'Not there yet – but I'll keep trying'

David Mallon has been hooked on Swaledales since attending his first tup sale. Reporter Wendy Short met him at Lanehead, in Kelton, one of three holdings he farms in partnership with his uncle, Simon Bentley.

DAVID Mallon considers himself very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to have his own livestock, as he does not come from a farming family. This fact was highly influential in his decision to continue his education after leaving school, as there was no certainty he would ever be able to farm in his own right.

His second choice was always to work as a farm manager and to this end he went to Newton Rigg College, in Cumbria, where he took a National Diploma in hill farming, going on to gain a degree in farm business management at Newcastle University.

While David was growing up in Northallerton, he spent many happy hours at Lanehead, his late grandfather David Bentley’s farm and where his uncle Simon now lives with his wife, Shirley, who also works on the farm.

The business partnership covers 700 acres of in-bye land, with the horned “Kelton Hill” ewes running on a couple of thousand acres of moorland. The production of Mule gimmer lambs is one of the main sources of income and the pair also have a suckler herd producing store calves, some of which are reared on a third farm, Scar Head at Lunedale.

David is based at Pallet Crag farm, in Eggleston, where he lives with his wife, Amanda and two young children, Josh and Olivia.

A small nucleus flock of Swaledales is David’s special project and from these he sells gimmer lambs for breeding.

He has already won a second and fourth place with a show pen and his top price to date for a tup is 9,000gns. David attributes much of his achievement to Simon, who worked hard to improve the quality of the Swaledale flock long before his nephew joined the business and has won several prizes for consignments of draft ewes, which have a good reputation among producers who farm in a more forgiving environment.

While he endeavours to attend local shows whenever time permits, David has missed out on a championship to date, although his Swaledales have been awarded plenty of second and third placings.

The 2014 purchase of the 8,000gns Ghyll House Elevator, bred by John Richardson, of Dufton, in Cumbria, has proved a great success and the sire has produced some breeding females of excellent quality.

This year, the business partners have picked out a batch of 15 tups, which will be presented for sale at the three main events in the local calendar this autumn.

As part of a multi-farm Higher Level Stewardship scheme in the region, some 400 Swaledale ewes are taken off the hill in mid-February and housed in a purpose-built shed. While the breed is not renowned for thriving indoors, the practice does allow greater control of their diet and serves to freshen up the ground, he comments.

At home, David uses a large polytunnel for the March lambing of the 200 Swaledales used for Mule production. Its original cover was made of standard polythene sheet and fell victim to Storm Desmond, prompting him to buy a more expensive PVC version, which has served him well for the past four years.

The Swaledales follow on in April, with David looking after the singles and gimmer shearlings and Simon and Shirley managing the majority of the twins at their home. The aim is to finish all of the wether lambs by Christmas and this was achieved in 2016, with the Swaledales in particular helped along with a small amount of bought-in concentrates.

“I like to offer a little feed from weaning onwards, while the grass is still nutritious,” he explains. “In my opinion, it is false economy to withhold supplementary feed until the grazing has run out, because it extends the finishing period and increases the reliance on concentrates.”




CATTLE

THE 70 spring-calving suckler herd is closed and a tight calving pattern had always been maintained, but David, fresh from college, took a long, hard look at the breeding policy.

“Before I became involved, Simon and grandfather had beef Shorthorn cows, which went to an Aberdeen Angus bull. Store cattle buyers who were supplying Scotbeef would come down from Scotland to buy them, but they often wanted animals around May time, which did not fit in very well with our system, and we struggled to sell the breeding heifers in our region.

“It is all too easy to return from college with new farming ideas and try to impose them upon family members. I tried hard to avoid falling into that trap, but I could see that there was a good local market for Limousin and Belgian Blue cross store calves.

“An element of the beef Shorthorn has been retained, as it has good maternal qualities, longevity and hardiness, but using Limousin and British Blue bulls alternately produces a good calf that will find a ready market and some of the heifers will be purchased for breeding. We try to produce a show-type commercial calf and we have had a top price of £1,700, but shape has to be balanced against ease of calving, which we consider extremely important.”

The bulls run with the females for about eight weeks and with the exception of a particularly good specimen, both cows and heifers will be sold if they fail to get in calf during the allotted period. Many cattle breeding experts today recommend the calving of heifers at two years, claiming that it greatly improves lifetime productivity and, therefore, profitability. Keen to keep up to date, David experimented with following the advice, but has since returned to the traditional system of calving at three.

“It takes a lot out of a heifer to calve her at two and it is a constant battle to keep her in good condition. The recommendation may work well on lowland farms, but this is a tough environment; our heifers spend the summer on rough ground at Lunedale. Gaining an extra calf out of a female when she is young can affect her longevity and I believe that she will be more durable, if she is allowed to mature slowly before she calves.”

David says he was lured in by what he describes as the “razzamattaz” of a major Swaledale tup sale when he was just five years old. When first asked, he said his ultimate goal was to have the champion tup at Hawes. However he quickly revised his opinion.

“I would actually be happy with being considered a reputable sheep breeder with a flock that is valued and attracts customers who come back year after year. I am making genetic progress within the breed, but then so is everybody else. I’m nowhere near where I want to be yet, but that won’t stop me from trying.”