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Our small flock
of sheep at the farm are very useful lawn mowers but also produce
the most tender of lamb. We have a mixed flock of Mules and Mule x
Suffolk sheep. The Mule is a variety bred in Cumbria combining a
hardy hill breed like the Swaledale and a delicate long in the body
and traditionally very milky animal like the Blue Faced Leicester.
This is a fabulous sheep with easy lambing that make excellent
mothers. I breed (tup) these ewes with a Suffolk ram that is owned by my farming guru and advisor of all things farm related, David Sullivan. The Suffolk is renowned as a terminal sire ( i.e. the meaty part of the union with the Mule females) and lends all the fantastic conformation and good muscle size we get in our lambs. With a variety of grassland around the village we are able to take about half our lambs to fat weight and the other half are sold as store lambs (lambs that are going to be stored over winter and taken to fat weight using concentrate nuts or fodder crops). Because we don't use concentrate nuts (other than when really cold) and only feed hay in the winter our lambs take almost a whole year to make it to a good weight and as such our meat benefits from stacks of flavour and texture. These lambs are known as hogget and are becoming more and more fashionable. Due to our system we do not have lamb all year round and there is a only a limited supply. You can order a whole or half lamb from the farm or buy it at 'The Meat Room' at Parsonage Farm in Upton. Our lamb is only available fresh in the Spring. |