Farmers Weekly Awards: Sheep farmer finalists 2019.

While scale, labour, topography and climate vary across this year's amazing Sheep Farmer of the Year finalists, they all share a focus on grassland management, functional genetics and gathering, and using meaningful flock data. A flair for managing an ever-changing business and maximising rental opportunities has seen Richard Evans build a flock of 2,000 ewes and buy two small farms in the process. Detailed time sheets record paid labour hours spent on each enterprise to achieve an average of one labour hour a ewe and just over two hours a ewe on the recorded flock annually. Commercial ewes now wean 1.5 lambs a ewe after previously weaning 1.33 in 2015, thanks in part to a reduction in lamb mortality from 12-13% to 8.5% and better-quality grazing for flushing. [Extracted from the article]