airyolland farm where sheep and cattle are rearedbeltex sheep are very muscly with good conformationdutch texels are large meat producing sheep and a terminal sirebluefaced leicesters are crossing sheep to produce mule type ewesscotch mules are great mothers for prime lamb productionhighland cattle are rustic animals bred to survive in harsh conditionsnews stories about livestock and the farmcontact us for sales and other information.

Scotch Mules

   We have been breeding Scotch Mules at High and Low Airyolland for 30 years.  The Scotch Mules that we produce are primarily aimed to supply the Scottish market demands for a ewe suitable for prime lamb production.  Over the last twenty years or so we have used local shows and in more recent times theReceiving trophy for Champion Pen of 40 Scotch Mules Royal Highland Show as a shop window for our mules.We have had first prize ewe lamb at the Royal Highland Show four times in the last ten years. 
 We sell our mules at the ewe lamb sale at Castle Douglas and there are also some available for sale on farm privately. The picture on the right shows us receiving the cup at the Castle Douglas sale in 2003 for the best pen of forty at the sale.

 

For Sale 2011
We sold 200 Scotch Mule ewe lambs at Castle Douglas market on Monday 22nd August 2011. The top pen of 40 (pictured below) made £134 and the 200 lambs averaged £106.

Lambing 2011
Our Blackface ewes have lambed to our own homebred Bluefaced Leicester tups. Here are some photos and a short video of some of this year's ewe lambs

 


    

Scotch mule lambs

Lambs by Airyolland C2

Ewe lamb by Airyolland C3

Ewe lamb Airyolland C3

Ewe lamb By Airyolland C3

 Ewe lamb by Airyolland C4

Ewe lamb by Airyolland C4

  Twins Tup & ewe by Airyolland C4

Tup(left) & ewe(right) lambs by Airyolland C4

Ewe Lamb by Airyolland C5

Tup and ewe by Airyolland C6

Ewe lamb by Airyolland C10

Ewe lambs by Airyolland C13

Ewe lamb by our Stock ram B16

Ewe Lamb Airyolland B16

Ewe Lamb Airyolland B16

Ewe Lamb Airyolland B16

Scotch mule ewe lambs

Scotch Mule ewe lamb

Ewe(left)& tup(right) lambs by Airyolland B22

Ewe Lamb by Airyolland B22

           Mules 2010

Top pen of Airyolland Scotch Mules

 

Scotch Mule ewe lambs

  

Some of our Homebred Scotch Mules sold for £119 at this year's sale at Castle Douglas.

  

Lambing 2010

Lambing turned into a wet and windy event therefore our outdoor lambing soon became an indoor lambing, for a short time, until more settled weather returned. We are pleased with the lambs that are being born to our homebred tups.

Twin ewe lambs off Airyolland B3        Scotch Mule sired by Airyolland B16
       Twin Scotch Mule ewe lambs
Scotch Mule ewe lambs born April 2010 All sired by homebred tup lambs

2009
This year we took one pen of 40 lambs to Castle Douglas and sold the rest at home. This pen of lambs, off home bred tups, sold extremely well and made £98 to Mr J McTaggart, Castle Douglas. They were the 6th highest priced pen at the record breaking sale of 9089 Scotch Mule ewe lambs.

Pen of 40 Scotch Mule ewe lambs 2009

April 09. Two lambs by homebred Z4 (sire Riddings X5, Dam X23 by GreenriggsW9). Z4 is crossing so well and sired some lambs in the top pen 09. He has been retained for breeding at home.
Scotch Mule ewe lambs sired by Airyolland Z4

 

1st Prize Scotch Mule ewe lamb RHAS 20082008 was a great year for us.  We had a great run with our show lambs which were all bred from homebred Bluefaced Leicester ram lambs. 
A very stylish ewe lamb bred from Airyolland Z5 was first prize at the Highland and went on to lift the first prize at Stranraer and Dumfries Shows. 

Pen of 3 Scotch Mules 2008Our pen of three were also first prize at Stranraer and Dumfries Shows.  They were sired by three different rams. 

They were: left to right, Airyolland 2801 Z5,  Airyolland 2801 Z 11 and Airyolland 2801 Z2.

                                              


Two lambs by Z12

 
Scotch Mule ewe lambs 2008
Top pen of mules August 2008
 

Scotch Mule ewe lambs 2007

Top pen Mules August 2007

  Scotch Mules show team 2006
  Three show mules 2006
  Scotch Mule ewe lambs
  Top pen mules 2006

Beltex mule tripletsRecently we have retained some of our Mule ewe lambs to cross with the Beltex. We have found this to be a great success and are very pleased with the ease of management with them at lambing time. The lambs are easy lambed and quick to get to their feet to suckle. We found that the ewes could comfortably rear triplets without losing condition because the Beltex lamb is more efficient.

 

 

 

The maternal ability of the Beltex cross mule is highlighted by our 2 shear ewe, Lulu, (pictured left)  a Beltex cross Mule, who in 2011 reared these three lambs, sired by Beltex. Born in early March the two wether lambs went to market on 7th July weighing 40kg and sold for £88 each. The ewe lamb (on the right of the picture) will be retained for the commercial flock.