Our Sheep


 

Our Commercial Flock


We have a commercial flock which we are very proud of. Our flock consists of around 2000 Ewes plus 500 Runners.

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We’re fortunate enough to lamb all of our Ewes outside from the last week in April. The flock is split, using our Lleyn Tups, from the pedigree flock, to produce Lleyn Ewe Lambs/Shearlings which we sell as replacements. Similar to our Pedigree stock, the breeding process is geared to achieve the same traits; off grass – so no supplement feeds required, kept from a Twin, lambing ease and bred from worm resistant stock.

 

The remaining portion of our flock will have a selection of Terminal Sires put to them. At present we use mostly New Zealand Texel Tups on the Ewes which is producing a good carcass. We find this cross excellent as the Ewes are capable of lambing far more easily.This year we have experimented further by trying Charollais Tups and Vendeen Tups on our Ewe Lambs; again, for ease of lambing and to produce a desirable carcass.

 

We are very proud to boast that our commercial flock is kept on grass throughout the year without the need of other feeds – this is with the exception of a few weeks during February/March which coincide with scanning and shearing our Ewes when their feed is supplemented only with Hay. Once these jobs are done the Ewes are pushed back onto grass.We have spent a number of years working on the quality of our grass to get the balance just right for our flock – and we continue to do so.

 

We have a policy to breed only from the Ewe Lambs which were reared as Twins. This enables us to develop the fertility whilst maintaining the quality as part of a continual program of improvement.
Over the last 17 years the Lleyn Ewe has proved to be an efficient breed; she milks well, she is hardy, easy to manage and she produces a good Cross-Bred Lamb whilst producing efficient breeding Ewes.

Our Pedigree Flock


We have 200 pedigree Lleyns they are all recorded and are analyzed by “Signet”. The sheep are kept on grass throughout the year without the need to give them extra supplement feed.

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The objective with our pedigree flock is to breed fast growing and worm resistant strong breeding stock with maternal instincts all ”off grass”. Once established, breed our Pedigree Tups with our Commercial Ewes; in turn this will produce fast growing Lambs which lamb easily and again have a high resistance to worms.

 

Additionally, we sell some of our Rams commercially whilst selling others registered “off farm.” We test all our flock for worm resistance using a new method, initiated by the “Performance Recorded Lleyn Breeders” which we are a member of.

 

All our sheep are tested by taking a sample of their saliva; this is more accurate when compared to earlier procedures. The flock is MV accredited, tested for Toxoplasma Gondil and Chlamydohla Abortus. The Tup/Tup Lambs we intend to either keep or sell are also tested for Scrapie and we test for the Myomax Gene.

 

In recent years we have been using AI for Ewes with high EBV’s and have used Semen from high rated blood lines, which we have found to be very successful.

 

Our overall aim is to keep costs down and to keep our system simple. With this objective in mind, it’s important to us to breed sheep that fit into that category.