Brewers’ grain the magic formula for young champion sheep farmer
Noah Vaughan cops top farmer title third time in a row
Published:Wednesday | August 3, 2022 | 12:10 AM
NOAH VAUGHAN, the young champion sheep farmer at the 68th staging of the Denbigh Agricultural, Industrial and Food Show, says one of the secrets to him copping the top prize for the third consecutive time is the use of brewers’ grain to feed his animals.
Brewers’ grain is the solid residue that is left after processing germinated and dried cereal grains, such as malt, for the production of beer.
Vaughan said it makes his animals more “plump and well done” for the annual competitions on the showgrounds of Denbigh.
For this year’s staging of the exposition, Vaughan entered a Katahdin male sheep from TrinJam Farm – a farm owned by his family in Clarendon – copping the prize for champion ram, which resulted in him being crowned champion sheep farmer on Sunday.
He and his mother, Dr Gabrielle Young, also a farmer and the founder of TrinJam Farm, together entered and won in the categories of best ram, best ewe sheep and ewe lamb.
Given that Young, who is senior manager for the livestock support unit at Nutramix, is an advocate for artificial insemination (AI), a role that is derived from her responsibilities at Nutramix, her son has naturally gravitated towards the procedure and is also an advocate.
AI is the deliberate introduction of semen into a female’s reproductive track for the purpose of achieving pregnancy by means other than sexual intercourse.
The aim of AI is to improve the genetics in locally bred animals. The advantages of AI include: improved genetics, no need to source a bull for mating, farmers save on cash to feed animals, less need for veterinary and technical assistance.
As he promised in 2019, the young farmer from TrinJam Farm confidently returned to the 68th staging of the premier agricultural show, after its two-year hiatus, with better quality AI-bred animals.
“We try to do the AI to bring up the genetics of each animal, each of them are different. The genetics this year has been amazing. This genetics developed over the years, this is the strongest we have seen this year,” Vaughan explained to The Gleaner.
With the help of his mother and TrinJam Farm, Vaughan started off competing at Denbigh in 2018 and credits his success to his mother.
“My mom’s hard work over the years have finally paid off. We now have all amazing animals,” he said.
The champion sheep farmer continued: “It feels really good because we have been working hard over the past two years without Denbigh. To see all our results come to life and winning, it’s really amazing.”
During the show’s hiatus, Vaughan used the time to develop the stock of his animals with AI and they were again found favourable among the judges.
His mother said she is pleased with the efforts and success of her son following in her footsteps.
“Noah has been coming to Denbigh since he was six years old, so we’re going on eight years now, and Noah has just always wanted to come to Denbigh and every year we come, and he’s always inspired to come,” Young told The Gleaner.
She stated that her son’s foray into livestock rearing is deliberate since she has always pushed her children into agriculture because “as children, they need to know where there food comes from”.
“Food is so essential and we’re seeing it more and more with what’s happening in the global situation. So, food security is very important and I believe Jamaica can produce more food,” the veterinarian and farmer stressed.