Why the Lleyn is the best breed for Richard

Richard started off sheep farming ten years ago when his wife bought him a number of pedigree hoggets. Great sheep they were but with full time employment, he found them a lot of work especially at lambing time, always needing to be there to get those big lambs out and also a lot of lameness problems.

He then started crossing them out by using several terminal sires including Dorsets. All producing mighty good strong lambs which always made good grades and a market for replacements.

From this point after going self-employed he still felt there had to be an easier managed sheep breed. After carrying out a bit of research on the different breeds the Lleyn had always stood out for him, and after talking to some breeders at the Balmoral show it was then decided the couple would try the Lleyn sheep breed.

They bought in pedigree hoggets from a local Lleyn breeder Willie McAdam of Ballyalton Lleyns based in Comber where he had a good selection of excellent sheep to pick from.

From his previous experience Richard always liked using the Dorset ram for breeding as they had performed well throughout the years. He then decided to cross the Lleyn ewe with the Dorset ram.

Richard commented: “This would allow me to go for earlier lambing in mid-February as being a landscaper March-April starts to become very busy.

“Ewes were housed 3-4 weeks before lambing and all lambed indoors. Lambing with the Lleyn was a huge difference from what I was used to. Ewes had bags of milk, lambed away themselves, extremely protective over their lambs and the lambs themselves were lively and up sucking in no time.

“Crossing with the Dorset the lambs had a good coat of wool and hardy enough to be let out to the field after 3-4 days after birth. The lambs fattened quickly only on grass never receiving meal.

“The ewes and lambs were put onto a grazing rotation where every 4-6 weeks they would move to a new paddock getting to eat young fresh grass and foot bathing roughly every 8-10 weeks.

“This is what I believe gets the weight on to the lambs well and keeps the feet correct in my sheep from scald and foot rot. They finished this year on the first week of May going to Saintfield mart reaching £102.00 at 25kg,” said Richard.

“The Lleyn being a medium sized sheep, low maintenance with excellent mothering abilities and the Dorset being great length and frame, bringing easy lambing to the ewes, this is where I feel the two breeds work really well for me. Low maintenance, hardiness and producing an excellent lamb at the end is key not just for me but for all sheep farmers and that’s why the Lleyn is the breed that would work in any sheep system.

“The future for me is with the Lleyn breed expanding the flock to 50-60 breeding ewes, 50% of which will be put to a pedigree Lleyn ram to produce my own breeding ewes and ones for sale which keeps the flock close and the other 50% crossing with the Dorset for meat and replacements for sale.”

Could Lleyns make sheep keeping life easier for you? Come and see them in their working clothes at the Lleyn Open Day on the farm of Club Chairman Barry Latimer, Girgadis, Trillick on Saturday, August 22.

An excellent offering of pedigree stock at the Society Sale in Ballymena Livestock Market on Saturday, September 12 will give you opportunity to give this breed a try.