How an upland farm doubled its hill sheep index in three years

An upland farmer is increasing his income from lamb sales by performance recording his closed flock of Welsh Mountain ewes.

In five years, the average weight of lamb produced a ewe in Elfyn Owen’s flock has increased by 9.3kg, to 47.6kg.

Elfyn, who farms with his wife, Ruth, at Ffrith Arw near Llanrwst, North Wales, recognised the value of achieving genetic gains driven through estimated breeding values (EBVs) long before he started recording the purebred Welsh Mountain Cernyw flock in 2019.

See also: How an upland farm is adapting to unpredictable seasons

He had been performance recording his Cernyw Bluefaced Leicester flock since 1997 and, at 36.7mm, that flock’s EBV for muscle depth is the highest yet recorded in the breed.

“It was a natural progression to record the Welsh ewes when we had the chance to join the Hill Ram Scheme in 2019 and then Tier 1 of Farming Connect’s Welsh Sheep Genetics Programme [WSGP],” says Elfyn, national chair of the Bluefaced Leicester Sheep Breeders’ Association.

Farm facts

© Debbie James

Ffrith Arw near Llanrwst, North Wales

• 81ha farmed
• Land rising to 340m
• Closed flock since the early 1980s
• Set stocking
• Fat lambs sold at St Asaph and Ruthin markets and deadweight to Kepak
• Lambs sold at 46kg liveweight average
• Bluefaced Leicester ewes lamb indoors in February and March
• Habitat Wales Scheme agreement
• Compound fertiliser only applied to silage fields

The Bluefaced Leicester flock is now included in Tier 2 of the WSGP.

A flock of 480 Welsh Mountain ewes and 70 Bluefaced Leicesters are run on the 80ha (200-acre) farm, producing lambs solely from grazed grass.

Elfyn markets recorded sires and replacement ewes at breed sales, while also selling fat lambs into the liveweight and deadweight markets.

He has been breeding the Llandovery Whiteface-type ewe since the end of the 1970s, as he says it is well matched to the conditions at Ffrith Arw: “The sheep have good skins, good wool on them; they suit our system of producing lamb entirely from grass.”

Because of the extensive nature of the system, 200 of the Welsh ewes are recorded using DNA parentage techniques. These are funded 50:50 by Elfyn and the WSGP.

The ewes are condition scored and weighed in autumn before the tups are turned in during December, at a ratio of one ram to every 50 sheep.

Pregnancy scanning in the 2023 breeding season showed a scanning percentage of 160%, but Elfyn says he is aiming for 180%.

“For us, recording is about prolificacy too. We are not a mountain farm, we are an upland farm with improved land and want as many lambs as possible,” he says.

“We are working on getting two lambs a ewe with improvements in muscle depth, conformation and weight – we have the type of sheep that can make it work.’’

The Welsh ewes lamb outdoors in May. At lambing, twin-bearing ewes are drafted into one field and their progeny are electronic identification tagged.

DNA samples are taken from their ears and analysed to match to that of the ewes, which allows parentage to be assigned.

Lambs are weighed at eight weeks and again at 20 weeks of age.

Having EBVs, which indicate exactly where an animal ranks within the breed for specific traits of economic importance, play an important role in flock profitability, says Elfyn.

Having those figures allows him to make better breeding decisions, both within his own flock and when breeding rams and replacements for sale.

Since he started recording in 2019, eight-week weights have increased from -0.19kg to 0.62kg.

Muscle depth has gone from -0.12mm to 0.22mm and scanning weights have increased by 1.71kg. “Something is working,’’ he adds.

A major development in June 2023 saw the hill index expressed financially as the expected annual return (£) a ewe, to provide a way of ranking animals based on the economic merit of their genetics.

Elfyn’s figures show that in 2020, his flock’s average index was £5.16. Performance recording had helped to increase this to £10.11 in 2023.

He is not surprised: “We are getting better weights and muscle depth, it is making the ewe more efficient and making her work for us without any concentrates,” he says.

The value in recording is also evident in his sale of stock, with yearling tups averaging £1,000 at the 2023 Prohill sale.

Each year, Elfyn uses more of his own recorded tups on his commercial flock.

Recording is not only helping him to improve his commercial ewes, but he thinks it is helping the sheep industry overall become more efficient.

“Progress is what you would call it. Livestock farming is so important for Wales, we are grateful that the Welsh government recognises this and is supporting us with the Farming Connect programme, and the WSGP in particular.”

Recording in Welsh hill flocks is one of the tools that will help the industry address some of the challenges ahead.

“Recording may seem time consuming to some, but it is time well spent and worth the investment,” he says.

“We can only keep sheep or beef on the type of land we have – and it is sheep that I am passionate about.’’