One sheep farmer details how he is preparing his business for possible tougher times ahead

As a sheep farmer it would be easy to get sucked into the doom and gloom about the possible negative implications that Brexit will have on Scotland’s sheep industry.

For some that might be the easy option and if they want to take it that’s up to them – I’m certainly not going to tell others how to think or run their businesses.

My approach is to prepare my flock for possible tougher times ahead. We don’t actually know what the future holds, so in essence there’s no point stressing about factors outwith our control.

Having said that, to avoid giving it any thought would be negligent so with that in mind what can we do to influence factors that are within our control which will maintain/enhance profitability from our sheep flocks and wider industry?

We run 6,000 ewes over farms which range from low ground to upland and in terms of preparing our flock for Brexit there are key areas that we are focusing on, most of which we have been working on for a while with a view to increasing profitability.

Identifying problem sheep and underachievers in our flock is constant. Every year our culling policy is getting stricter and as a result the ewes that remain are on the whole a functional bunch who do what we want them to do – produce lambs which meet the market requirement on a consistent basis.

To take the next step we have purchased an auto drafter which will allow us to measure lamb growth rates more efficiently and once we link these back to their mothers we can identify which ewes are not weaning enough kilos of lamb on an annual basis. They will then be culled.

Investing in technology such as this, which will drive profitability and make our lives easier, is something that makes a lot of sense and is an easy sell to both our financial controller (my wife, Fiona) and our bank manager.

Whilst we have budget available in the cashflow we have also been attending to fencing that makes the job easier. Handling facilities have also had a spruce up so that if there is less money around for whatever reason these smaller jobs have been taken care of. Whilst on the subject of fencing we are in the process of upgrading our temporary fencing so that we can manage grass to its full potential. Rotational grazing is an area where we have been getting better every year but still have a long way to go.

Growing and fully utilising grass is possibly the biggest single thing that we can do to improve the efficiency of the sheep enterprise at Fearn.

As our grass growing journey unfolds we are able to carry more stock per ha which in turn increases the livestock-carrying capacity profitability of the farm.

Understanding our cost of production is another area in which we sometimes come up a little short as a business. It’s amazing how many other jobs can be found to do when number crunching is mentioned, but without an appreciation of what it costs to produce the products we do we are limiting the potential of our sheep flocks and businesses.

Whether you are a one man/woman band or part of a bigger team, it’s important that you continue to learn, we are continually looking at ways in which we can provide training for our team through industry events or in-house with specialists coming to the farm to deliver training.

We are now looking at what makes us all tick, which will let us function better as a team.

Our approach is broad spectrum. There’s no quick fix and it’s very much a case of lifting our game across all areas. We also expect those that we work with to lift their game – if we are buying their products they need to be able to justify why we need them.

Finally, every one of us needs to believe in our product. I have no doubt that the lamb we produce in Scotland is as good if not better than anywhere else in the world. It’s easier now than ever before to communicate with our consumers so why not channel our energies into highlighting everything that’s great about our product. and