I don’t know where the summer has gone. Perhaps as we get older the months just go by faster.



Like most people we had a good lambing, or perhaps just a more normal year compared to last. Lambing at over 1.87% they have grown well, and I have been very pleased with both the 8 week and 20 week weights for each of our rams. I mentioned last year my interest in one particular ram that I bought from Edward Collins in 2012.



Well he has done it again. Now 2 crops of good lambs out of good ewes is clearly increasingly interesting and his latest Signet numbers certainly stand out (Maternal Index 252 and Carcass + Index 290), but realistically we won’t really know how good he is for another few years. In the mean time I have a number of his very nice shearling rams available this year. Among others the below are good examples and certainly worth investigation:

UK170122 02919

UK170122 03136

UK170122 02724

UK170122 02970



A new ram last autumn from Derek Steen (UK0582059 04126) is also looking very promising on his first crop.



As part of the Performance Recorded Lleyn Breeders Group we will be participating in a new and really interesting EBLEX funded saliva and FEC testing project. A large batch of lambs each year is tested as part of an ongoing project to ascertain which sheep have a greater vulnerability to worm. Clearly once lines are identified the principle will be to breed in strong worm resistance. This clearly has very interesting commercial connotations.



Like a lot of people we have made a lot of very good haylage – more than normal. I hope I don’t need it, but a number of global met weather sites are crunching the numbers and are suggesting that there is an above average risk of a locking high pressure system north of the UK this winter which could indicate a cold winter. Let’s hope not.



We are now well into the selling season and I hope we will see you at our farm or at the Lleyn Society sales in September/October.