Alexander Boyd 22 County Antrim
Alexander already appreciates the support and knowledge to be gained by involvement in a programme such as NSA Next Generation. He is an active participant of his local sheep business development group and an active young farmer, having won YFC’s Northern Ireland Young Farmer of the Year. He has also previously competed in the NSA Next Generation Shepherd of the year competition. Working on his family’s sheep and beef farm in Northern Ireland Alexander runs 380 Scotch Blackface mules, Texel mules and Easycare ewes. The family also finish between 400-500 store lambs each winter. He would like to increase ewe numbers but recognises that limited land availability in Northern Ireland could limit this. Alexander says: “I applied for this programme to hopefully get the chance to travel and see how other farming systems operate, in the hope that I will be able to bring new ideas home to the family farm. I am looking forward to meeting other like-minded people and learning more about the UK sheep industry and am very much looking forward to getting started.”
Alexander kept a blog in 2022
February. I’m having a good lambing so far with not too much hassle. I’m loving the fantastic weather at the minute, as lambs are thriving well. The Easy Cares have also just started lambing outdoors and good weather just makes life so much easier at this time of year.
End of the year comment: I have thoroughly enjoyed the past year. Every aspect of the Next Generation programme has been fantastic. I am grateful for the opportunity to take part. My favourite session focussed on the supply chain. I found this very interesting, especially the live-to-dead training day with AHDB’s Steve Powdrill. I learnt a lot from being able to see and judge the lambs before they were slaughtered, and then viewing their carcases afterwards, seeing how big a variation there was in our judgement. One thing I have learnt from the wide range of people I met was to always keep an open mind. Always be keen to try and learn new things, because unless you do, you don’t know what you’re missing. I am looking forward to implementing this on my own farm in Northern Ireland and it will be interesting to see where the future direction of the UK sheep industry lies.
Alexander already appreciates the support and knowledge to be gained by involvement in a programme such as NSA Next Generation. He is an active participant of his local sheep business development group and an active young farmer, having won YFC’s Northern Ireland Young Farmer of the Year. He has also previously competed in the NSA Next Generation Shepherd of the year competition. Working on his family’s sheep and beef farm in Northern Ireland Alexander runs 380 Scotch Blackface mules, Texel mules and Easycare ewes. The family also finish between 400-500 store lambs each winter. He would like to increase ewe numbers but recognises that limited land availability in Northern Ireland could limit this. Alexander says: “I applied for this programme to hopefully get the chance to travel and see how other farming systems operate, in the hope that I will be able to bring new ideas home to the family farm. I am looking forward to meeting other like-minded people and learning more about the UK sheep industry and am very much looking forward to getting started.”
Alexander kept a blog in 2022
February. I’m having a good lambing so far with not too much hassle. I’m loving the fantastic weather at the minute, as lambs are thriving well. The Easy Cares have also just started lambing outdoors and good weather just makes life so much easier at this time of year.
End of the year comment: I have thoroughly enjoyed the past year. Every aspect of the Next Generation programme has been fantastic. I am grateful for the opportunity to take part. My favourite session focussed on the supply chain. I found this very interesting, especially the live-to-dead training day with AHDB’s Steve Powdrill. I learnt a lot from being able to see and judge the lambs before they were slaughtered, and then viewing their carcases afterwards, seeing how big a variation there was in our judgement. One thing I have learnt from the wide range of people I met was to always keep an open mind. Always be keen to try and learn new things, because unless you do, you don’t know what you’re missing. I am looking forward to implementing this on my own farm in Northern Ireland and it will be interesting to see where the future direction of the UK sheep industry lies.
