David McMullan 27 County Antrim
As the fourth generation on the family farm near Ballymoney, David believes he has a responsibility to push the business forward in the present and leave a mark for the future. He and his father run 350 commercial Mules and 20 pedigree Texels, with David keen to expand to 500 commercials and 30 pedigrees while also finishing more lambs off grass. Leaving a legacy is not something David wants to restrict to his own farm. He sees his new role as an NSA Ambassador as an opportunity to get involved in the wider sheep sector. He says: “We are only the caretakers for this generation. I would like to leave a stamp on this farm and on the industry for generations to come. We need to look at the bigger picture rather than think we’re just in a field all day on our own.” Ambassador goal: David is already using AI with his pedigree ewes to exploit genetics, but is also interested in utilising EBVs and even genomics.
Davy completed NSA Q&As throughout 2018
March
- Are you planning anything different for this lambing season? Lambing has been challenging this year purely from a weather perspective. The Beast from the East really took its toll. We have all the mature ewes lambed with great results and almost 95% going to grass with twins at foot. Ewe lambs are due to start anytime so I will see how they go. We have changed a few things this year, including not blanket treating with Spectam and penicillin to try to curtail development of antibiotic resistance.
- What was the biggest surprise for you attending the first NSA Next Generation Ambassador session? That there were lots of like-minded people as excited and driven around the sheep industry as I am. Also that my Northern Irish accent is harder to understand than I had thought!
- What will be your favourite thing about the clock’s changing on 25th March? Longer evenings and my favourite time of the year, which is the silage cutting season. I run a small contracting business in tandem with the farm and the main summer job is silage and hay tedding with 2,000+ acres covered in a 10-week window. You can’t beat some tractor work on a long summer’s evening. Daylight is the best light!
- If you were Prime Minister for a day, what single thing sheep-related thing would you change, and what single non-sheep thing would you change? Sheep related – I would try to promote lamb as a premium British product rather than in separate devolved countries. Non sheep related – I would give young, active farmers huge grants to buy lots of nice new shiny machinery to expand a fledgling contracting business. But perhaps that's a bit selfish, haha!
- If you could swap your farm (or the farm you work on) for the farm of one of the other NSA Next Generation Ambassador’s this year, which one would you chose and why? I would swap in a heartbeat with Kirree Kermode on the Isle of Man. I think I would really like the challenges that island life bring and it would be nice to not have the impending Brexit situation hanging over me.
April
- What was the highlight of lambing this year? (Or highlight so far?) Lots of good, even-sized, living lambs. My twinning percentage of ewes out at grass is higher than ever and we managed to keep lamb losses at a minimum even with very little antibiotic usage. And most of the singles seemed to want to accept a triplet adoption, which was a bonus! It was my first lambing with a little 11-12-month-old helper and not having a pregnant wife compared to last year certainly lightened the workload!
- How are you getting on with meeting the targets you’ve set yourself as an NSA Next Generation Ambassador? I am nowhere near hitting any targets as it has been such a harsh spring. Rather than pushing on we are just having to be content with maintaining the status quo. Keeping going through the leaner times and trying to push on when things start to go your way will be the order of the day for 2018.
- If you could give the general public one fact about sheep farming, what would it be and why? We are in the business of keeping everything as healthy as possible for as long as possible. Welfare standards are incredibly high in the UK sheep industry and I just don’t think people realise how many hoops we jump through to produce a consistent and saleable product.
- The tough spring conditions have caused high lambing losses and stunted grass growth for most places. If a genie offered you more grass growth, more live lambs on the ground or one other wish, which would you chose and why? I would wish for more grass growth. We are at a point where ewe numbers are at a premium for the acres we are running and it has left us an expensive spring with the extra feeding both of forage and concentrates to keep ewes at the correct body condition score.
- If you were asked to step in at the last minute and compete at the Commonwealth Games, what would be your best discipline and why? Probably boxing. I already have a face that looks like it's taken a punch and reckon I could throw a good one or two before getting my head taken off! I don’t think I have the athleticism for much else. Maybe have a crack at the shooting, but I think the clays would be safe if past experience is anything to go by!
May
- How is your 2018 lamb crop performing so far? They’re slowly getting there. The slow grass growth has stunted eight week weights a bit but the sun on their backs has made them thrive so it won’t be long until they are caught back up.
- Defra has just closed its ‘Health and Harmony’ consultation on post-Brexit agricultural regulation. Environment, health and welfare were given higher priority in the paper than food production. What are your thoughts on this? I think it shows that food production is not high on the list of priorities and it makes me fearful for what a post Brexit British agriculture industry will look like.
- What were you doing on the hottest Bank Holiday Monday on record? I was in a tractor cab trying to get caught up with field work. Reseeding and shifting muck was high on the priority list. No rest for the wicked.
- What (sheep related) wedding gift would you give Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and why? A Northern Irish flag. I want to put our wee country on the map so we are not forgotten with the impending political doom forthcoming.
June
- What did you learn from the second NSA Next Generation Ambassador session? That grass management is key to driving profitability. And that the public perception of farming through social media is a massive thing these days and there are people who are doing all they can to help put farming on the good side of the fence.
- If a bus of NSA members turned up to view your flock today, what would you take them to see (and what would you try and hide)?! I would take them to see the lambs I am currently drawing from weekly and selling live and receiving more than £100 a head for with no concentrate feeding at all. I would hide the dozen or so pet lambs that were reared on the milk machine, as some of those look awful.
- The Government is currently exploring animal welfare in transport / live exports, due to pressure from the anti-farming lobby to ban live exports. What would you like to say to Michael Gove and his civil servants on this topic? In Northern Ireland it would absolutely cripple the lamb trade if they banned live export, as a large percentage of NI lamb finishes up in the south. We are on the very north coast and it takes less time to go to the border than some farmers have in bigger countries to get to their nearest market or abattoir.
- What is your favourite sheep farming task and your worst task? I love lambing. Bringing new life onto the farm is great and the feeling of seeing a ewe with two lambs at foot with the sun on their backs can give me great satisfaction. Worst job is dealing with blowfly strike. Early spells of warm weather have caught a lot of people out this year and my heart sinks when I spot a maggoted lamb in the field!
July
- How are you and your flock coping in the drought conditions? We own a heavy clay farm so the drought has not affected grass growth as badly as other places. Good for us on a dry year, awful for a wet year!
- Are you optimistic that we’ll a) get a Brexit deal before our official departure date from the EU, and b) that it’ll be a good deal for UK agriculture? I am not optimistic at all about a deal, although I do think that on the whole Brexit could be a good thing with the opportunity to trade freely with our own interests at the forefront.
- What was the best take home message from your day at NSA Sheep 2018? There is a serious shortage of shepherds coming into the sheep industry and there is no quick fix to this problem.
- What summer agricultural shows are you going to / have you gone to? Which is your favourite and why? I've been to Balmoral Show, which is the big one over here. It was a brilliant showpiece for agriculture and also nice to see shiny machinery (that I could never afford!)
- Tell us about your sheepdogs. I had a brilliant sheepdog, Rex, until he got hit by a car and ended up having to lose a back leg. Now he is only ok with the sheep but he has been through such a rough time that I've developed a soft spot for him. I’ll be in the market for another dog soon.
August
- How are you going to feed your stock this winter? Will you have to feed a higher number of concentrates due to the lack of roughage? Will you use fodder crops? We have been very lucky to have made enough hay/haylage and silage off our ground this year. We will probably sell the surplus.
- How have you, or will you be preparing for tupping. How will you flush your ewes with so little grass available? Are your tups in yet? Ewes are all dagged, bolused if they require a dose, batched according to body condition score and then flushed. We’ve got oceans of grass to do this on at the minute. Tups are in with the pedigrees but we will hold lambing back a fortnight with the main crop, just because we had such a scunner with February lambing last year.
- What do you consider the best way to unwind after a long day with the sheep? Watching your 18-month-old toddler demolish the house always brings a smile to my face! A messy house is a happy home.
- What is your favourite lamb dish? I love a good shepherds pie, although I have to say a traditional Irish stew made with lamb is hard to beat.
- What do you do on your farm for the environment? We are in a countryside management scheme that allows wildflower meadows to grow on parts that are deemed fit. We also do all machinery work as efficiently as possible, which reduces our carbon footprint.
September
- Now the nights are drawing in and temperatures are dropping, what (if anything!) are you looking forward to this autumn/winter? I'm looking forward to cosy nights in front of the fire with the family. Lots of nights in the summer my daughter is in bed before I'm home and I'm away before she is waken in the morning, so getting an excuse to spend evenings in the house is a good start.
- How many ewes are you putting / have you put to the tup this autumn? We have 350 ewes going to the tup. Similar number to last year, due to not being able to purchase the number of quality replacements needed to put numbers up. I think the dry summer affected the hill sheep and thus the Mule ewe lambs we buy were slightly smaller and not as strong boned. And when you’re putting ewe lambs to the tup they need to be strong ones.
- If you weren’t a sheep farmer what would you be and why? Probably still involved in the farming industry somewhere. Maybe working as a contractor and using my training as an electrician to fill in the wet days!
- What is your favourite breed of sheep and why? The Texel. Just so nice to look at and terrific conformation (the good ones, anyway!) At the end of the day our business is based around people eating lamb and I don’t think there is a better breed for this.
- Never throw away baler twine! What is your best use for this farm essential? The age old one of keeping gates tied. My next door neighbour has an old shepherd who works to him and he doesn’t use any fencing materials apart from baler twine. It makes my blood boil in case anyone driving past thinks that it was a job done by me!
Final round of questions
- Of the farms you’ve visited during your year as an Ambassador, which would you like to live and work on and why – or, which farmer you have met would you like to work with and why? Frank Lloyd seemed to be running a good set up, mostly subsidy free in a nice part of the world in Hereford. Also, Kevin Harrison with the Mules from the first session ran a similar set up to myself, which was interesting to see as there was some acute differences.
- What useful piece of advice have you taken away and implemented on your farm since becoming an NSA Next Generation Ambassador? Are you seeing any benefits from this already? The biggest thing I take away from this is knowledge of antibiotic use and resistance. I have cut this down on the home farm and am also using genetics more to try and breed better traits into my home flock.
- What useful piece of advice have you taken away and plan to implement in the next year or two. I am going to implement a stricter culling policy and better biosecurity. Also, be more strict on myself about doing faecal egg counts routinely.
- Select an ambassador from team 2018! Where do you see them in 10 years’ time? If Catherine Sanderson is not the prime minister or, at the very least, in a very high ranking farm committee job I will be very surprised! The girl is just so articulate and knowledgeable on every topic and puts her point across in a calm and collected manner.
- 2019 is just around the corner. Will you be making any new year’s resolutions for yourself personally or for your farm / place of work in 2019? I have already given up smoking so I can’t use that. Is to make more money in 2019 a good one?!
- Brexit has been the top topic during your first year as an Ambassador. Where do you think the final negotiations will end up and will it be good for UK sheep farmers? I think Brexit will ultimately be a good thing for the sheep farmer but there may be tough times to get through first. What this will entail or how bad it will be, I don’t think anyone knows.
As the fourth generation on the family farm near Ballymoney, David believes he has a responsibility to push the business forward in the present and leave a mark for the future. He and his father run 350 commercial Mules and 20 pedigree Texels, with David keen to expand to 500 commercials and 30 pedigrees while also finishing more lambs off grass. Leaving a legacy is not something David wants to restrict to his own farm. He sees his new role as an NSA Ambassador as an opportunity to get involved in the wider sheep sector. He says: “We are only the caretakers for this generation. I would like to leave a stamp on this farm and on the industry for generations to come. We need to look at the bigger picture rather than think we’re just in a field all day on our own.” Ambassador goal: David is already using AI with his pedigree ewes to exploit genetics, but is also interested in utilising EBVs and even genomics.
Davy completed NSA Q&As throughout 2018
March
- Are you planning anything different for this lambing season? Lambing has been challenging this year purely from a weather perspective. The Beast from the East really took its toll. We have all the mature ewes lambed with great results and almost 95% going to grass with twins at foot. Ewe lambs are due to start anytime so I will see how they go. We have changed a few things this year, including not blanket treating with Spectam and penicillin to try to curtail development of antibiotic resistance.
- What was the biggest surprise for you attending the first NSA Next Generation Ambassador session? That there were lots of like-minded people as excited and driven around the sheep industry as I am. Also that my Northern Irish accent is harder to understand than I had thought!
- What will be your favourite thing about the clock’s changing on 25th March? Longer evenings and my favourite time of the year, which is the silage cutting season. I run a small contracting business in tandem with the farm and the main summer job is silage and hay tedding with 2,000+ acres covered in a 10-week window. You can’t beat some tractor work on a long summer’s evening. Daylight is the best light!
- If you were Prime Minister for a day, what single thing sheep-related thing would you change, and what single non-sheep thing would you change? Sheep related – I would try to promote lamb as a premium British product rather than in separate devolved countries. Non sheep related – I would give young, active farmers huge grants to buy lots of nice new shiny machinery to expand a fledgling contracting business. But perhaps that's a bit selfish, haha!
- If you could swap your farm (or the farm you work on) for the farm of one of the other NSA Next Generation Ambassador’s this year, which one would you chose and why? I would swap in a heartbeat with Kirree Kermode on the Isle of Man. I think I would really like the challenges that island life bring and it would be nice to not have the impending Brexit situation hanging over me.
April
- What was the highlight of lambing this year? (Or highlight so far?) Lots of good, even-sized, living lambs. My twinning percentage of ewes out at grass is higher than ever and we managed to keep lamb losses at a minimum even with very little antibiotic usage. And most of the singles seemed to want to accept a triplet adoption, which was a bonus! It was my first lambing with a little 11-12-month-old helper and not having a pregnant wife compared to last year certainly lightened the workload!
- How are you getting on with meeting the targets you’ve set yourself as an NSA Next Generation Ambassador? I am nowhere near hitting any targets as it has been such a harsh spring. Rather than pushing on we are just having to be content with maintaining the status quo. Keeping going through the leaner times and trying to push on when things start to go your way will be the order of the day for 2018.
- If you could give the general public one fact about sheep farming, what would it be and why? We are in the business of keeping everything as healthy as possible for as long as possible. Welfare standards are incredibly high in the UK sheep industry and I just don’t think people realise how many hoops we jump through to produce a consistent and saleable product.
- The tough spring conditions have caused high lambing losses and stunted grass growth for most places. If a genie offered you more grass growth, more live lambs on the ground or one other wish, which would you chose and why? I would wish for more grass growth. We are at a point where ewe numbers are at a premium for the acres we are running and it has left us an expensive spring with the extra feeding both of forage and concentrates to keep ewes at the correct body condition score.
- If you were asked to step in at the last minute and compete at the Commonwealth Games, what would be your best discipline and why? Probably boxing. I already have a face that looks like it's taken a punch and reckon I could throw a good one or two before getting my head taken off! I don’t think I have the athleticism for much else. Maybe have a crack at the shooting, but I think the clays would be safe if past experience is anything to go by!
May
- How is your 2018 lamb crop performing so far? They’re slowly getting there. The slow grass growth has stunted eight week weights a bit but the sun on their backs has made them thrive so it won’t be long until they are caught back up.
- Defra has just closed its ‘Health and Harmony’ consultation on post-Brexit agricultural regulation. Environment, health and welfare were given higher priority in the paper than food production. What are your thoughts on this? I think it shows that food production is not high on the list of priorities and it makes me fearful for what a post Brexit British agriculture industry will look like.
- What were you doing on the hottest Bank Holiday Monday on record? I was in a tractor cab trying to get caught up with field work. Reseeding and shifting muck was high on the priority list. No rest for the wicked.
- What (sheep related) wedding gift would you give Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and why? A Northern Irish flag. I want to put our wee country on the map so we are not forgotten with the impending political doom forthcoming.
June
- What did you learn from the second NSA Next Generation Ambassador session? That grass management is key to driving profitability. And that the public perception of farming through social media is a massive thing these days and there are people who are doing all they can to help put farming on the good side of the fence.
- If a bus of NSA members turned up to view your flock today, what would you take them to see (and what would you try and hide)?! I would take them to see the lambs I am currently drawing from weekly and selling live and receiving more than £100 a head for with no concentrate feeding at all. I would hide the dozen or so pet lambs that were reared on the milk machine, as some of those look awful.
- The Government is currently exploring animal welfare in transport / live exports, due to pressure from the anti-farming lobby to ban live exports. What would you like to say to Michael Gove and his civil servants on this topic? In Northern Ireland it would absolutely cripple the lamb trade if they banned live export, as a large percentage of NI lamb finishes up in the south. We are on the very north coast and it takes less time to go to the border than some farmers have in bigger countries to get to their nearest market or abattoir.
- What is your favourite sheep farming task and your worst task? I love lambing. Bringing new life onto the farm is great and the feeling of seeing a ewe with two lambs at foot with the sun on their backs can give me great satisfaction. Worst job is dealing with blowfly strike. Early spells of warm weather have caught a lot of people out this year and my heart sinks when I spot a maggoted lamb in the field!
July
- How are you and your flock coping in the drought conditions? We own a heavy clay farm so the drought has not affected grass growth as badly as other places. Good for us on a dry year, awful for a wet year!
- Are you optimistic that we’ll a) get a Brexit deal before our official departure date from the EU, and b) that it’ll be a good deal for UK agriculture? I am not optimistic at all about a deal, although I do think that on the whole Brexit could be a good thing with the opportunity to trade freely with our own interests at the forefront.
- What was the best take home message from your day at NSA Sheep 2018? There is a serious shortage of shepherds coming into the sheep industry and there is no quick fix to this problem.
- What summer agricultural shows are you going to / have you gone to? Which is your favourite and why? I've been to Balmoral Show, which is the big one over here. It was a brilliant showpiece for agriculture and also nice to see shiny machinery (that I could never afford!)
- Tell us about your sheepdogs. I had a brilliant sheepdog, Rex, until he got hit by a car and ended up having to lose a back leg. Now he is only ok with the sheep but he has been through such a rough time that I've developed a soft spot for him. I’ll be in the market for another dog soon.
August
- How are you going to feed your stock this winter? Will you have to feed a higher number of concentrates due to the lack of roughage? Will you use fodder crops? We have been very lucky to have made enough hay/haylage and silage off our ground this year. We will probably sell the surplus.
- How have you, or will you be preparing for tupping. How will you flush your ewes with so little grass available? Are your tups in yet? Ewes are all dagged, bolused if they require a dose, batched according to body condition score and then flushed. We’ve got oceans of grass to do this on at the minute. Tups are in with the pedigrees but we will hold lambing back a fortnight with the main crop, just because we had such a scunner with February lambing last year.
- What do you consider the best way to unwind after a long day with the sheep? Watching your 18-month-old toddler demolish the house always brings a smile to my face! A messy house is a happy home.
- What is your favourite lamb dish? I love a good shepherds pie, although I have to say a traditional Irish stew made with lamb is hard to beat.
- What do you do on your farm for the environment? We are in a countryside management scheme that allows wildflower meadows to grow on parts that are deemed fit. We also do all machinery work as efficiently as possible, which reduces our carbon footprint.
September
- Now the nights are drawing in and temperatures are dropping, what (if anything!) are you looking forward to this autumn/winter? I'm looking forward to cosy nights in front of the fire with the family. Lots of nights in the summer my daughter is in bed before I'm home and I'm away before she is waken in the morning, so getting an excuse to spend evenings in the house is a good start.
- How many ewes are you putting / have you put to the tup this autumn? We have 350 ewes going to the tup. Similar number to last year, due to not being able to purchase the number of quality replacements needed to put numbers up. I think the dry summer affected the hill sheep and thus the Mule ewe lambs we buy were slightly smaller and not as strong boned. And when you’re putting ewe lambs to the tup they need to be strong ones.
- If you weren’t a sheep farmer what would you be and why? Probably still involved in the farming industry somewhere. Maybe working as a contractor and using my training as an electrician to fill in the wet days!
- What is your favourite breed of sheep and why? The Texel. Just so nice to look at and terrific conformation (the good ones, anyway!) At the end of the day our business is based around people eating lamb and I don’t think there is a better breed for this.
- Never throw away baler twine! What is your best use for this farm essential? The age old one of keeping gates tied. My next door neighbour has an old shepherd who works to him and he doesn’t use any fencing materials apart from baler twine. It makes my blood boil in case anyone driving past thinks that it was a job done by me!
Final round of questions
- Of the farms you’ve visited during your year as an Ambassador, which would you like to live and work on and why – or, which farmer you have met would you like to work with and why? Frank Lloyd seemed to be running a good set up, mostly subsidy free in a nice part of the world in Hereford. Also, Kevin Harrison with the Mules from the first session ran a similar set up to myself, which was interesting to see as there was some acute differences.
- What useful piece of advice have you taken away and implemented on your farm since becoming an NSA Next Generation Ambassador? Are you seeing any benefits from this already? The biggest thing I take away from this is knowledge of antibiotic use and resistance. I have cut this down on the home farm and am also using genetics more to try and breed better traits into my home flock.
- What useful piece of advice have you taken away and plan to implement in the next year or two. I am going to implement a stricter culling policy and better biosecurity. Also, be more strict on myself about doing faecal egg counts routinely.
- Select an ambassador from team 2018! Where do you see them in 10 years’ time? If Catherine Sanderson is not the prime minister or, at the very least, in a very high ranking farm committee job I will be very surprised! The girl is just so articulate and knowledgeable on every topic and puts her point across in a calm and collected manner.
- 2019 is just around the corner. Will you be making any new year’s resolutions for yourself personally or for your farm / place of work in 2019? I have already given up smoking so I can’t use that. Is to make more money in 2019 a good one?!
- Brexit has been the top topic during your first year as an Ambassador. Where do you think the final negotiations will end up and will it be good for UK sheep farmers? I think Brexit will ultimately be a good thing for the sheep farmer but there may be tough times to get through first. What this will entail or how bad it will be, I don’t think anyone knows.
