Boakley Lleyns (Flock 2309) consists of a Flock of 600 mv accredited ewes that are owned and managed by Reuben Saunders.
Reuben has been farming in Malmesbury, Wiltshire for the past 12 years and is well known in the community in both Wiltshire and Gloucestshire.
He has successfully farmed Lleyns for the past 4 years. He's also a member of The West County Lleyn Sheep Breeders Club and won an award in the 2014 large flock competition.
All the ground is tenanted without the benefit of subsidy so the Lleyn sheep have to be efficient to maintain a profitable business. Breeding aims are to produce an animal with a good structure that will rear twins and perform well on a low input system without the necessity for extra human intervention. This is done by a strict culling policy, detailed on farm recording and Signet Recording. The selection process starts at lambing with anything causing any problems being given a slaughter tag. Lambs are weighed at birth, most importantly at 8 weeks to identify the maternal qualities of the ewes and at weaning (100 days) aiming for ewe to rear her own body weight in lambs, this is known as Lleyn Gold. Lambs with breeding potential are also weighed at 21 weeks when eye muscle depth and fat depth is measured to give a good indication of carcase quality.
Ewes are lambed outside in April on a grass based system with feed blocks being the only hard food being fed on the lead up to lambing. Lambs are finished off grass at around 20kg dead weight with the majority off the farm by November grading R3L or better.
Stock are available for sale on farm and at society sales, please see stock for sale page.