‘Develop as many family lines as possible’

Speaking at the recent North Sheep 2009 he told of his concern about dairy cattle breeding and the influence one bull can have in many countries through artificial insemination (AI).

Mr Dugdale feared something similar could happen in the sheep world and made his plea for many different family lines “to safeguard the future for British farming.”

He farms 900 acres in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, at Settle, with his wife, Ruth, and son, James.

They have a pedigree flock of 1,500 Lleyn ewes and a few Lleyn crosses which supply Dunbai, who asked Mr Dugdale to take part in an Eblex trial.

They put an Eblex high index Texel ram to 50 ewes and one of their own on-farm Texel rams to 50 others.

In the first year the lambs from the high index ram were heavier and leaner with superior conformation.

Although not as great, the difference was still there in the second year, but in the third year the high index ram did not perform, which resulted in Mr Dugdale calling for longevity to be included in the index.

The Dugdale’s land is almost all in the Severely Disadvantaged Area and rises from 500ft to 1200ft above sea level.

The family maintains 33 miles of dry stone walls, 14 traditional field barns and also has a 125-cow pedigree Friesian Holstein herd.

At least 100 cows are milked every day of the year and the herd average is 9,500 litres. Silage and hay is grown on 250 acres which is re-seeded on a rotational basis. “Our ultimate aim is to grow as much grass as possible, as efficiently as possible,”

said Mr Dugdale.