Welcome to the Bearwood pedigree sheep website. My name is Edward Collins and I established the Bearwood Lleyn Flock (Flock 981) in 1998 and it now totals 400 ewes. I am vice-chairman of the Lleyn Sheep Society and also vice-chairman of the Society’s Breed Developement Committee. Please contact me if you require further information about this unique breed of sheep.
The Lleyn ewe is very versatile. She is a medium-sized ewe, prolific, lambs easily, is a good mother, a good forage converter and is long lived. You can breed her pure or put another breed on her. I only use Lleyn rams and the majority of lambs going for meat meet the R3L classification or better with an average carcase weight of 20 kg.
In 2011 I started a small flock of Blue Texel sheep, with the majority of ewes bought at the Millside Blue Texel Production Sale, with the remainder coming from the Jonsland Blue Texel and Mac Blue Texel flocks. I aim to slowly build the Blue Texel numbers up over the coming years and also put the Blue Texel ram to a few of my Lleyn ewes as this cross would make an ideal breeding ewe for the commercial farmer.
Lleyn Ewes
Information for Breeders and Producers
The two flocks are kept on permanent pasture that is in the Low Input System of the Entry Level Scheme and is managed by one person, so all the easy care traits and most importantly ease of lambing are taken into account when selecting replacement ewes and rams.
The Lleyn flock is performance recorded and is a member of Signet Breeding Services. We intend to start performance recording the Blue Texels immediatley and will therefore have figures available for lambs born in 2012. At present there are no Blue Texel flocks being recorded with Signet. I would like to see “ease of lambing” being included in the Blue Texel performance figures alongside carcase quality.
We weigh lambs at birth, 8 weeks and 21 weeks and scan lambs at 21 weeks for back fat and muscle depth. All this data is evaluated and each animal is given an Estimated Breeding Value (EBV) for the most important genetic traits. These are 8-Week weight EBV, Mature size EBV, Litter size EBV, Maternal ability EBV, Scan weight EBV, Muscle depth EBV and Fat depth EBV.Certain high indexed rams are blood tested to see whether they are carriers of the MyoMAX gene (to learn more about MyoMAX, go to the “Stock Rams & MyoMax” page on this website). Performance data in conjunction with an assessment of breed type and confirmation are used to select stock as replacements and for sale.
These EBVs can assist breeders and ram buyers to identify stock for a specific breeding objective. Please contact me to discuss your requirements or for help with understanding Estimated Breeding Values.
The Bearwood Lleyn Flock had a successful season in competitions in 2011. It won the Midland Lleyn Club’s Large Flock Competition and was awarded Champion Flock overall. It also won The Best Managed Flock Of Sheep class at the Weobley & District Agricultural Improvement Society’s annual competition. Last autumn one of the flock’s high indexed ram lambs was judged to be the top Ram Lamb at the Lleyn Sire Reference Group’s annual Selection Day. It has been a member of the Sire Reference Group for over 10 years.
We sell Lleyn males and females through the Lleyn Sheep Society sales at Exeter, Ross-on-Wye,Ruthin, Carmarthen and Builth Ram Sale and privately off the farm.
Ewes in the shed before lambing
Information for Consumers
We welcome those interested in how animals are raised and food is produced to our site. Our blog is designed to provide an on-going summary of events on the farm as they occur throughout the year.
