NSA Advantage Feeder prize giveaway 2014: Thomas Gibson, County Antrim
5th September 2014
The NSA 2014 membership recruitment prize giveaway had its first Northern Irish winner in Thomas Gibson, a mixed livestock farmer from Broughshane, Ballymena. He took possession of a brand new Advantage Feeders’ 3in1 feeder just days before he got married in September.
Thomas works alongside his father on their upland farm, which runs from 600ft to 1,200ft above sea level and supports 800 breeding ewes and 50 suckler cows. Scotch Mule and Scotch Mule cross ewes are put to Texels to produce fat lambs and to Cambridge and Belclare tups to breed replacements. Thomas breeds his best Scottish Blackfaces with Bluefaced Leicester rams to provide Mules to sell as ewe lambs.
This is the second success Thomas has had with NSA, as he was selected to be a NSA Next Generation Ambassador in January and has been attending personal development and business training days in recent months. He signed up as a member in his own right earlier in the year.
Thomas says: “My father was always a member of NSA and I joined to be kept informed of technology and new ideas in the industry. It’s great to win one of these feeders and it will be very useful.
“I’m going to use it to feed replacement ewe lambs on some rough hill through the winter, instead of sending them to a local dairy farm. It means I won’t have to drive to the dairy farm every other day to check on them. The high capacity of the feeder and the intake system should be great for supplementary feeding throughout the winter.”
