor said the rams for sale benefited from the family’s strict selection process.
He said: “We are checking things like whether the ewe is a good mother, the number of lambs she is milking, and whether or not we had to lamb her.”
The family has long held a “no passengers” attitude and a strict culling strategy is enforced.
Auctioneering on the day is carried out by Gregor, who said the on-farm sale featured animals with the same genetics as those which were “pampered” for the pedigree sales.
“There will be live sheep going to Germany and Holland, and in the past we have sent semen to Brazil and Finland,” he said.
“The health status of the flock is essential for that [exports].”
Sheep selection and breeding focus was on length and killing out percentage, he added. William said pedigree sales would continue to be a part of the family’s business and they would continue to try and buy the best genetics they could for each of its breeds.
Gregor said: “The big selling point for our rams is that we have gone and bought the best rams we can find in the UK and we are passing on the genetics to you for the commercial price.”
In future the family wants to expand the number of rams it sells from the new breeds and grow the number of stock on offer.
Next week’s sale will take place on Thursday at the farm at 4pm, with viewing from 3pm.
More information is available at www.logiedurnosheep.co.uk along with a video of all the rams.