Moving Mountains in Mid Wales
Just over 13 years ago
Mid-Wales farmer Emrys Jones bought in Lleyn tups as an improver cross on
his Welsh Mountain flock. Now the Lleyn has a key role to play in his organic
lamb production system and is set to completely replace the Welsh Mountain
on the farm over the next few years.
Emrys farms with his son Dylan at Lluest Wen, Commins Coch on about 280
acres spread over four blocks of land. The unit is an upland farm running
from about 650 ft above sea level at the farmhouse up to about 1,000 ft.
The land is mostly good permanent pasture, but generally steep with most
of the land regarded as 'ploughable'.
Current stocking is about 650 breeding ewes of which about 300 are pure
Lleyn and the rest Lleyn cross Welsh Mountain.
"We became interested in the Lleyn because it is a very milky ewe capable
of producing and rearing early lambs that go on to grow well". Then
in 1989 we bought our first Lleyns from the Lleyn Sheep Society's Gaerwen
sale on Anglesey. The Lleyn is not a hill ewe in the same way as the Welsh
Mountain, but is still a hardy animal and we are now running some Lleyns
on higher ground than our Welsh Mountains.
"This has worked very well, but we now feel that there would be real
benefits in moving towards a pure Lleyn flock with no crossing. This will
give us the dual advantage of good commercial sheep and open the way for
us to further develop our sales of pedigree Lleyn sheep," he said.
A major turning point in the farm's development came about four years ago
when the decision was made to convert to full organic status.
"Simply we needed to generate more income from the farm. It seemed
that there were two ways of doing this - to increase production by going
more intensive or to get premium prices for our stock by going organic.
"Although there was some scope for intensification, we were also limited
by the amount of silage we could make and the facilities on the farm. The
organic option attracted us as this meant only small changes to our existing
farm system plus, of course, the administrative work involved. This, we
felt, really left us with only one choice - to go organic.
"We accepted that the premiums payable for organic lamb could well
fall, but believed that there would be premiums payable for organic lamb
for the foreseeable future. In addition the Government is heavily committed
to supporting organic and environmentally friendly farming, so politically
it is unlikely that this support will be withdrawn," said Dylan Jones.
The family embarked on the organic conversion process about three years
ago and the farm has been fully organic for just over a year. One key change
resulting from organic conversion has been the recent introduction of a
small herd of Welsh Black cattle to what was previously a purely sheep farming
system. The cattle are seen as essential to maintain fertility of the land.
Another change has been in the marketing of lamb. Before the move to organic,
lamb was sold through local livestock markets, but is now all sold on the
hook through a co-operative. The same period has seen a steady development
in the sale of pedigree Lleyn breeding stock.
"We have taken a stake in the Cambrian Organic Group which has a contract
for supplying organic lamb to the Waitrose supermarket group. Co-operative
marketing has to be the way forward and I believe that such co-operatives
should be looking to negotiate directly with the supermarkets in setting
prices rather than farmers as individuals. If farmers and co-operatives
can pull together and offer volume, continuity of supply, and, above all,
ensure a high quality product, there would seem to be no reason why this
could not happen.
"We are selling all our lamb through the co-operative, though are not
contracted to do so, and, at the present time, are receiving a premium of
about £8 per lamb over open market prices. It also works well in that
the abattoir taking the lambs is only about a half hour's drive from the
farm which minimizes stress on the lambs.
"Whether you are selling conventional or organic stock quality is vital.
We start selling lambs at the beginning of July, then have batches going
weekly into the autumn. The Lleyn has proved its worth and we are now moving
rapidly towards running a pure Lleyn flock, which will give us both the
weight and quality of lambs we need. At the moment our pure Lleyn lambs
are making 17 to 18 kg carcase weight while lambs out of our crossbred ewes
are averaging about 19 kg carcase weights. "We are very proud that
so far this year (2002) at least 95 per cent of our Lleyn lambs have been
meeting the Waitrose specifications," said Emrys Jones.
Commercial considerations have been to the fore as Emrys and Dylan have
chosen their Lleyn breeding stock and this has also paid dividend in the
pedigree sales ring. They sold tups to 1,400 gns taking the third highest
price at the Lleyn Sheep Society's 2002 Ruthin sale and took the top price
of 2,000 gns for a tup sold at the NSA Builth Wells ram sales. High health
status is also seen as being vitally important. The flock is taking part
in the National Scrapie Eradication Scheme and all stock tups are of the
top ARRARR genotype.