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.  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.

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.

 More photos to follow.

Twin ewe lambs off Airyolland B3      Scotch Mule sired by Airyolland B16
       Twin Scotch Mule ewe lambs Scotch Mule lamb off B16
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

Recently 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.

Beltex mule triplets