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© Lleyn Sheep Society

Produced by David Knowles


"The Lleyn is the modern sheep that lends itself to the single farm payment
because she is such an easy care breed," said Willie Davidson, who farms
with his wife Jennifer and their son Alisdair.
The demand for Lleyn sheep has soared over the past two or three years, and,with the new CAP reforms favouring low input systems, an increasing number
of flockmasters will undoubtedly be looking to this Welsh female breed toboost farm incomes.
At present, numbers of this extremely productive commercial ewe are stillrelatively low in Scotland, but sheep farmers will beable to view at first
hand the true capabilities of this increasingly popular breed at this years Scotsheep. The event, to be staged on Friday, May 28, is being hosted by
breed enthusiasts, the Davidson family from Poldean, Moffat.
"We wanted a simple system with reduced input costs where we can keep
replacement females and sell remaining females at a premium and the Lleyn has allowed us to do just that. Because the Lleyn is smaller framed, she only eats a fraction of the amount of concentrate feeding a Mule eats, yet she is still produces the same amount of lambs as a Mule." And, being a female breed, the Davidsons are convinced their Lleyns willproduce more crops of lambs compared to other pure and cross-bred sheep breeds. "The majority of breeds concentrate more on breeding terminal sires to
produce top quality prime wedder lambs. Even Blackface sheep breeders rely
more on the tup trade than the female or the wedder lamb market, therefore, many of the breeds female characteristics are being lost. Blackface sheep dont last like they used to, and that is beginning to come through in the Mule, whereas our Lleyns look as though they will easily produce five or six crops of lambs," added Willie, who up until
foot-and-mouth, relied predominantly upon both Blackface and Scotch Mule ewes.
Lleyn hoggs are also proving easier lambed compared to Scotch Mules lambed to a Texel as hoggs. "The Lleyn is the Salers of the sheep world. She has a wider pelvis and therefore the majority of the hoggs lamb themselves. We never get any problems lambing the hoggs to a Lleyn although we do split up twin-born lambs out of hoggs."
Its for this reason that the Lleyn ewe hoggs on this 2000-acre upland unit are lambed inside from the beginning of April onwards, while the Lleyn ewes lamb at the same time outdoors.
With the breed having performed so well as a commercial female, the demand for all types of females has also soared over the years. Furthermore, because the breed has the reputation for producing two or three more crops of lambs compared to other commercial sheep breeds, the draft Lleyn is also highly sought after with four and five crop ewes regularly having sold at more than £100 per head in the past.

Not surprisingly, the Davidsons Poldean females are also selling well, despite the family being relatively new to the breed. For example, the 15 Poldean Lleyn gimmers sold at Perth last year averaged £90 per head while the five ewe lambs sold at the same event levelled out at £70. Furthermore, that is without any dressing as according to Lleyn Society rules.
Even more notable for the flock, that was making its debut year selling Lleyns at the 2003 Carlisle breed sale, were the final figures cashed. Last year, the farm sold 60 gimmers at £80 per head and 50 ewe lambs at £75 each. Not to be outdone, the first time the family took Lleyn shearling rams to the same breed society sale at Carlisle, they came up trumps selling five to a top of £1800 to average £1050.
However, its not only the breeding males and females of the equation that sell well. Lleyn wedder lambs are also making their presence felt in the market place.
Willie added: "We keep all our Lleyns pure and because the breed is renowned
for its tight coat, it produces lambs with good tight skins which are always in demand.
"The Lleyn wedder lamb also sells better compared to a Mule wedder. We have
regularly topped the prime lamb market at Lockerbie with pure Lleyn lambs which at the beginning of December 2003, were selling for £50 per head plus, at weights of up to 48kg liveweight."Having lost no fewer than 600 Blackface ewes, plus hoggs; 750 Scotch Mule ewes and 486 head of pedigree and cross-bred Salers due to foot-and-mouth in
2001, the farm is now home to 350 Lleyn ewes; 150 Scotch Mules and Lleyn cross Mule ewes and 300 Salers cows.
However, such is the familys enthusiasm for the Lleyn, the hope is to reduce the cross-bred ewe flock to accommodate more pure Lleyns. The overall aim is to upsize the Lleyn flock to 500 ewes whilst also lambing 120 home-bred ewe hoggs. Having increased flock numbers, the family also hopes to sell breeding ewe lambs as apposed to gimmers.
"Foot-and-mouth, was the catalyst that allowed us to increase our Lleyn ewe flock numbers further," added Willie. "We were dabbling in Lleyns just before foot-and-mouth and because we liked what we were working with we decided to base our new sheep enterprise on Lleyns, which we purchased from Sandy Tulloch, Miltonbank; Norman Lawrence, Blackpotts and Debbie McGowan, Incheoch.
"We first saw Lleyns at David Alexanders open day at Galston, in 1999 and we were so impressed by the femininity of the breed, we bought at few from David and John Geldard. We also discovered there is far less hassle involved with Lleyns they require a lot less feeding than Mules, but still produce scanned lambing percentages in excess of 200%."
On average, the Davidsons believe Lleyns will only eat 2/3rds to 3/4s of the amount of concentrate type feeding a Mule will easily consume, and even then, there is often feeding left with the Lleyns. Not surprisingly, the Lleyns have to be separated off from the Mules when feeding is introduced accordingly, after scanning at the end of January.
Lleyns are obviously proving a roaring success farmed commercially on this mixed hill ground unit which rises to almost 1800ft. However, Poldean Lleyns also made their mark in the showring at the Highland Show last year, when the family not only secured the red, white and blue ticket, but also the reserve honours with a ram and gimmer, respectively, both of which were bred by David Alexander, Galston.
Hence, you can be rest-assured we have not heard the last of the Davidsons and their Lleyns yet.
"I dont think the bubble will burst. There will come a time when the breed will require a good sort out but if breeders continue to go for size, length and femininity there will always be a demand for the Lleyn. At the end of the day, the commercial man is looking for an easy care sheep that produces lambs with carcases and that is just exactly what the Lleyn achieves."

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The Davidsons of Poldean hosts of Scotsheep 2004