LLEYN SHEEP
The Lleyn Ewe
The Lleyn ewe is a medium sized lowland sheep weighing up to 75kg at maturity, renowned for their hardiness, prolificacy, easy lambing, strong mothering instinct, milkiness and easy handling.
The wool is white and free from any coloured fibres or kemp and is of good length, dense and of high quality with plenty of crimp. Heads must be feminine and warm white in colour with wide foreheads, good length from eye to nose - being straight to slightly dished and narrowing towards the nose. Bright lively eyes and a black nose. Medium sized ears with black spots are desirable with the base of the ear starting from the wool. The breast is to be wide and well forward.
The neck should be well set in the shoulders and of medium length. The back should be long with well sprung ribs and broad loins which are well joined to the rump.
The legs which are warm white in colour, should be well set with no wool lower than the hock. Flat boned and strong on the pasterns.
Prolific
The Lleyn ewe is renowned for her tremendous mothering ability, ease of lambing, longevity and prolificacy (with flocks regularly rearing 200%)
Economic
The major cost in producing a lamb is the upkeep of its mother. Hardy, prolific and thrifty Lleyns are unmatched in the sheep world for their low input high output productivity
Consistent Quality
Pure bred male lambs are no by-product of this predominantly female breed, with grade sheets returning primarily U's & R's at 3L in the 18 to 20kg dead weight range. Crossing a Lleyn ewe with a Terminal Sire will result in premium quality lambs & can compliment any Terminal Sire Breed.
Organic
Lleyns have been found to be well suited to organic production with low demand on limited forage, little feed inputs required and what appears to be a natural tolerance to worms
The Lleyn Ram
Lleyn Rams are an ideal way to inject maternal traits, fertility and hybrid vigour back into breeding ewes.
The Lleyn ram has also become popular for crossing onto hill and lowland ewes to produce a quality prime lamb or to produce a Lleyn cross female replacement that carries the qualities of the Lleyn ewe.
High Health
High health status sheep can be sourced from the many Society sales. Many Maedi Accredited, EAE Accredited, Scrapie Monitored. Being a pure breed you can easily run a closed flock reducing the risk of buying disease into your flock.
Bio-security is becoming an important issue for the sheep industry. Many members of the Lleyn Sheep Society have closed their flocks in an effort to improve the health status of the sheep they produce, and to maintain their disease-free position.
Running a closed flock introduces the ultimate level of traceability to all prime lambs, which is undoubtedly a major issue in the future of prime lamb production
Closed Flock
Opting for a high health bio-security conscious closed flock is becoming increasingly common as flockmasters reassess their breeding programs
One of the outstanding features of the Lleyn is its ability to simultaneously produce both quality prime lambs and pure or half-bred commercial ewes. This rare benefit offers the commercial farmer the facility to run a closed nucleus flock from which they can breed replacements and thus reduce costs and maintain a disease free flock