NSA Shearwell EID Stick Reader Kit prize giveaway 2015: Chris Mallaber, Staffordshire

Chris Mallaber found his trip to the NSA Central Region Winter Fair in January so enjoyable and informative that he decided to sign up as an NSA member on the day – and then went on a few weeks later to be the lucky winner of a Shearwell stick reader kit as a result.

Chris says: “The NSA tries to support the sheep industry in many ways – working on important issues on behalf of farmers, keeping members well informed, organising events and bringing all aspects together in an understandable way – so I thought it would be beneficial to become a member and support what they do. To win such a useful piece of equipment as a result will be a great help to my business. One of the mains reason for visiting the event at Bakewell was to get a clearer understanding of the electronic tagging systems, what was required and what they could do. Having never used an EID system before, Shearwell’s appealed to me because the reader itself seemed hard wearing and simple to use, and the other options that can be added seemed easily compatible and covered all requirements. With my increase in flock size, being spilt up and spread over a fairly large area, fulfilling movement requirements will now be simpler and more manageable, enabling records to be kept up to date more easily.”

The Mallaber family is based at Drakelow, Burton on Trent, Staffordshire, where the main farming enterprise is a partnership between Chris’s dad and his three brothers with dairy, beef and arable interests taking in 1,000 acres over three farms. The sheep flock is owned and managed separately by Chris, utilising some of the family-owned land and, as numbers grow, further rented land as well. There are currently 50 pedigree Texels under the Grovewood prefix, bred to produce shearling rams, plus 100 Scottish Blackfaces crossed to the Bluefaced Leicester to produce Scotch Mule ewe lambs, and another 200 home-bred Mules, Mashams and Texel and Suffolk crosses, put to the Texel for prime lamb production.

Chris got into sheep back in 2001, when foot-and-mouth movement restrictions meant a neighbour’s sheep that were over-wintering on the family farm were stranded and ended up being lambed in a polytunnel. Chris explains: “I used to go up before and after school to help John look after his sheep and, as a thank you when the lambing had finished and restrictions were lifted so the sheep could be moved, he gave me five cade lambs. This was the start of my flock and I’ve never looked back.”

Farm Fact File

• Flock run over a mix of owned and rented land, meaning several different areas of land to manage, including two blocks under environmental stewardship.
• Indoor lambing, in February for the Texels and April for the rest of the flock, utilising one of the straw barns on the family farm.
• Lambs weaned at about 16 weeks of age depending on conditions.
• Fodder crops grown on the home farm for the winter, giving the grazing a rest and making use of arable land that would otherwise be left fallow.
• Close working relationship with Scarsdale Vets, in conjunction with Nottingham Vet School.