Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
Black Welsh Mountain Sheep are a small, easy to manage, hardy breed native to Wales. Mountain sheep naturally do well on poor, rough forage but also thrive on lowland pastures. They seem quite content on our smallholding, overlooking Moel Fammau (soon to be a National Park).
One of the reasons we love Black Welsh Mountain Sheep (aside from being very cute and cheeky!), they are naturally resistant to most traditional sheep diseases and are lower maintenance. We say we like an easy life, but that's impossible when sheep are involved, even with our sheep!
Black Welsh Mountain Sheep are very maternal and make excellent mothers. They are naturally very milky, producing rich milk for their young. They are renowned for lambing easily, without assistance. Blink and you miss it!
Black Welsh Mountain Sheep were considered an 'At Risk' rare breed for much of the 20th century. Numbers in the UK fell below 5000 as recently as 2012, due to the textile industry preferring white wool and the commercial meat industry opting for larger breeds. In recent years, their numbers have increased due to their popularity with smallholders and hand spinners due to their hardy nature and maternal instincts. They are no longer in the 'At Risk' category with the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. Recognition must be given to The Black Welsh Mountain Sheep Breeders Society for their efforts in promoting the breed.
Our lambs are completely grass fed, breathing in the clean Welsh air at the foothills of the Clwydian Mountain Range.
There is evidence that grass fed meat is more nutrient dense, offering higher levels of heart healthy Omega 3 fatty acids, CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) and antioxidants such as vitamins A & E, while also containing more essential minerals such as iron, zinc, potassium and magnesium.
We are obviously biased but we truly believe the meat from our Black Welsh Mountain Sheep is the best we have ever tasted.
It's juicy, succulent and rich in flavour.
We believe in the seasonality of food. Food should be grown during the peak season depending on what it is, whether it's fruit and vegetables, meat and even eggs are seasonal. By working with the seasons, we have the most nutrient dense food available to us.
We time our breeding, so that our lambs are born in the spring when the grass is coming back to life and starting to grow well. By timing our lambing with the new grass growth, our ewes and lambs have the best nutrition available to them, without us having to supplement their diet.
Our sheep live outdoors foraging on grass and the hedgerows. Our lambs are slowly grown as nature intended. We don't 'fatten' them up on grain to finish them early. Some of our lambs will be ready in the Autumn and the smaller lambs will be kept on for longer, finishing the following spring, only supplemented with hay or silage over the winter.
Sheep are ruminants, which means their digestive system is designed for a forage-based diet not grain. We believe that providing our animals with as natural a diet as possible, leads healthier animals which in turn is healthier for us as meat consumers.
The only time we feed a compound feed to our sheep, is during the last 6 weeks of pregnancy if our ewes are expecting twins or triplets and are a maybe a little under weight. We continue supplementing their diet until the lambs are about 3 weeks old, as this is our ewes peak milk production time. At 3 weeks old, lambs will be starting to eat more grass, so their mothers won't require the extra nutrition.