Page 129 - Beltex Year Book 2024

BELTEX THRIVING ON ORKNEY
127
It is hard work however, especially coming from Orkney, and a
bit of a logistical tightrope. They leave on a Monday and return
home the following Monday. At last year’s show they took two
sheep, a tup lamb and a gimmer lamb and saw them well placed
in some very strong classes, taking fifth in the tup lamb class
with Orkney Isles Juniper which sold in Carlisle for 3200gns,
and third in the ewe lamb class with Orkney Isle Jameela, which
also went on to take the Supreme Sheep Championship last year
at the hotly contested Orkney show, with Jo left in charge of the
show team back home as Charles was in Carlisle at the Premier
sale.
Charles, who also works as a trainee auctioneer at the Orkney
Auction Mart in Kirkwall, has always tried to keep stretch and
length in his sheep to make sure that they are not just good
pedigree sheep, but also commercially viable, as the end
customer has to have sheep which can produce top quality
lambs which stand out from the crowd.
Despite the harshness of the environment up on Orkney, the
Beltex sheep thrive and there is always a demand for their stock
when they sell their tups, with local buyers keen to get hold of
some of the stock when they sell them at Kirkwall. They always
take a consignment of shearlings to the Carlisle Premier Sale
along with a few tup lambs too, with repeat buyers always keen
to buy the hardy Island sheep.
If they can stand up to twenty years of Orcadian storms,
everything else anywhere else is like water off a ducks back, and
they don’t have anything to prove!
Thanks to Wayne Hutchinson for copy and photographs.