At home with the Chairman
It was a privilege to find Victor Chestnutt at home! The
new Chairman of the Texel Sheep Society spends a
sizeable part of each week away from home, where
he farms 400 acres at Clougher Farm close to the
Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland.
His main interest lies with the Texel breed, but
he’s also a pedigree cattle breeder with Charolais,
Limousin, Belgian Blue, and Angus breeds. It
means that much of the day to day farming work falls
on the shoulders of his petite and unassuming wife,
Carol.
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| Victor Chestnutt |
They run a suckler herd of 120 cows with commercial
calves, as well as the Clougher Flock of 350 Texel
ewes which produces 100 pedigree rams and 70 females
for sale each year. There is also 40 acres
of spring barley and they are in the third year of
a Countryside Management Scheme.
The couple clearly thrive on hard work in a bracing
climate and enjoy breeding fine pedigree stock, whether
cattle or sheep. The pressure is on just at
the moment, with both teenage children, Zara 19 and
David 16, studying at Greenmount, Northern Ireland’s
one remaining agricultural college.
But with many other interests – they don’t
want to make work for the sake of it. Victor
strongly believes that pedigree stock have to fit
in with easier management systems as units increase
in size to remain viable.
“I am now farming what were ten units when
I was a teenager”, he says. “And
with fewer young people coming into farming the units
will get bigger. I still like to think there
will be a future in agriculture but I do think the
rate of change all around us will speed up to an
alarming pace.
“It means that the whole farming system will
have to follow an easier management course and you
have to bear that in mind especially with some of
the continental breeds.
“We have to remember that the Texel sheep
have come here in the numbers they have because they
were more easy care than other breeds. We have
to recognise that and not breed more difficult sheep
to lamb”.
Victor says his experience as joint co-ordinator
with Causeway Coastal Meats has strengthened his
commitment to Texels but it is his opinion that breeders
have to keep the demands of the commercial producer
to the forefront of their breeding programme. He
collects lambs from a hundred local farms on a fortnightly
basis and then supervises the sorting, killing and
grading at Foyle Meats.
And although he admires stylish sheep, good heads,
tight wool, and all the other breed attributes, he
says it is that job that has helped to keep his feet
on the ground in terms of sheep production. It’s
important to remember that sheep are being bred for
their carcase at the end of the day.
“I would urge people to remember that”,
he adds. “We will only survive a short
time if we don’t provide what the commercial
man wants. Our breed has many uses but the
main use is as a terminal sire that will put lean
meat on quickly and grade well off grass.
“I like a sheep with style but I think that
some of our breeders are getting carried away with
the finer points. I don’t think you have
to sacrifice style to get a good carcase. And
I don’t like big heads because they can cause
lambing problems!”
Victor is adamant that the commercial points have
to take precedence, especially now that the Texel
is being used a lot as a ewe. The strains to
develop are prolificacy, no lambing problems, resistance
to mastitis and foot rot and general easy care.
He uses recording, but only as a management tool. It
forms no more than ten per cent of his assessment
when buying a ram. He says it’s important
and more people need to use it, but you have to use
your eye first to ensure the animals in question
are sound.
Victor’s admiration of and affection for the
Texel breed is very much market driven, although
he also enjoys the social aspect. He first
became interested more than 25 years ago after visiting
a sale in Blessington in the Irish Republic and later,
when he was a student at Greenmount, there was a
visit to the farm of the late Norman Wallace and
his son, David.
“I liked the sheep and they were a new thing
at that time”, he adds. “We had
a Texel ram and we were sending our lambs through
Jim Carson to Lagan Meats in Belfast. They
were giving a bonus for Texel lambs so there was
an incentive straight away.
“Gradually I went over to pedigree production
and I used to sell a lot of rams privately. 1992
was a turning point when I averaged £510 a
head for ten ram lambs at Portadown
“Then in 1993 we won at the Balmoral Show
with a ram lamb. I decided to travel on to
Lanark to sell him. He was near the end of
the sale but he still made 3,600 guineas”.
This he says brought ‘renewed incentive’. There
have been many more milestones along the way and
Victor is keen to pay tribute to those who have inspired
and helped him.
In particular Alex Brown of Stonefieldhill , a past
president of the Texel Sheep Society, spent ten minutes
with him back in 1986 when he was buying a ram. He
learned more, he says, in that time than in the previous
few years.
And then, of course, there is Carol. She shrugs
off the huge input she makes to the successful running
of the farm. But Victor is keen to praise the
way she prepares the sheep and works with them every
day of the year – and in all weathers!
Their home, at Bushmills, is in a spellbindingly
beautiful area, just minutes from the sea, and with
views across to the Mull of Kintyre, Rathlin Island,
the Antrim and Sperrin Hills and even as far as Donegal. But
it’s exposed and although only rising to about
250 feet above sea level it is in a seriously disadvantaged
area.
The couple enjoy walking and generally enjoying
the beauty spots, and the nearby Causeway. And
they’re heavily involved in community life,
being part of the Causeway Coast Quality Lamb Group,
as well as being part of the Focus Farm Group which
provides mentoring under the EU Peace and Reconciliation
movement.
Meanwhile, Victor is keen to give chairmanship of
the Texel Sheep Society his best shot. He feels
it’s a great honour to follow some of the previous
chairmen and to do his bit to further the remarkable
progress of the Texel breed in these islands.
Gaina Morgan
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