THE THOMSONS from Ewanston, Balmaclellan, have always been renowned for their stockmanship capabilities both in the sheep and the cattle world so their retirement from the industry will undoubtedly be a great loss to all concerned.

Just last year, the family of Jim and his wife Margaret and Robin and his good lady wife, Elizabeth, sold off their noted cross cow herd at Castle Douglas which in previous years was a regular prize winner in the Scottish Charolais suckler herd competition.

Sadly, this year also heralds the beginning of end for their noted sheep flock, which over the years has bred many show and sale topping Bluefaced Leicesters and Scotch Mules.

The final crop of Scotch Mule ewe lambs will be sold at Castle Douglas on Monday, August 27,
while the Blackface ewes are to be cashed in at the first ewe sale, with the pedigree Blues being dispersed at the beginning of next year again at Castle Douglas. Meanwhile, the farm, which totals some 500 upland grassland acres, will be sold in the spring of 2008.

There can be no doubting that the sheep will go on and do well for their new owners but of greater concern is the loss to the industry of two of the country's leading stockman. Scotland 's top livestock men are already fast disappearing, and few if any boast those all-important attributes of enthusiasm, expertise and dedication to replace such lovable characters.

While Jim regularly sold some of the best Charolais cross calves in the market, Robin has always been responsible for the entire sheep flock which in previous years has produced several former record priced Bluefaced Leicester rams and countless top priced Mule ewe lambs.

Just last year, the farm sold 470 Scotch Mule ewe lambs at Castle Douglas, to a top of £78 per head for the first pen of 40, with a further 80 selling £70 or more to produce an overall average of £58.

Infact it was Robin, a founder member of the Scotch Mule Association who has been breeding Scotch Mules for almost 45 years now who sold the former record priced Mule ewe lambs at £9 per head to Ireland , some 42 years ago. More notable however is the fact that his Ewanston lambs have always been within the top five highest prices at the big sale at Castle Douglas, which in years gone by has witnessed more than 25,000 lambs change hands.

Show winners into the bargain, many of these crackers have also secured top tickets at Ayr , Stranraer, Stewartry, Glenkens, Dumfries , Moffat and the Highland Shows, before being sold. As it is Robin is one of the very few to have bred and shown two Mule champions that went on to win inter-breed sheep accolades. He is also the only person to have judged both the Bluefaced Leicester and the Scotch Mule sections at the Highland Show, having previously won three Mule and two Blue championships at Ingliston.

His best ever year however, was in 1996 when Ewanston scooped the red, white and blue sash at the Highland in the Bluefaced Leicester, Scotch Mule and commercial sheep — winning with a Blackface ewe with twin born Scotch Mule ewe lambs at foot — sections.

Meanwhile, Robin's pedigree Blues have dominated many of the local and national shows to include the Highland and the progeny show at Carlisle and in turn have sold to a top of £4800 for a shearling and £3800 for a ram lamb. The flock also held the record flock average at Castle Douglas some 30 years ago having sold a pen of 15 shearling rams for a whopping £700 per head.

But in contrast to many successful sheep farmers who have picked up many of the tricks of the trade from their fathers, it was Robin who instigated the introduction of Blues to Ewanston and the their cross over the Blackface.

Previously, the family crossed most of their Blackies to a Border Leicester to produce the once popular Greyface commercial female. However, when Robin caught a glimpse of a pedigree Bluefaced Leicester on his neighbour's farm, the late Francis Kirkpatrick, some 48 years ago, he decided to breed a few as a hobby, and from then on they were gradually used to tup the Blackies.

“I bought a ewe lamb from my neighbour for £6 because I didn't have £7 to give him and it has all stemmed from there,” said Robin.

However, that one ewe lamb has proved her weight in gold. She bred many of the foundation females and the first shearling ram sold from the farm six years later, which made £26 at Castle Douglas. The only other bought in females include three purchased at Robert Currie, Donald MacDougall and Tom Barr's dispersal sales.

And, such has been Robin's fierce selection criteria over the years that the flock, which now numbers 30 ewes, produces first class home-bred tup lambs which in turn breed the majority of top priced Blues and Scotch Mules sold off Ewanston.

“I always look at the shape, carcase and correctness of a potential new Bluefaced Leicester stock ram,” said Robin. “The body always comes first and then the colour.

“A Mule should be a good, big long sheep with plenty of shape, conformation and a good skin. Good head and leg colours are the icing on the cake.”

“It's the same with the Blackies. I aim to buy good big Blackface ewe lambs with shape and good skins — I don't necessarily buy all the blackest ewes, I'd still buy Blackie ewe lambs with a bell brew, if I could find them, as long as they were flashy and sharp,” added Robin.

And by concentrating on the size and shape, the farm has always been able to get a good return for the wedder Mule lambs sold. Most years all are sold off grass by Christmas at weights of between 40 and 44kg. This year, the first were sold mid July weighing in at 43kg to level out at £49 per head.

In previous years the farm used to buy up to 120 Blackface ewe lambs a year from various units as replacements, with the only other bought in purchases being a few stock-tups.

Granted many have been bought over the years both locally and across the Border from noted flocks such as Hallmains, Hillside , Brieryside, Macqueston and Thirwall Castle , with two of the most successful bein a Lowes Fell ram bought from Alan Foster at Hexham and last year's Clennell ram purchased at Kelso. Robin has also discovered that it is often home-bred sons of these bought in stocktups that perform the best.

“There is only one Bluefaced Leicester. A lot of people think there are two different types within the breed, but I've worked with both and they perform just as well. You get good and bad Mules from both types,” added Robin who was one of the first to buy a so-called “crossing-type” ram some 15 years ago.

Robin, who is a former council member of both the Scotch Mule and the Bluefaced Leicester Association, was also quick to defend the breed's lack of hardiness.

“Blues are not as soft as people think. You can't just chuck stock tups away to the hill for the winter you do have to look after them more and you have to lamb the ewes inside, but once they get hardened of to the weather, they're quite happy outside. We lamb all ours in March and they're put outside to grass during the day a fortnight later. We've only lost one live lamb since lambing time.”

In previous years, the pedigree flock regularly produced scanned lambing percentages of about 250 which compares to the Blackies, lambed at the end of March/beginning of April at between 170 and 180%.

Needless to say, lambing has been fairly hectic at Ewanston in recent years especially as their older son Stuart has graduated with a degree in Economics at Dundee and has now become a risk analyst with N-Power, in Worcester . Meanwhile, Ian who attained a BSC in Agriculture at Aberdeen , and still helps out on the farm at weekends, works for the Scottish Executive.

It will be a sad day for all concerned when the last load of sheep leave Ewanston and the Thomsons move out for good, but at least we haven't seen the last of these two worthy characters. They probably pop up at even more shows and sales than ever before and may even take in the odd dog trial.