'A really friendly event with excellent sheep where everyone learned something.' Nearly fifty visitors from the West Country and South Wales enjoyed a rewarding and very informative afternoon at the West Country Lleyn Sheep Breeders Club's annual Open Day, kindly hosted by Sarah and Paul Eckett on their farm at Hazelbury Bryan, Dorset. For once, the weather was ideal - sunny but not too hot.  

Paul outlined their background. They began keeping a commercial sheep flock around 40 years ago but felt the pull of pedigree stock and converted to Suffolks around 20 years later. However, they then fell in love with the Lleyn breed (The Ultimate Maternal Ewe), so changed their policy again, a decision they have never regretted.

The Ecketts own 10 acres at Hazelbury Bryan but rent another 37 acres at the moment, mostly in smallish parcels.

'We have 90 breeding ewes, which we lamb in two separate batches, to make best use of our barn space. We retain our own ewe lambs as replacements and to rear on as pedigree shearling ewes to be sold at Lleyn Sheep Society Sales. We also rear ram lambs, starting with 25 or so in late summer. These are carefully weeded out, bit by bit over the winter, leaving us with the best 4 or 5 for sale at Society Sales the following summer.'

Sarah explained that their selection of growing stock is based on the Society's Ewe Efficiency scheme (LLEYN GOLD) followed by a subjective assessment based on structure, (medium) size and style. This was very evident in the growth rate of the lambs we saw and the stylishness and evenness of all of the different classes of stock - breeding ewes, shearling ewes and ewe lambs. Paul explained that 'due to the small number of sheep we keep and the range of ages, it is difficult to produce batches that reach uniform killing weight and grades at the same time, so we sell our meat lambs as stores at Sedgemoor Market.'    

After the sheep walk, it was back for tea - a wonderful spread, with the background buzz of farmers discussing what they'd seen on the tour and the impressive groups of sheep in their pens. The Ecketts' home-bred shearling rams, stock rams and show team were on display and visitors were invited to guess the weight of sheep in a pen and also to do some stock judging, ranking 4 shearling ewes. Both competitions proved to be very popular. 

A very interesting presentation was given by the Ecketts' vet (Jo Childs, Friar Moor Livestock Health), who is working on a project comparing a range of commercial sheep colostrum substitutes. By studying blood samples from new born lambs given the various products, she has found there to be dramatic differences in product quality and effectiveness. One visitor explained about the app he uses, together with a Brix refractometer, to adjust colostrum dilution rates for optimum performance. This proved to be a very helpful and useful interactive discussion.     

Cathy Evans, the Club Secretary, thanked Paul and Sarah, as well as several of their relatives who helped make the event a success. The Ecketts were also congratulated on producing these high quality sheep after such a relatively short time in the breed.

All in all, the Open Day was extremely friendly, enjoyable and inspiring, bringing together old friends and new faces.

For those interested in Lleyn, the next Lleyn Sheep Society Sale, with quality stock suitable for both the commercial and the pedigree breeder, will be held at Exeter Livestock Centre on Thursday 22^nd August at 10 am (Kivells - 01392 251261; www.kivells.com.)    

Text - John Adams

Photos - Cathy Evans