Going organic five years ago presented a number of challenges to Warwickshire sheep producers, Wallace and Josie McCurdie, however introducing the Lleyn as their flock damline is helping them to establish an easy care, relatively high performance, sustainable enterprise. What's more, switching to 800 pure Lleyns is enabling the couple to achieve the benefits of a closed flock and eventually to market added value purebred replacements.

Last spring the McCurdies carried out their own commercial field trial turning out to grass one third of their winter housed ewes in mid March in readiness to commence lambing one month later. "We found that Lleyns are highly suited to this system. For starters they've a quiet temperament and are a pleasure to shepherd, they're great foragers and seem to prefer the outdoors, and they presented no real problems at lambing," Wallace explains.

"We averaged a practical lambing percentage of 185% from ewes put to the ram. These new born Lleyn lambs were extremely lively, they had that will to live and were soon up and sucking without assistance and their dams demonstrated true motherability. So overall, fewer inputs were required in particular labour which was reduced by up to 30%."

"Also one of the biggest bonuses of lambing outdoors was lowering the flock's disease risk. We were only too aware of the bugs that build up among the winter housed ewes in straw bedded sheds and since we started the organic conversion process we can no longer reach for the medicine cupboard to treat E coli induced problems, or even prophylactically with antibiotics. Nowadays, maintaining a healthy flock is down to management."

In fact such was the outdoor lambing trial's success that Wallace and Josie are planning to step up the number of Lleyn ewes lambed outdoors this season to at least two thirds of the flock including all those scanned carrying twins. Eventually they may turn the entire flock outdoors to lamb. "Outdoor lambing is one of those familiar practices," he says. "I introduced the system to Stoneleigh Park when I was managing the RASE Sheep Unit 30 years ago."

Three decades on, accompanied by much shear hard work and determination, and the McCurdies farm one owner occupied and two tenanted units totaling 600 acres, all within one ring fence based at Bondon Farm, Birdingbury, near Rugby. However it was five years ago when their business underwent the biggest change. They acquired the tenancy of that third farm, built a new steading on a green field site, and converted the entire area farmed to organic status.

Going organic was literally a natural progression, says Josie. "Looking after the environment is something we take very seriously, for example in the last four years we've planted 36,000 hedge whips and trees. And we'd signed up to two Countryside Stewardship schemes long before they became fashionable. In addition, our farmland is bisected by three miles of river which feeds into a domestic supply for the Midlands and with a total of 140 acres on the river plain - an area which is frequently flooded, we felt we had a responsibility to keep that water as clean as possible. We were also keen to pursue the challenge presented by organic production and its management requirements," she says.

"For starters we began to implement an eight year rotation with three years of clover rich grass swards to build up the fertility followed by cereals and beans," Josie explains. "We cut back the ewe numbers from 1,200 to 800 head, started to phase out the Mules kept for finished lamb production for Lleyns by buying quality pedigree stock. And later lambing complemented the new management system.

"Our target is to establish an R1 stud flock of 100 pedigree Lleyns to breed high quality rams; a further 500 purebred registered Lleyn ewes and sell the purebred ewe lambs for breeding purposes, and put the bottom 25% of the flock to the Charollais for finished lamb production." Charollais rams are sourced from their own complementary pedigree flock comprising 60 Charollais ewes for pedigree ram breeding purposes.

Within such a short five year period, the McCurdies say they're pleased with the Lleyn's results. In 2002, their crop of registered yearling ewes sold to average £100 a head, while registered rams leveled at £700.

Charollais cross Lleyn lambs are finishing off their dams and grass within 16 weeks at 19kg to 20kg deadweight and grading out within the specification, and they're marketed through organic schemes to achieve a premium over conventional lamb whenever possible. Similarly, purebred Lleyn wethers are finished to similar weights over the same period.

"When it comes to grassland management, then implementing a clean grazing policy is critical to the organic system. "The leys are grazed in year one, conserved in the second year, and finally grazed by the lambs. It's in our best interests to maintain all our ewes and lambs worm free, even though the Soil Association permits a derogation to worm once a year with specific anthelimintics," says Wallace. "Feet also present a challenge, we regularly run the flock through zinc sulphate baths however, the Lleyn has black horn and it tends to be relatively resistant."

He adds: "Since an increasing number of environmental scheme payments have become available, I believe farmers are going to have to adapt and take advantage of them in order for their businesses are to survive. We're fortunate in that we've already made a head start, our revised sheep enterprise is fitting comfortably within the organic regime. And we're confident that choosing the purebred Lleyn as a dam line will pay dividends and meet the current insatiable demand for the breed as more and more producers like ourselves seek to close their flocks, achieve high health status and ultimately full traceability."

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