John says it’s ‘an absolute honour’ to judge overall champion at County Show
Well-known Caithness farmer John Coghill has said it is “an absolute honour” to have the task of selecting the overall champion at this year’s County Show from what is sure to be an impressive line-up of stock.
John, from Skinnet Farm, just outside Halkirk, has strong family connections to the biggest event in the far north agricultural calendar as his grandfather, father and brother Philip all served as president.
The show returns to Thurso East this Friday and Saturday.
“It is an absolute honour to be asked to judge at any show, especially when you are asked to judge the overall champion,” John said.
“My grandfather, John Coghill of Ackergill Mains, was the show president in 1941, then my father Dan Coghill was the president in 1975 and my brother Philip the president in 1999, so it is a nice ‘full circle’ moment in that regard.”
Along with his three brothers, John farms 1800 acres between Skinnet and the family’s home farm at Hillhead, Wick, with a headcount of 1000 breeding ewes and 130 suckler cows.
The ewe flock consists predominantly of Scotch Mules that are tupped to the Texel, Suffolk and Charollais. About 100 or so ewe hoggs are also tupped to the Blue Texel and are lambed towards late April.
Before Scotch Mules, John and his brothers – like many Caithness farms a few decades ago – used to run Park Cheviot ewes with a Border Leicester tup to produce halfbred lambs. These lambs were either sold at the Thurso mart as ewe lambs for breeding or finished wedder lambs.
However, in an attempt to boost lamb crop and natural mothering ability, the Coghill brothers switched to Scotch Mules the year after the foot-and-mouth outbreak and have never looked back.
Despite scaling back on Cheviots, John’s brother Arnott runs a small flock of Cheviots himself. Arnott also buys in a few halfbred ewe lambs from the Quoybrae sale, with some of these being entered for the show at Thurso East.
On the cattle front, the cows at Skinnet are bulled to the Charolais with all replacements being bought in. Around 400 store cattle are also bought in over the winter and are finished on the farm along with all of the progeny from the suckler herd.
Founded in 1830 by Caithness Agricultural Society, the County Show offers the chance for the farming community and the wider public to view some of the county’s finest stock up close.