Careful, yet sustained, supplementation has helped the Tilson family’s Cheviot flock to get more nutrition from forage while reducing costly concentrate inputs.
John, Marion and Wanda Tilson farm in partnership at Wedderlie Farm, 15 miles north of Kelso on the Scottish border. A former Blackface flock, the Tilson’s chose to move to Cheviots for a better all round system that sells fat lambs, stores and tups. The family also has a herd of pedigree Angus cattle with 210 breeding cows and eight stock bulls.
“There are 1300 Cheviots ewes of which 600 are grazed on the hill. We also have 600 Cheviot mules, 700 hogg replacements, and produce two shear Cheviot tups for sale and our own use,” says John.
The family farm 1032 hectares of which half is rough land and 360 hectares is kept for permanent pasture. 195 hectares of cultivated forage crops and a further 34 hectares is set aside for an additional forage crop, which is currently kale.
“We find the kale is a good for finishing lambs and feeding replacement ewe hoggs. However, we still use a variety of supplements to help the flock make the most of grazing and our homegrown silage,” he says.
Before and during tupping, breeding ewes are provided Rumevite Sheep Super with fish oil to help maintain and improve overall body condition.
“We find the block-based supplementation the easiest and most effective way to help the flock get more nutrition from forage. The blocks are large and last well and, because we use a refillable container, we don’t have buckets building up through the year. Sheep Super works well at tupping but we move them onto All Season Rumevite afterwards because it has higher protein,” says John.
The free access supplementation system provides a high protein block with high levels of urea which is ideally suited to supporting hill and upland ewes in mid-pregnancy. Forage quality in the north during October is often variable at best, so supplementation is beneficial in helping to create a more stable rumen environment that improves forage digestibility and utilisation.
“In January we start feeding baled silage which we test to establish its nutrient value. This, along with All Season Rumevite, sees the hill flock do well through the winter months,” he says.
For the lower grazing ewes, he also uses Supalyx Sheep Super in the three weeks before tupping. The high sugar, fat and protein supplement helps the flock when grass sugars are dropping in the autumn.
“We are lucky to have good loamy clay soils that grow good grass. Our proteins are normally between 10 and 15 percent and we achieve a good ME. There is no shortage of good forage thankfully, even in a drier year like 2025, but we still find that the flock feeds better when supplements are available,” he says.
With between 1200 and 1500 bales and 3000 tonnes of clamped silage for the cattle, the farm has a good forage provision. However, the use of supplements is still important to help drive rumen efficiency and encourage the flock to take on more dry matter.
“Irrespective of any potential loss of condition, we see the general health and wellbeing of our ewes as paramount, and we have seen the benefits of block feeding to both ewes and unborn lambs. Providing readily available minerals, vitamins and trace elements is another advantage of supplementation with the blocks,” he adds.
The supply of important micronutrients can be particularly important in upland and hill grazing flocks, given the likely low quality of forage available. Cobalt, zinc and selenium are examples of the key inclusions in Rumevite blocks that are designed to prevent potential problems resulting from deficiencies.
“Providing little and often supplementation to the whole flock, before and during pregnancy, has helped our scanning percentages and overall lamb numbers. We also feed some ewe rolls in the four weeks leading up to lambing, but we try to keep the amount of concentrate feed to a minimum,” he says.
2026 saw good scanning results for the flock with only two percent empties and more than half with twins.
“That brings the average to 179 percent for the low ground ewes and 156 percent on the hill due to improved pasture and feeding, but the Cheviot mules were even higher at 203 percent. It’s a good year for us and, despite a challenging grazing year in 2025, we have been able to secure a good scan,” he concludes.
