John Barker's, Capplegill, Dumfries lowland sheep policy over the past 40 years has been to buy North of England Mule Ewe Lambs, send them away for winter on to grass or roots, put them to the tup, and bring them back as near to lambing time (April 1 st ) as possible on to clean ground without concentrates or feed blocks.

They use roots because these keep the hoggs full and settled and then they don't come rushing to meet you when you go into the lambing fields. They sell all shearlings in the autumn, finishing all the lambs.

This was until 6-7 years ago when shearlings became more difficult to sell. Mr Barker started selling some as hoggs and lambs. Most years these need fed after lambing to get them fit to sell at a premium when the lambs are 3-4 weeks old. The bonuses of this system are no depreciation and no old sheep.

Mules can lamb at 100-135% as hoggs often paying for themselves in the first year then grow into good shearlings capable of lambing at 170-200%. They have found that none of the other breeds can do that.

Mr Barker says "We've tried the rest and stayed with the best ".