The Alexanders have been farming in Randalstown since Arthur and Rosetta purchased the farm in 19__. Running a flock of sheep and a successful hen house the farm has been added to over the years, in 1975 Nelson started the tractor resale business and over the years has purchased various farms in the area resulting in a farm spanning 600 acres.

James finished his education at Greenmount Agricultural college in 1997 and started working full time alongside Nelson in the family business. With Nelson’s focus on the well established tractor resale side of the business, James had the freedom and support to shape the direction of the farm and livestock - at that time primarily a suckler farm through to beef, with beef at a low point as a result of the very recent BSE crisis.  The farm also ran a 400 ewe flock. 

SHOW HISTORY

Following from his Greenmount education James' focus was to produce as many 'U' grade type cattle as possible using primarily Belgian Blue and Lim cows back to BB and Lim bulls.  In trying to breed the consistent 'U' grade type animal and constantly watching/tweaking his breeding technique James soon discovered that he was breeding a "Show Quality" animal, this led to the set up of The Jalex Herd and James set his sights on growing and building the Jalex Herd brand with his Limousin/British Blue and Commercial cattle.

Within a few years The Jalex Herd had Championships at the Balmoral Show, Allams and every summer show they attended with a mixture of commercial and pedigree cattle.  Further show success followed with cattle in mainland UK at The Agri Expo in Carlisle, Scottish Winter Fair and the English Winter fair. The Jalex Herd produced the first ever Northern Irish bred Smithfield Champion in 2014.   As a result of his showing success James is often in demand as a judge in both local and national events, with highlights being the honor of judging Smithfield and Countryside Live.

NEW DIRECTIONS

CATTLE

In 2014, following several years of show success, James decided the time was right to take the farm in a new direction more suited to his (increasingly busy!) family life and importantly to work toward a more profitable and sustainable farm.  The herd of 400 commercial cows were sold off and James, using his knowledge of the sucker cow, and building on the already established Jalex Herd brand, began the process of replacing them with quality beef bred heifers suitable for replacements.  Today there are approx. 800-1000 head on farm at any time and the very structured program of husbandry procedures, including vaccinations, dosings, routine weight recording etc begins the day they arrive on farm until they are sold.  Using his knowledge of breeding and based on demand from farmers these are sold as in-calf replacements and the resulting heifer is much in demand, being sold across the North, into the UK and Eire in batches of up to 120. Until 2021 the heifers were 99% sold from the field which had enormous advantages for both James and his buyer.  In the first instance the pregnant cattle are less stressed, the buyer sees the animal in the field and is able to get all the information on sire, scanning info, birth due dates, vaccination dates and many cases, sex of the calf, which is all stored on the herd management software.  For James it allows him to sell outside of market hours and restrictions, with less costs for the buyer and the seller. 

SHEEP

In addition, the sheep flock that had been sold off several years previous, was introduced again but in an entirely new format.  The sheep enterprise is based on a newly established sheep cross "The Cheviot Mule", these are put to Suffolk tups to produce a more modern example of the long established Suffolk Cheviot that is so popular in N.I.  James sourced his original flock from various farms in the UK and has spent the last few years honing the breeding to produce a hogget that is very popular. Numbers of these now stand at 700+ ewes.   In 2019 James ran the first Jalex Flock on-farm sale, having previously been selling in the local mart.  This sale achieved average prices in excess of comparative sales in marts across the country.  Along with the profitable sale there were many additional and important bonus' to hosting the sale at home.  In the first instance there was an obvious reduction in the travelling stress on the livestock and there was an increased role for James young family who were all involved from set-up to clean-up.  The sale brought potential future customers to the premises where they could see, not only livestock, but also the tractor and 4x4 side of the business,  James successful breeding regime has been widely recognised - again leading to requests for judging and most recently an article in the Suffolk pedigree periodical. The 2020 sale, although somewhat different in format thanks to Covid regulations, was again a success, with a highlight being the sale of a home bred Suffolk tup for £6100.

2020

In the strangest of years the business has continued, with the livestock side stronger than ever. Remaining open and trading throughout the pandemic restrictions has been challenging and continues to be so, but the adoption and acceptance of online selling has increased opportunities for sellers in the industry and our 2020 sheep sale was online for the first time, reaching buyers across the UK. In 2021 we will again move forward with an online heifer sale from our home yard.

2021

While the pandemic raged on, farming here at Jalex Livestock continued pretty much as normal. We could never have predicted the success of our Jalex Select sales, but thanks to the huge support we received from customers across Ireland and the UK, we have now hosted four on-farm/online sales with high clearance rates and good average prices. In addition to the heifer sales we held our 3rd annual commercial sheep sale and our first Suffolk tup sale - it’s fair to say it’s been a busy year!