One of the best-known couples in Angus farming circles has just passed another landmark in a long and productive career.
Robert and Moyra Stewart, Leys of Cossans, Glamis, built up their expertise and reputation bringing out pedigree bulls for a number of the country’s leading herds, most notably at Newhouse of Glamis.
However, for the last 19 years of semi-retirement it has been pedigree sheep, latterly all Texels, that have kept them busy.
Their carefully bred Fairhaven flock regularly featured in the championship lists at shows around the area.
With Robert now 82, though still fit, the decision to disperse was taken earlier this year.
“Livestock breeding has always been my hobby as well as my job, and I have always liked to be around stock, but the time had come for the sheep to be sold.
“They were booked into Lawrie & Symington’s September breed sale and, although it was a nervous few days, everything went perfectly and the market looked after us very well.
“It was an evening sale and the sheep looked really beautiful under the lights. I was really proud of them,” said Robert.
As it was to turn out, he had every right to take pride in his flock because the 55 individual lots went on to sell for an average of just on £400, with a top price of £1,300. Not only that, the Stewarts achieved a complete clearance with every lot finding a new home.
The £1,300 top price was taken by a one-crop ewe by Tamnamoney Ringo Starr out of a home-bred ewe.
“It was a great night but I couldn’t have done it without Moyra, who has always been a great support to me,” said Robert.
“Our daughter Elizabeth, her son Robert and her husband George McLaren all really pulled the stops out to help, so it was a great family effort.
“Robert also had sheep entered from his own Cossans flock.”
The Fairhaven flock was founded in 2000 and based on two lots of four and six gimmers bought from Robin Orr at Halbeath, Dunfermline.
Over the years sires have been used from many of the top names in the breed including Garngour, Castlecairn, Tamnamoney and Cairness. Halbeath Maverick has also been used to influence the character of the flock.
The Lanark sale was only the latest milestone in a long journey for the couple.
Robert, a farmer’s son, was born and brought up at Grandtully in Highland Perthshire, the eldest of a family of seven.
Sadly his mother died when his youngest sibling was only two years old, and for Robert it meant taking on adult responsibilities at an early age.
At only eight years old he could drive a Clydesdale horse, and by 10 he could handle a plough.
He also had to take his share of domestic duties and help raising his brothers and sisters.
It may have been a hard start to life but Robert, a man of extreme modesty, makes little of it. “I have lived a life that I have enjoyed, and later in my youth I had nothing in my head but wanting to work with Aberdeen-Angus cattle.”
It was an ambition that was to come true and, by now married to Moyra, he had moved north to Kinchurdy House as a pedigree stockman.
They stayed there for four years before moving to Buchaam with the Ogg family for 2 years.
By then his talents at handling and bringing out bulls had been noticed by other breeders, and Robert was approached by the late Bob Adam, Newhouse of Glamis, to see if he would move back south again.
“That was in 1966, and we were to be at Newhouse for 27 years,” said Moyra.
“RM Adam was to be the most influential person I had ever met. He was a true gentleman, and I have fond memories of him sitting round our kitchen table at Murleywell.”
Moyra was a trained nurse and, although she had helped with the cattle at Kinchurdy and Buchaam, she started nursing in Dundee again when they moved to Glamis.
RM Adam had other plans, however, and before long she was working from 8am to 4pm every day hosing down the bulls.
“My job was to look after the coats, and Robert did the halter training and the rest. We reckoned if we each had separate responsibilities we wouldn’t get in each other’s way,” Moyra said.
This team approach certainly worked, as show and sale results were to prove.
Over his time at Newhouse, Robert was to show four Perth bull sales Aberdeen-Angus champions and on one notable occasion produced the Aberdeen-Angus, Charolais and Limousin champions at the same sale.
His skills were recognised in 1990 with the presentation at Airlie Castle of a British Empire Medal for services to livestock breeding.
Unfortunately Moyra’s involvement with the cattle was to be cut short after an accident. Two previously placid bulls decided to have an argument and Moyra unfortunately happened to be in the middle of the fracas. She suffered multiple injuries, and although she made a good recovery it was time to look for a new interest.
The Stewarts had been offered a farm on the Strathmore Estate, and eventually settled on the 50-acre Leys of Cossans, where they live to this day.
Moyra and their late son Robin were keen to start breeding sheep and initially kept a few Charollais and Bluefaced Leicesters. “But Robert didn’t care so much for these breeds and always hankered after a Texel flock, so that is what happened and we always enjoyed keeping them,” she said.
The Lanark dispersal and the subsequent sale of this season’s tup lambs may mark the end of the sheep era at Leys of Cossans, but it looks as if it might not be the end of stock breeding altogether.
Robert is of a mind to end his career where he started and means to buy a Clydesdale filly. There is one lined up, apparently, and it is highly likely that Robert and Moyra will be back on the show circuit again next year.
They will still be generously dispensing hospitality and bonhomie but, instead of being on the sheep lines, they will be over with the heavy horse brigade.