Page 5 - Commercial Suffolks 2019

Father and County Antrim businessmen and

farmers, James and Nelson Alexander,
Son Team have a clear focus on how they want
their sheep enterprise to develop over
Choose the next few years, and since buying
their first Cheviot mule ewes and us-
ing Suffolk tips from the start in 2014,
Suffolk they have developed a very success-
ful enterprise.
Rams With a commercial flock of 550 Cheviot mule

ewes and 200 North Country Cheviot ewes along
Every with 30 Pedigree Suffolk ewes (Jalex Flock), they
also run just over 800 heifers which are sourced
as maidens and sold in calf. With 1000 acres,
all in grass including 250 conacre, they employ
Time two full time men on the farm, Tony McCann and
Liam Campbell. Thay also have a dedicated
shepherd, Martin Millar who joined the team in
2016. James said that “Martin is a great addition
to the team, we are now able to carry out more
fine tuning around our lambing and feeding pro-
cesses and all presentation work for the sales is
done by him.”
Originally running a herd of commercial cows
alongside the tractor and machinery sales op-
eration, James decided that moving to a sheep
enterprise would fit better with his other busi-
nesses and purchased his first Cheviot Mule
ewes in the Autumn of 2014 when he sold his
herd of commercial cows. A strong family man,
James also wanted something that would be
JALEX Shepherd Martin Millar more family friendly for his 5 young children to
become involved in and enjoy.
When setting up his flock James said “We re-
searched hard to think of what breed to intro-
duce as we wanted to produce something more
than a fat lamb. Our flock needed to be either
self-replacing or produce a female suitable for
replacements for other flocks. The Cheviot Mule
was selected, I loved the look of the ewes, tight,
bare skins, bright eyes and full of character. Be-
ing by the Blue Leicester they should be, and
have proven themselves to be, both birthy and

Commercial SUFFOLKS – AUTUMN 2019 3