Some farmers have acres of lush, rolling landscape to look after. Others farm in sheltered areas where the sun always seems to shine.
That’s not a view of farming life Joyce Campbell can really relate to for she looks after a 5,600-acre farm which runs from the beautiful beach at Armadale on the north coast of Scotland to about 800ft and is exposed to the very worst that the Scottish climate can offer.
While the sun may not always shine here, her sunny disposition means it’s always a joy to visit her as celebrity chef Jak O’Donnell recently discovered during a visit to the Sutherland sheep farm.
Jak, who is chef/patron at The Sisters restaurants in Glasgow, and who has worked with famous chefs including Nick Nairn and Raymond Blanc previously, said: “Armadale is not the first sheep farm I have been on, but boy, it is the most spectacular.”
Armadale is stocked with 830 North Country Cheviot ewes, 250 ewe hoggs and 50 stock tups along with 25 Salers and Salers cross Simmental suckler cows.
Joyce’s approach successfully combines traditional management techniques with modern ideas and practices to achieve the best results on the fragile peatland habitats and four SSSIs that form most of the hill ground at Armadale.
She said: “We take grazing and forage management very seriously and consciously keep stock levels very low, currently 0.34 ewes per hectare, which is sustainable for the type of hill ground we have.”
Joyce, 46, is married to Ian, an auctioneer with Aberdeen and Northern Marts who helps out on the farm when he’s there. Having left Sutherland to attend college she returned to run the family farm, which had been passed down through the generations, with her mum 26 years ago after her father died. But for the past few years, she’s been running the operation herself.
Her hard work and dedication to the job has paid of and in 2015, she was named winner of AgriScot Scottish Sheep Farm of the Year.
She and her team, which includes her twin niece and nephew, Frances and Mure, have had an incredibly busy year. While continuing to run the busy sheep farm, they have also hosted the media several times. That’s something she’s keen on as she believes it is important to get the message out to the consumer that when they buy Scotch Lamb it has been produced to a high set of standards.
“We have had so much interest from the media but if it helps to persuade consumers to relate to us and the care we take in producing our livestock when they buy Scotch Lamb, then it is all worthwhile,” said Joyce who was equally intrigued about meeting chef Jak, and hearing her thoughts on the passion which goes into cooking the product and presenting it on a plate.
“It was fantastic having Jak here, we went out to the hill and she cooked three stunning dishes. Her passion for Scotch Lamb was wonderful to see.”
Agreeing fully, Jak said: “You can taste that the lamb has been well looked after. Welfare is so important and Joyce’s stockmanship in rearing the animals in this environment contributes to it being a fantastic end product.
“What sets Scotch Lamb apart is taste and versatility – whether it is a quick family tea mid-week or a long, slow, lazy Sunday afternoon lunch.”
While it would be easy to get carried away by all the attention, Joyce’s focus remains firmly on the farm. The care and attention to detail which Joyce and her team pay to the flock has paid dividends this year with some fantastic sale results.
Cast ewes are always a good marker of how well they have been looked after and this year saw the five-year-old ewes selling for £170 per head to a repeat buyer.
The tup sales at Lairg and Dingwall also went well with a top at Lairg of £5,000 and 16 averaged £1,737, while the 10 two-shear tups they took to Dingwall had the highest average of the day at £1,220 and topped at £1,800.
The lamb sales were also successful at Lairg where Joyce and her team managed to sell just over 700 lambs to average £74.20, over £10 per head up on the year.
Being so active on social media was one of the things which set Armadale apart from the other farms during the judging for the AgriScot Scottish Sheep Farm of the Year in 2015 and Joyce said she has been slightly overwhelmed by the number of hits her social media posts have been getting from all over the world.
She’s also been much in demand to speak at events including a recent St Andrews Day dinner and take part in working groups such as the Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) Sheep Strategy Group.
The next step has been creating a website for the farm at www.armadalefarm.co.uk which continues to drive home the message that Joyce is so passionate about – that Scotch Lamb is a wonderful, high-welfare product which Scottish farmers can be proud of and consumers should buy and enjoy.
“If you click on the Scotch Lamb logo on our new website it takes you directly to The Scotch Kitchen website because I believe it is so important to get behind the brand.”
Joyce thoroughly enjoyed having Jak to visit the farm and said: “It was a great experience and made me realise how easy it is to make delicious meals some of the cheaper cuts of lamb, I have already cooked some of her recipes and shared them with friends and family.”
As Armadale is a working farm it’s not open to the public but visitors are welcome, providing they’ve contacted Joyce and the team beforehand so there’s someone available to show them around. Contact Armadale Farm on 01641 541220.