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
the
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
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
Ewe(left)& tup(right) lambs by Airyolland
B22
Ewe Lamb by Airyolland B22
Mules 2010
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
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.
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.
2008
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.
Our
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
Top pen of mules August 2008
Top pen Mules August 2007
Three show mules 2006
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.
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.