General Lleyn | Bearwood Lleyn Sheep

New Feeding Regime Pre Lambing

As most sheep farmers will know, the one part of your body that starts to give you problems as you get older is your back and I am no exception.

In the past I have spent hours every winter filling bags with feed both morning and evening and forking out silage twice a day but I have been told by the experts that I need to find a way of easing the workload on my back if I want to be mobile in 15- 20 years time.

This autumn I am feeding Rumevite blocks to the ewes with only the triplets getting a small amount of concentrate 2 weeks before lambing. I have used the Super Energy + Fish Oil to date and will change to Lifeline Ewe and Lamb 4-6 weeks before lambing and then use Graze UDP for ewes and lambs when they are turned out after lambing. For the blocks to be a success the ewes must have access to good quality forage and for the past number of years I have really concentrated on making good quality round bale silage in the summer.

Housed In Lamb Ewes With Ad Lib Sialge and Lifeline Blocks

This is by no means cheaper than using only concentrate but the costs will hopefully be somewhere near especially in what I save in the usual osteopathic treatment costs post normal lambing!! Time will tell.

Bedding costs have been saved this year as it has been so dry. I normally house ewes just before Christmas (10 weeks pre lambing) but this year they will be housed 5-6 weeks before.

Due to not having a large number of ewes, bedding down and feeding silage to housed ewes is manual rather than mechanical so the reduced time the sheep are in the sheds is good news for my back! This year when the ewes are housed I will be feeding them whole bale silage in cradle feeders which they can eat ad-lib and it also saves me forking out silage twice a day; I’ll let the tractor do the heavy work.

I will be interesting to see how this new feeding regime works.

Autumn Sales

Another busy autumn with sales of both Lleyn and Blue Texel sheep. All animals were sold off the farm and went to all four corners of the UK.

18 Blue Texel ewe lambs and 2 Blue Texel tups went to South Wales to form a new flock. 5 older Blue Texel ewes went east to Lincolnshire to again form a new flock and a couple of tups were sold to commercial producers.

I kept the majority of my Lleyn ewe lambs as I am going to be selling yearlings in future but a couple of small groups were sold to repeat customers. 30 Lleyn yearling ewes went to South Wales as did a couple of Lleyn tups. Yearling and older Lleyn tups went as far a field as Scotland and Devon, East Anglia and West Wales. We are in a good location as livestock haulage companies from across the UK have wagons coming by most weeks during the sale season.

I am now getting prepared for lambing which begins 1st March.

A Decade of Genetic Progress in the English Sheep Industry

An article recently published celebrating ten years of support for genetic improvement from the Better Returns Programme.

Research Project – Worm Resistance In Sheep

The Bearwood Lleyn flock is part of a research project that is identifying sheep that are more resistant to common British round worms. Professor Mike Stear from the University of Glasgow has developed a saliva test, which alongside a Faecal Egg Count (FEC) can determine lambs that a genetically more resistant to worms than others. A small group of Lleyn breeders have obtained funding to get a proportion of their 2014 lamb crop tested. The test involves putting the lambs under a worm burden and then taking a saliva swab and dung sample. Independent sheep consultant, Catherine Nakielny is collecting the swabs and FEC samples during the next 4 weeks and Professor Stear will analyze the data collected and have the results by the end of the autumn. Sam Boon of Signet Breeding Services is overseeing the research project and hopes to produce an Estimated Breeding Value (EBV) in the future.

This is an exciting project as worm resistance to common British round worms is becoming a major problem within the UK sheep flock. Breeding sheep that are genetically resistant to worms will help the commercial sheep producer increase his returns. Lambs will finish quicker with less worm treatments.

Results of this research project will be posted here as soon as they become available.

Lleyn And Blue Texel Ewe Lambs For Sale

I will have around 250 Lleyn ewe lambs available this year and a small number of Blue Texel ewe lambs. The lambs will be weaned by the middle of July and will be ready to leave the farm at the beginning of August. Many of the Lleyn ewe lambs purchased are put to the tup in the autumn. All lambs have performance figures and can be registered if required.

More and more customers come and buy ewe lambs off the farm; they can look at the breeding ewes and stock rams and see the farming system at Bearwood. They can also see the sale animals in their “working clothes” and not overfed like so many animals that go through the sale ring. The ewe lambs are reared off grass and are not fed creep; they are left to grow naturally as I am keen to produce stock that utilize grass efficiently. If my order book is filled before sale entry deadline then I will not be selling anything through the sale ring.

Lleyn And Blue Texel Yearling Rams For Sale

I will have 20 registered and 12 unregistered yearling Lleyn rams and 5 registered Blue Texel yearling rams available this year. All these rams have performance figures for maternal and carcase traits and the majority of them have figures in the Top 10% of the latest Breed Evaluation.

More and more customers come and buy rams off the farm; they can look at the breeding ewes and stock rams and see the farming system at Bearwood. They can also see the sale animals in their “working clothes” and not overfed like so many animals that go through the sale ring. These animals need to be fit to work immediately in the autumn. The yearling rams have access to Lifeline Ramcare and are out at grass. My aim is to produce rams that can utilize grass efficiently. If my order book is filled before sale entry deadline then I will not be selling anything through the sale ring.

Ewes Scanned and Housed

The ewes were scanned to see how many lambs they are going to have in March 2014. This year has been a good year on the sheep; there has been plentiful grass through the autumn and early winter and when they were housed at scanning, just before Christmas they looked in better condition than they have done for the past few years. Consequently they scanned well, to have just under 2 lambs per ewe, which is an ideal number of lambs for the system at Bearwood.

I was able to make good haylage during the summer and this will be analyzed next week. The amount of concentrate fed to the ewes will be determined by the quality of the haylage and I am hoping that concentrate costs can be cut this year due to good quality forage.

Blue Texel x Lleyn Lambs

I put my Blue Texel Tups to some Lleyn ewes last Autum and have been very pleased with the lambs that have been produced; all with good skins and great carcases. Many of the males have already been sold fat at Hereford market where they made premium prices.

I have kept the ewe lambs and if they are not sold this Autumn they will be sold as yearlings next year. Again the ewe lambs have great skins and good length and shape.

Hay Making & Ram & Ewe Sales Under Way

What a difference a couple of months make. Back in May we had no grass and all the animals were in need of warm temperatures and sun. How they have all altered since the heatwave during July. The grass has grown and all animals are blooming.

Hay and good quality haylage has been made and stored to be fed this coming winter and lambs weaned from the ewes. Lambs ready to go for meat were sold through Hereford market and replacement ewe and ram lambs have been sorted.

July has been a busy month showing prospective purchasers round the Bearwood flock. More buyers are coming to the farm to buy their replacements; they like to see the sheep in their “working clothes” and look at the farming system to make sure it will compliment their system.

The upshot of this is that 16 yearling rams have already been sold and 100 ewe lambs reserved to go to a couple of breeders. Semen from Bearwood Trooper has also been purchased by a breeder that had used Trooper’s semen last year.

I also have visited a couple of flocks to view

rams as I require 2 Lleyn stock rams this year. Registered Lleyn rams with good performance figures and the right bloodlines are difficult to find but I hope to have both rams purchased within the next couple of weeks. I prefer to buy off the farm for the reasons mentioned above.

I hope to also purchase a few more Blue Texel ewes and a Blue Texel ram so my shopping spree has not finished yet! More details of my purchases will follow when the sales have been concluded.

The sale season is fast approaching. I hope to go to Ross on Wye with ewe lambs in September and Welshpool in October. I am attending fewer sales this year due to the number of sheep I have sold off the farm.

I have purchase a new weigh crate designed by Martin Tompkins of Border Software and a True Test reader which reads the animals EID and records it’s weight. I am weighing more often now to get a better idea of live weight gain of lambs and mature weight of ewes. It is also useful to see which ewe is producing her own body weight in lamb meat when we weigh ewes and lambs at weaning.

Farmers Weekly Sheep Farmer Of the Year 2013

I have just been notified that I have reached the final 3 of the Farmers Weekly Sheep Farmer of the Year 2013 competition. I am still in shock but proud that all the hard work over the past 20 years is being recognized. The results will be announced at the awards dinner at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London on 3rd October 2013.