Farm Of The Week: Sing praises for the Mule and Rouge

John Teasdale of High Farm, Beadlam Rigg started with them in the early ’90s. Originally known as the Rouge de l’Ouest breed from France the British Rouge Sheep Society was formed in 1986. They have a reputation for producing long-lasting tups and ewes, as well as being excellent milky sheep.

The breed has won Interbreed Supreme titles at many of the major agricultural shows in England, Wales and Scotland and has picked up the Interbreed Supreme title for the past two years at the Great Yorkshire Show. John recalls how his father greeted the sight of his first breed purchase.

“When I bought my first Rouge tup I remember my father, Alfred, spending weeks looking at him stood in the field,” he said.

“He just muttered something about costing a lot of money. But after six or seven weeks he asked ‘would you buy a ewe of that there breed?’ because he couldn’t say the name.”

John subsequently travelled to the breed sale at Carlisle, bought three ewes and the die was cast. Red faces were soon to be all the rage at High Farm taking the place of their previous breeding system.

“I bought the original tup to put on to our Swaledale and Blackface ewes and now we produce what we call a Rouge Mule. It has become increasingly popular because it produces a tight skin and plenty of wool. In our experience the Rouge tup also lives longer than a Blue Faced Leicester tup and they don’t lose their teeth either.

“We always used to put the Teeswater ram on to the Swaledale ewe to breed Mashams. It was one of the best sheep you could ever have, but that bit of extra wool on them went against them. They weren’t breeding a tight-skinned lamb.

“With the Rouge Mules you are also, more or less, assured of a good carcase every time.

“It’s all about the wool and the texture. A prime butcher’s lamb has a good tight skin and that’s exactly what the Rouge gives.”

Since the turn of the New Year the latest crop of Teasdale Rouge lambs have been born and were still being born when I visited this week. Early lambing is essential for providing the biggest lambs at show and sale time and the family has had substantial success particularly in recent years.

“We generally show at the Great Yorkshire, the Royal Highland and Ryedale, being our local show. We have had breed champion at the Great Yorkshire Show and we took the reserve interbreed title too. Last year we were second in every class we entered,” says John’s son, Ian.

“We have around 30 pedigree Rouges and a flock of 300 breeding ewes that nearly all have Rouge in them. The breed came into fashion very quickly years ago, then it dipped, but it’s now really well respected.

“We lamb the pedigrees inside in January, but the rest of the flock lambs outside in April, so long as we don’t have the freak April we had last year when it snowed.”

High Farm runs to 187 acres and is at the end of a three-mile long lane that runs from the main Helmsley-Scarborough road. To get to Beadlam Rigg you pass trough the quaint and quiet rural village of Pockley. The farm is between 750 to 950 feet above sea level and is on the Norton Tower Estate.

It is a mixed farming operation of sheep, cattle, pigs and arable crops. The dairy herd disappeared a couple of years after milk deregulation in 1995. In addition to the sheep flock the Teasdales have a herd of 25 suckler cows; they keep pigs on a bed and breakfast basis; and grow around 60 acres of wheat, barley and fodder beet.

They also went out of keeping their own pigs around two years ago as they were not paying their way. A Limousin bull from neighbour Christine Thompson is used on the suckler herd and stock is sold at Thirsk Livestock Market. The sheep are sold at either breed sales in Carlisle, or at local markets in Thirsk, Malton and Darlington.

The position doesn’t make the farm the ideal for arable crops but Ian has expanded this in recent years and clearly revels in making the wheat work.

“I was only allowed to grow 10 acres to see whether wheat would grow here, and obviously five tonnes an acre is just a pipe dream, but we managed three tonnes a couple of years ago and we generally reach between two to 2.5 tonnes. And we’re getting better at growing it.”

John’s grandfather Eddie came here originally and Ian is hoping to be the fourth generation tenant. He’s currently a partner in the farm with his father John and mother Jo. In addition he runs his own agricultural engineering firm with a penchant for New Holland combines. “I did my apprenticeship with R. Yates & Son and attended Askham Bryan College. I found I had a flair for combines and I now presently look after the maintenance and repairs of over 30 New Hollands in the area.

“Ideally, I’d rather be running the farm in future rather than having to travel around looking after combines, so I work hard on keeping both going.

“I’d love to take succession on the tenancy when the time is right and continue the good work we are doing with the Rouge breed. I couldn’t have been brought up in a better place and Ailsa, my wife, and I would really like to bring up our two children Zara and Alfie here.”

Jo felt quite differently before she and John were married, but now wouldn’t have missed the experience of living in this isolated farm at the end of a track for anything. She ran a bed and breakfast establishment to raise funds to help make the farm more homely.

“I didn’t want to come and live here when we first came. The house was too old and had little income to revamp and I’d already been a farmer’s daughter. I didn’t want to be a farmer’s wife but you can’t choose who you fall in love with. I now wouldn’t change it for the world. You can’t put a price on living here.”

John and Jo have been married for 36 years. They have two offspring, Ian and David, who lives with his girlfriend Claire and works at Welburn Manor Farm near Kirkbymoorside. They also have another very important family member Jess who came to them as a foster child and has been part of the family for eight years. She’s now 17.

“We have been fostering children for 10 years and we undertook Emergency Duty Team fostering for most of that time too.”