What’s people’s thoughts on these sheep, what could be a better breed to have on grassy rough ground ?
Lleyn sheep ?
- Thread starter nufcwill123
- Start date
As with any breed there’s good and bad within the breed.
I run 350 Lleyn ewes but in a lowland setting in a mix of perm pasture, new let’s and herbal
leys.
mainly closed flock with most ewes home bred now.
Good maternal ewes that rear lambs easily. Crossed with a good terminal Charollaise and you get cracking lambs that sell very well normally.
But you need to find a good breeder looking for the same attributes as you want.
last year I added some Aberfield SR genetics with one ram. So farm I’m pleased with those. Will be interesting how ewe lambs lamb in Feb.
typical char cross lambs out of my ewes.
Nice lambs, I see people using all kinds off different terminal sires on the Lleyn I guess it’s what suits your system, them seem to do pretty well on rough ground too, where abouts can you buy them because it’s mainly all NCM or texels and Suffolk’s up my end.
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
The general consensus is that there are Lleyns and Lleyns, with a huge variation in types.
Some get on very well with them, like @Jerry seems to, others hate them. Pretty well everyone I know that used to run them, and like them at one time, on rough/upland ground, have changed to either Romneys or shedders, often by crossing them up/down (depending on your point of view).
Where about are you?
Have a look at the society pages and try and find a commercial breeder rather than an out and out pedigree breeder. Have a chat with them about your system and see what they can offer.
There is also the Lleyn Gold group that are performance recording.
If buying rams for own replacments be very selective, in fact I would not buy in a society sale, rather go see the farm and sheep
Easy care just don’t seem to look a great sheep, although I have seen people have some great results, romneys are a New Zealand breed ?
Think there's a lot of Lleyn in the background of Easycares anyway and plenty of the more maternal Lleyns wouldn't look far off an Easycare once sheared.
Romneys originate in Kent (Romney Marsh) but there's a lot of NZ selection marketing gone into the NZ Romney's that are popular now. Ask @Hilly about Romney's, he's in Scottish borders, guessing you're NE England by your username
- Location
- north Wales
I'm not a fan of lleyns, I've got a flock of around a 160 lleyns, just to put aberfield tups on them to retain the ewe lambs. Those are much better sheep
Similar except putting a maternal Texel tup over them for ewe lambs. They're ok ewes but not flash, think as @Jerry says you've got to find the right base stock or they are hit and miss
I got 90 and I could really tell you what I thought of them, probably mean there a good sheep tbh if you never notice them. I will breed them out now though as the breeder who used to sell me tups has given up lleyns.
- Location
- Scottish Highlands
Aren't the breeds you mention, along with the Lleyn, all descended from the Dishley Leicester? Interesting that the original breeders never published their pedigrees! I suspect some eye brows would have been raised if they had!
Think the best ones being the ones you don't remember goes for all commercial sheep. Even terminal rams it's best when they go about things quietly and lambs are away quick. Always the hard lambers or lambs you're left with that stick in the mind (usually as you look at the same ram over the hedge with a bunch of ewes thinking wtf have I kept him for!)
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
... and gone to shedders?
Thanks for that- never realised Lleyns originated in Ireland until I googled that bit! Some Dishley in so many breeds
- Location
- Dumfries & Galloway
Yeah he has.
That's what I said!
"The roots of the Lleyn are in Ireland, and to trace the early beginnings of the breed, the clock has to be turned back to around 1750. The pioneer breeder of cattle and sheep Robert Bakewell was in his prime and had exported some of his Dishley Leicester rams to Ireland to improve indigenous Irish sheep, resulting in the formation of the breed known as Roscommon"
https://www.lleynsheep.com/society/history/history-tom-rees-roberts/
We crossed Lleyn rams over improved Welsh ewes for 15 years and kept the daughters- they would consistently scan 175% on poor/high ground (1000-1600 feet) with no flushing or mineral drenching/blous. Put Char/Tex tups over them and lambed outside no bother. Reared tidy enough lambs and plenty of them.
They had quite enough triplets for our system- about 5% probably. Also some of the rams we bought in later years weren’t the best on their feet and this showed in the daughters- looking back this could have been solved with being fussier choosing ram breeders I’m sure.
Gone away from them and moved to shedders. Tried Easycare and Exlana- Jury is still out on hardiness though. Also can’t get them to scan over 130% no matter what we do- think the weather must be knocking them back when we tup in November.
Looking back there wasn’t much wrong with the Lleyn x welsh ewes for where we farm. Still got a handful left which have gone to the ram this year which are 8 years old. The wife says we need to go back to them- she does the accounts and says we need to be selling a lot more lambs!
They had quite enough triplets for our system- about 5% probably. Also some of the rams we bought in later years weren’t the best on their feet and this showed in the daughters- looking back this could have been solved with being fussier choosing ram breeders I’m sure.
Gone away from them and moved to shedders. Tried Easycare and Exlana- Jury is still out on hardiness though. Also can’t get them to scan over 130% no matter what we do- think the weather must be knocking them back when we tup in November.
Looking back there wasn’t much wrong with the Lleyn x welsh ewes for where we farm. Still got a handful left which have gone to the ram this year which are 8 years old. The wife says we need to go back to them- she does the accounts and says we need to be selling a lot more lambs!
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