MY North Country History ******* THE Story SO FAR

    Follwing high school, I spent a year at Westdrums, one of the leading Shorthon herds, near Brechin in the county of Angus. Export business for breeding cattle was booming in those days. Our top bull sold to Argentina, one to Michigan, one to New Jersey and a set of heifers went to Texas. There were also Russians looking, but the prices scared them off. I learned a lot at Westdrums. I got to travel with the show and sale cattle all over. The Highland  Show in Aberdeen, The Royal Show in Oxford, England , The Great Yorkshire Show in Harrogate, England, and the Perth Bull Sale back in Scotland. We worked hard but played hard too since the farm even had it's own soccer team. Us younger guys practiced every night till dark in summer.  Next , I  studied at the North of Scotland College of Agriculture in Aberdeen. Following graduation, I went to work on a 4000 acre sheep farm on the Isle of Mull, but I was plotting something else. I had closely followed the Shorthorn cattle breed in the United States since in those days there was a strong export demand from North America. Most of the top herds had imported bulls from Scotland, and some even had imported herdsmen. I decided to seek my fortune across the Atlantic, and was offered a job in the state of Maryland with an up  and coming Shorthorn herd. I was unaware that Maryland was not exactly cattle country. I have often been asked why I chose to leave Scotland. I really had no idea how long I might stay away. I was an adventurer, like many of my countrymen.  But we proud Scots never forget the old country. The adventure continues.
   My  transatlantic journey began in June 1965 when our plane landed in Baltimore. The captain, as we descended said the temperature was 97.  This was more heat than I had ever faced in my life. I had my Harris Tweed sport coat on and sweat was soon running down my spine.  I met Mr. Willis my new boss at the gate and we were shortly in his Ford Galaxie with the air conditioner providing me cool comfort.  Soon we were cruising high above the Chesapeake Bay on the magnificent Bay Bridge which Mr. Willis mentioned he had helped plan.  His main business was broiler chickens. His company handled 40 million birds a year, which he suggested was a small company compared to the competition.    His cattle farms were waterfront located, and he mentioned that he had considered running sheep on one of them, but was not sure what breed to get. I told him I knew which breed I would like, but had no idea where to find any. We had a neighbor who managed a top Suffolk operation, Wye House nearby. This was Bob Offord, who had left Scotland aged 18 and farmed in Canada for 30 years before taking the job in Maryland. He became a good friend and counselor. I asked Bob if there were any good North Country sheep in Canada. He assured me that there were, and mentioned that every year he attended the Canadian Royal Show in Toronto, the best North Country sheep always came from the same man, Stan Bagg in Ontario.  Mr. Willis and I were planning to attend two Shorthorn sales in Ontario that fall, so decided on looking at sheep in the area as well. We found Stan Bagg and his impressive sheep, and soon were in the North Country business. We met a Shorthorn manager with a good Scottish name, Duncan McTavish who had  sheep from Stan's genetics, so bought some ewes from him too. One of Dunk's sons, Donald came to work for us and was my right hand man for two years. We actually traded a good Shorthorn bull to Dunk for ten ewe lambs. One of my new Shorthorn buddies, Bob Magill,  a husky North Dakotan who managed the Lewisfield herd in Virginia, wanted to know how much we sold the bull to Canada for.  When I told him ten sheep, he  was incredulous,            

    "What a lousy deal!" he ranted to my amusement,                                                                                                                                                                                               evidently not a sheep man.

 I was telling someone at the WV State Fair that they should look at our website  They would see pictures of me when I was a young "pretty boy" some forty years ago. A passing comedian overheard me.  "Pretty boy forty years ago? You'd have to go back much longer than that."

Stan Bagg helped us put a deal together to buy the top cut of 30 ewes from a Manitoba operation called Westcaith that included extensive Scottish genetics. This deal was finalized on our honeymoon in 1970. Julie and were married in Maryland and set off to Canada. Of course I have  been harassed about making sheep deals on our honeymoon, but survived. Julie is a North Carolina native, and was teaching school in Maryland nearby.

    In 1972, I thought it might be worthwhile to look for some outcross sheep in Eastern Canada and wrote to the Canadian Government  to see if we could get some help. They told us they would have someone to meet us if we drove to Fredericton, New Brunswick on a certain day. Julie and I set off, about 800 miles.  Mr. Parker was our man, and he drove us through scenic New Brunswick, saw some sheep with a French speaking farmer  and on to Nova Scotia, where I was pleased to see a young man playing the bagpipes at the border. We looked at sheep briefly, then took the ferry to glorious Prince Edward Island. We had not yet found what we sought until we got to Allison Stewart's place near Charlottetown, P.E.I. 

   I told him we could use four rams.      

" My brother has a few sheep across the road. We'll look there first."

The few sheep we found included the best North Country ewe I had ever seen in North America.  She had a ram lamb.     

  "Is he for sale?"    One down. He was Frenchfort Lad 2D.    Allison told us he knew of a "pretty fair sheep" maybe for sale " up the country," as he put it, a place called Souris.    I asked what the price might be.  

"I think you could buy that sheep for $150".  We drove as directed and found George Campbell, a friendly older gentleman in poor health. He suggested we go out behind the house and look at the ram there.        We walked out the back door and there stood a big ram with two Hampshire ewes.  Now we're getting somewhere.        

 " There's the sheep we came back to Canada for", I announced dramatically to Julie and we went back inside to make the deal.   

   "How much do you want for that ram? We like him."       

  "I think a ram like that is worth $200"     

   "I think he is too!" and we had bought Breeze Acres 21A   ("George")             ( Pictured above). Allison found us two more rams, including one from the quaintly named Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia.  (Where Anne Murray, one of our favorite Canadians took piano lessons as a child). We drove the long road home, pleased at having the job well done. Before long we drove back to Canada to get the rams.

 But that's another story.

      After eight fruitful years with Mr .Willis, we decided to try it on our own account. We had a friend from West Virginia, Ralph Warren, who bought both sheep and cattle from the Maryland farm.  That Eastern Shore  area was not exactly cattle or sheep country, low lying, hot and humid. Ralph assured us what we needed was to move to "God's Country" which according to him was the Greenbrier Valley  of West Virginia. We sold him a set of 20 ewe lambs and I told him we would deliver them and look around. We were impressed when we got there, and asked Ralph if he could possibly locate us a farm to rent.  We certainly could not afford to buy. 

   Ralph found us a 400 acre farm, not in his Greenbrier County,  but in adjoining Pocahontas County.  With help from Julie's family, and the bank, we were able to finance our new livestock operation, buying a herd of top commercial cows from Mr. Willis. A couple of them had Chianina bull calves at side. I had used Chianina semen from Italy and Mr. Willis got a big price for the halfblood heifer calves. One of then went on to top the fisrt Eastern Regional  Chianina Sale held in, would you believe, Madison Square Garden. Mr. Willis graciously gifted us 20 North Country ewes and a ram.- our pick.  His flock had grown to 100 fine ewes, so I picked mostly the older Canadian ewes and "George" from Prince Edward Island.  We moved to West Virginia  in 1973, and had a good helper. Mike Nicholas was a farmer's son from New Zealand we had met - I found him a lot of sheep to shear in Maryland, and he offered to help us move and get our first cut hay made in our new home. He planned to see America, in particular the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. (I told him the Canyon would be great, but he could keep Las Vegas) . Our sheep greatly  bloomed from their move to real sheep country, and we were soon pleased to provide stock for several new flocks. Folks like Elbert Holmes, Hillsboro, WV  Bob Totten, Ronceverte, WV, Carl Armstrong, Monterey, VA.  Yuvonne Snyder, Maysville, WV, Denver Gandee, Spencer, WV and Tim Blakely, Looneyville WV. to name a few. 

  IN 1978,WE BOUGHT THE NATIONAL CHAMPION RAM LAMB IN MACOMB ILLINOIS FROM BILL STEPHEN, CALGARY, ALBERTA.  ABOVE)  

The coyotes moved in around 1980, and we were forced out of the sheep business due my inability to protect them. In those days, guard dogs seemed a rare commodity.   We lived in West Virginia 23 years before moving to Iowa in 1996 to manage a 400 cow Salers cattle operation. The primary owner died the day we got there, so things started to unravel. We still stayed two years, enjoyed the rural Iowa scene and some fine neighbors, but then moved back east.    Mr.  Willis lived to be 101, and enjoyed his sheep until late in the game. He was a fine gentleman of wisdom and integrity.  I was blessed indeed that he allowed me to undertake several livestock projects especially the North Country Cheviots.  His flock is still intact, now in the capable hands of Susan Davies at Hurlock, MD.  Mr. Willis was honored, being inducted into the North Country Cheviot Hall of Fame in 1999 as was I in 2001. 

      To complete this history, my return to the North Country fraternity began in 2008,  After working eight years overseeing John Mitchell's fine cattle operation, John decided to downsize, and I was approached by Wesley Woods, whom I knew slightly, to put a sheep operation together for him, on his family farm in neighboring Highland County. I suggested two purebred flocks, North Country and Suffolk.  I put together 25 young females of each breed . Our Suffolks all came from the fine John Scott flock at Princeton ,West Virginia, while the North Country  ewes came from Ron Fletcher, a longtime friend, plus some from the National Sale and from Bonnie Henny in Oregon. Two guard dogs  were added and and they started lambing in 2009.  Wesley's main business, real estate appraisal, had taken a severe downturn due to the economic recession, and he reluctantly was forced  to sell his new sheep operation. Julie and I agreed we should buy them, and moved them 40 miles south, where they remain to date, on one of John Mitchell's rented farms, owned by Mr. Jim Bowen.

        Naturally we are indebted to both gentlemen for allowing us to run "HIGH ROAD SHEEP" on such a fine pasture farm.

  Since then, we have sold sheep to 19 states, and have found the experience very rewarding. My Virginia neighbors now refer to me as "The Sheep Man"

    The last imported genetics from Scotland had been in the early nineties, and I had for long tried to engineer a way to get new semen imported from Scotland. We finally got something going in 2020, and hope to have semen on hand by the fall of 2022. I was invited to help locate breeders to buy from, and was naturally delighted to arrange semen collection  from Smerlie Farm, whose owner Andrew Polson comes from Lybster, Caithness, a few miles from my grandfather's farm. I have talked with Andrew by phone several times , and was pleased to learn that his main advisor in his flock selection was Tommy Munro, a fine stockman whom I knew well long ago. Tommy worked for my lifelong friends Donald Miller and brother Innes where I spent much time.  Tommy named his youngest son after me.

LATHERON CHURDHYARD , looking south on the  east coast in Caithness, scenic last resting place of my grandfather, Aunt Bunty and Cousin Ian. This is the North Sea. Long ago this area was invaded by the Vikings whose homeland Norway lies some 500 miles to the East. (If I ever get my DNA sampled, they will probably find I am at least  half Norse. My dad's ancestors came from Isle of Skye , and the Vikings landed there too.) When I look at pictures like this, I invariably wonder why I ever left such a beautiful place.