A Worcestershire Lleyn flock has been recognised by Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board as the most progressive flock of the breed in England.
Bank Farm Lleyn, owned by Marcus and Kathryn Bullock from Abberley won the ‘Decade of Progress’ award based on the flock’s genetic merit and improvement over the past 10 years.
Marcus’ interest in the Lleyn breed started when he studied the breeds that were used to bring the Lleyn out of rare breed status for his degree thesis at Harper Adams.
He gradually changed his flock from crossbreds to purebred Lleyn between 1988 and 1991 and now runs 600 breeding females.
Breeding goals
Marcus has always recorded his sheep but in 2005 joined Signet.
“Before 2004 I felt the focus of the breed was on prolificacy which didn’t fit with the sheep I wanted to produce,” he said.
“However, when the breed carcase traits and index were more in line with the sheep I wanted I decided to record with Signet, and have been doing so ever since.”
Marcus rarely buys stock in as he wants to evolve the genetics of the flock from bloodlines on the farm.
“I haven’t bought any females since the foundation ewes in 1988 and in the last six years, I have only bought three rams,” he said.
When selecting for breeding I look for twin-born, a very good mouth and feet, good conformation and not too big.
“The flock has been involved in work to enable the selection of animals for parasite resistance and so I also select for worm resistance FEC EBV.
“I have a strict breeding policy to make sure the breed continues to move forward and so anything that doesn’t make the grade is removed from the flock.
“Having the figures and records behind the animals means I can easily make those selections.
Unlike many UK flocks who are looking for the reason to retain a sheep, we are constantly looking for any reason to either cull them, or demote them to our later-lambing commercial flock.
When making breeding decisions, Marcus has the customer in mind so he produces animals they want to buy.
On-farm sales
In the early years, Marcus sold stock through society sales but the second foot and mouth outbreak in 2007 made him re-evaluate what he was doing.
“The outbreak meant sales were postponed and I began to think closely about where I wanted the flock to be,” he said.
“I decided to sell everything from home and in 2016 started the first production sale on the farm. It started with rams but in 2017 I began selling females this way too.
“I’m finding more people want to buy off-farm – all the sheep are performance recorded and the flock has a high health status, including MV [Maedi Visna] and EAE [Enzootic Abortion Of Ewes] accredited, CLA [Caseous Lymphadenitis] tested and it is also scrapie genotyped.”
“We tend to sell older ewes and keep our flock at home young. There’s a good demand for an older ewe and at our farm sales, they go for the best price. They come with the benefit of good genetics as well as known performance that back up the figures.”
