One of the questions we get asked is why the breeds are rare in the first place and why they’re worth saving.
Often, and particularly with rare bloodlines within the breed, the stock was confined to a fairly small geographical area. It needed only a couple of farmers to retire and their stock to be dispersed in small numbers for it to become rare. The breed often flourished in the area it was developed in (Herdwick sheep or Highland cattle, say) and it needed only relatively few hill farmers or crofters to retire or a terrible event like the Foot & Mouth Disease outbreak of 2001 to reduce numbers to a perilously low level.
Why are they worth saving? Well, the answer we give always starts with the words “They’re the culmination of centuries of breeding by people who knew far more about the stock and the land they farmed than we ever shall.”
We presently keep Southdown and Badger Face Welsh Mountain sheep and a selection of poultry, including Speckled Sussex and Laced Wyandotte chickens. Please contact us for details of registered breeding stock, weaners, hatching eggs and chicks.
