G’Day to the UK - Jack Harper’s April Blog

As an international agricultural blog writer, and after a recent feature in the Scottish farmer, some may think that the pressure is well and truly on to uphold the standards of the monthly updates. To that, I would wholeheartedly agree. Here’s hoping I didn’t jump from the barriers too well from the start.

To those of you who have returned for Issue #2 of my Harrison & Hetherington endeavour, welcome and thank you for making a return. If you are just joining, I welcome you along but encourage you to read issue #1 for some background understanding.

It’s amazing the changes you can see and feel in a month. With each week that passes a greater sense of familiarity begins to set in. Names and faces are becoming second nature, and I can get myself around the countryside relatively well without being too lost. I have certainly been enjoying the sunshine and the warmth as the days get longer and longer. There are even shades of home as we make our way into the summertime in the Northern Hemisphere.

During my second month of British employment, I have been able to tag along to many farm visits with a range of staff within the Borderway office, all of whom have their own little unique ways of going about business. Being able to shadow different employees on my journey is something I am very much enjoying. Being able to see how different agents relate to and work with their different clients will be a huge addition to me in both a personal and professional sense, and a major thing for me to be able to draw back on once I do eventually return home.

After a few extra weeks following the market trends, I have found myself being able to be much more involved in conversations regarding the value of livestock on the farm. It is certainly a nice feeling when the colleague I find myself with on the day asks me my thoughts on the value of the stock and our responses are very similar. I guess that can mean one of two things, we’re both pretty close, or of course we’re both well off! Regardless of that, with the upward trajectory of the cattle market from week to week, an appraisal of cattle can change from day to day. What is considered a realistic valuation soon gets well exceeded a week later when the cattle find their way into the ring.

During this last month, I have been privileged to have seen some amazing sales, and with that a few UK prime stock records broken. In a single day in Ring 1 the record for a cast cow and prime bull was broken. In addition to that, earlier in the month we saw a record day for numbers yarded at the Borderway Mart with over 6500 prime lambs & mutton penned, and a record for Ring 4 with 667 weaners and young bulls put through to see out April.

The sale that takes the cake for the month though would have to be the Jalex sale conducted in Northern Ireland. What an amazing sight to see, with close to 270 cattle on offer in an on-farm sale, that to my disbelief didn’t start until 7pm and was still going well into the night with selling not concluding until close to midnight. The Jalex Jawdroppers sale became the first single vendor livestock sale in the UK to gross over £1 million.

It was during the very quick flight from Glasgow to Belfast where I really appreciated the opportunities and experiences that I am currently being offered. A flight across the Irish Sea for a sale is certainly not something common in the job back home. It’s moments like this where I have allowed myself five minutes of reflection to appreciate the uniqueness and how fortunate I am to be here.

As May rolls around, Borderway Mart will come alive with pedigree shows and sales. The first of which was recently conducted was The British Limousin Society sale. It was a great sight to see the shed full of top-class bulls and heifers which sold to a full field of buyers providing buoyant competition. With the confidence in the beef job, it’s nice to see prices flow on through to the breeders and always a pleasure to see stud stock breeders being rewarded for their hard work. Bulls averaged a shade over £10K, up over £1600 for the year, Heifers came in at £4785 with an overall clearance rate of 92%, up 22% on last year’s sale. To me that shows a huge amount of confidence with famers wanting to retain and rear suckler herds and confidence in the cattle market upholding its strength. As the weeks roll on, there are plenty more pedigree days, which I would like to think will all continue with positive results for all vendors involved. I am certainly very much looking forward to being part of such a busy sale schedule, and having the opportunity to see a wide range of breed varieties. Breeds to suit all operations.

If there is one major difference I could touch on about missing back home, it would certainly have to be the drafting of stock on farm for the sales, and the lack of sheep drafting set-ups particularly within the marts. It can almost be frustrating in a sense, the amount of double handling that many, mostly bigger lots, go through to be penned as opposed to drafting stock in the saleyards back home. Unlike the canvassing done here in the UK, back home all the stock we sell through the yards has been personally selected by one of us from the mob.

Once the sheep get to the yards they get run through one of our 5-way drafting races and sorted for their appropriate pens. Generally, a mob of 150-500 lambs can be unloaded, drafted and penned realistically within about 15 minutes. All of our pens are drafted by eye and penned in order of weight from the heaviest down through to the lightest.

I shall never complain again about an ancient, wooden drafting race with a gate held on with bailing twine, nor let a mob that requires a 5-way draft frustrate me ever again as I swing those gates.

Overall, I would have to say that month number two has been an absolute blast. From weekly prime sales to bull sales topping at £45k, right down to meeting new clients and slotting in as part of the wider H&H team, things are going well.

There are plenty of differences to how things are back home, and it’s certainly a roller coaster of an experience learning the ropes, but as I have mentioned more than once now in conversation with those intrigued, if I wasn’t looking for some change for a little while, I’d have never have packed my life into a backpack and taken a job about as far away from home as you can get.

For anyone who feels as though they need an extra update from the resident Aussie this month, keep an eye out for the H&H One and Only Podcast where I’ll make my podcast debut this week talking all things agriculture and life working on the other side of the globe with Glyn and Laura.

I look forward to seeing what the next month provides for myself and within the industry as a whole. Enjoy your month - may the weather stay fine, the grass keep growing, and the cattle job continue to flourish.