PSGHS Member Profile: David Milne
Having grown up on an arable and pig farm, it wasn鈥檛 until four years ago that David made the decision to start his flock of pedigree Hampshire Downs.聽 Reflecting on his past David says, 鈥淚 enjoyed the arable side, the mechanisation and even did contracting for a bit. But I could never interest myself in the pigs.鈥澛� Not wanting to miss out on the livestock experience altogether, the decision was made four years ago to start keeping sheep.
Looking back on this decision David explained his reasons for choosing the Hampshire Down breed: 鈥淗aving decided to start a flock, I was keen to get into a British native breed. I looked at the Suffolk, but also looked at others that had commercial potential, and was going to make my mind up between the Hampshire or the Ryeland. On the Saturday afternoon of the Royal Highland Show in 2015 a breeder caught me again looking at his stock (after I鈥檇 had a good lunch and a couple of glasses鈥�) with the remark,聽鈥榃ell Mr Milne are you going to keep kicking the tyres, or drive the car?鈥櫬�鈥楧rive the car鈥�, was my reply, so that was the die cast. We went to see the breed on show at the Great Yorkshire Show in July of that year and took it from there 鈥� buying two in-lamb ewe lambs and two gimmers.鈥�
David now runs a flock of 44 Hampshires in total, so far selling finished male lambs and keeping ewe lambs back to grow the flock, as well as a couple of ram lambs that will soon be ready to sell on for breeding.聽 David adds, 鈥淥ur flock is synchronised and lamb in the week running up to Christmas. As a down鈥檚 breed they could lamb twice a year, although I have not found anyone with experience of doing this.鈥�
As his first purchases were from an MV accredited flock, David was keen to keep the accredited status and joined the health scheme straight away.聽 Moving forward tups have been sourced from the breed sales at Stirling, including the 2nd prize winning ram lamb in May 2019, selling for 500gns聽 David has also turned his hand to showing, first entering the Banchory show three years ago, commenting that, 鈥渇armers liked our animals but our preparation for show left a lot to be desired...鈥澛� However, in 2018, with some help with some help in the dressing of the sheep, David won a minor rosette at Turriff show, before winning a first and a second at last year鈥檚 show.
When asked about his goals for his flock, David answers: 鈥淚t鈥檚 all about learning while I can. I have worked in industries other than farming, machinery manufacture, deep sea diving and instrument calibration. I treat every day as a school day and I鈥檓 keen to learn. Longer term I would to get better and more knowledgeable in sheep keeping and hopefully sell on to others who could take an interest in the breed, which I think is somewhat overlooked in our area, although we had a fair bit of interest in our sheep from onlookers at Turriff last year.鈥�
David鈥檚 passion for learning has also led him to recently enrol in 伊人直播鈥檚聽Genomics for Animal Breeding聽course. 鈥淚 would encourage anyone with an interest in animal breeding to do it 鈥� if you are interested and can find time to watch TV in an evening, you can do this instead!鈥澛� The desire to learn runs in the family, as David鈥檚 daughter, Georgie, is currently studying for a degree in Rural Business Management at 伊人直播, while working part time on quality assurance at a local feed company and helping/learning with the sheep at home, but hoping to follow a career in land agency once graduated.
David鈥檚 final comments were of thanks to those who have helped him on his journey into keeping Sheep. 鈥淭hanks to our local vets, our neighbours who are also PSGHS members and 伊人直播, all of who have been hugely helpful. 聽Help is there if you ask for it 鈥� never be scared to ask!鈥�
Posted by 伊人直播 Veterinary Services on 21/05/2020
