Lleyns - the original added value enterprise

Adding value to the business doesn't have to mean running a farm shop, converting the spare rooms for B&B or even building an off road course. Richard and Jennifer Twose have found that establishing a stud flock of high performance Lleyn ewes on their South Wales dairy unit is paying dividends as well as essential to efficient grassland management.

The Twose farm 560 acres based at Login, near Whitland, in Carmarthenshire where their Maenhir herd of 300 pedigree Holstein cows averaging 8,500 litres is by far their key enterprise. However sheep have played an important complementary role on the unit for more than 20 years, says Richard who farms in partnership with his twin brother, Joe, and parents, Joe and Rosemary.

"Like many units, this farm has areas that are unsuitable to graze cattle. They're too distant from the steading, too rough, too steep or too wet in early spring. They're areas only sheep can take on. There's also the autumn reseeds that need to be grazed annually, and we count on sheep to control Ragwort," he explains.

The couple used to run what amounted to a flying flock of 250 commercial ewes until the late 1980s when they became conscious of buying in too many health problems. "Around the same time we became aware of the Lleyn working as a successful dam line in other Welsh flocks and demonstrating that superior performance. Compared with our cross ewes, Lleyns were more prolific, they had the ability to rear two lambs on minimum input, and these lambs had better conformation.

"We invested in our first Lleyn ram and 20 ewes and lambs and since we've never looked back. We've found the ewes easy to lamb and guaranteed to have sufficient milk - orphan lambs are now a thing of the past. Lambs are hardy, lively and tight skinned while the ewe's milkiness is reflected in lamb performance, March born twins are averaging between 15kg to 20kg liveweight off milk and grass within eight weeks, and they go on to finish at 18kg to 20kg deadweight off milk and grass at an average 16 weeks and grade within the preferred specification, " says Richard.

Furthermore ram lambs which aren't sold for breeding purposes are stored through to back end and sold on the rising market at 20kg deadweight. Initially they're grazed on silage aftermaths, before being moved on to tidy up swards once the dairy herd has been winter housed, he explains.

"We soon came round to thinking that the Lleyn was not only a sound commercial option but the breed also offered added value. Other commercial producers were waking up to the breed and its benefits and demand was beginning to outstrip supply. So here was an additional opportunity for us to develop a stud flock of purebred Lleyns to produce lambs for breeding purposes. Since"

Richard and Jennifer have gradually built up their Maenhir flock of 150 pure bred ewes with bloodlines carefully chosen for scale - ewes to reach a target 80kg average mature bodyweight. They've also selected for conformation, in particular hind quarter muscling, balanced with dairy characteristics. The flock is scrapie genotyped with 98% recording R1 or R2.

"We've established a split lambing flock with one third of ewes sponged to lamb in January and the remainder, lamb naturally in March," Jennifer explains. "Split lambing helps relieve the work load and pressure on accommodation, and it provides the early born ram lambs with a head start and an opportunity for those we've decided to finish to sell on to the Easter market." The early lambing flock scan at 175%, while ewe lambs scheduled for March, 150% and the remaining ewes, 200%. The early lambing ewes are averaging six crops or more and the remainder, four," she says.

The Lleyns have also introduced closed flock status to the Maenhir. "That's something that should not be under estimated in terms of minimizing the risk of infection to our high health dairy herd including Borders disease, Salmonella and foot rot, as well as FMD," says Jennifer. "Farming sheep also over rides the TB issue. This farm has been shut down on occasions and sheep have been our only cash flow."

"So where do we go from here?" asks Richard. "We're satisfied that both our cattle and sheep enterprises are achieving our goal to maximize their performance potential off this farm. As far as the Lleyns are concerned, we are confident that we have the resources to double ewe numbers should we wish to meet the escalating demand for this quality added value damline."