The Grant brothers Mike, John and Patrick run the successful Craigdoo Suffolk and Blackie flocks near Kilcoo in Co Down. John and Patrick are veterinarians involved as a partner and a pig specialist, and sheep specialist respectively within the Parklands Veterinary Group. Their farm is situated 600ft above sea level near the Mourne mountains. The enterprises consist of 130 pure breed Lanark Blackface ewes, 75 pedigree Suffolk ewes, 500 commercial ewes, 7,000 finishing pigs and a suckler herd. Recent successes include receiving £9,000 for a Blackie at Lanark in 2017. The brothers are driven to achieve even more success in the future. With an extensive embryo transfer program this year, they are set to continue the rapid genetic progression of their flocks.
lambing season
Slaughtneil flockowner looking forward to a good lambing season
March 21st is the projected start to the lambing season on the Slaughtneil farm of Dermot McCullagh. He started housing his flock of Lanark Blackface cross ewes back at the beginning of January.
“All preparations have gone pretty much to plan,” said Dermot.
“The ewes are certainly, looking extremely well at the present time. They were scanned at around 185%. So I am looking forward to a good lambing season ahead.
“But scanning percentages count for very little, unless these can be translated into equally good figures when it comes to the number of lambs actually reared per ewe.”