Laverstoke Park

Education Centre

Organic Sheep

We have five different breeds of sheep  They all live outside apart from when they come in for lambing.  They occupy approximately 400 acres.  

Lleyns 
We have 700 ewes, 14 rams and anticipate 1,120 lambs between the months of April and May.  The breed originates from the Lleyn peninsula in Wales.  Until recently they were not found far from their home range and at one point were listed as a rare breed.  They have the traditional white wool and no horns.

Lleyns are quiet in nature, prolific and make good mothers with plenty of milk.  The Lleyn do well grazing our herbal leys of over 30 clovers and herbs, and they form an integral part of our rotational grazing system.  They produce exceptionally fine meat and a slightly bigger carcass than the Hebridean.

Hebrideans
We have 280 ewes, 4 rams and anticipate 322 lambs between the months of April and May.  Hebrideans produce a small carcass but it is the best tasting of our lambs, being very tender and succulent.

This ancient breed of sheep originates from Scotland and the Western Isles; they are thought to be descended from Neolithic sheep.

Hebridean sheep are fine-boned with flowing horns and black fleeces, giving them an attractive and unusual appearance.  Both sexes can have two or more horns and although the fleece is black it can become sun bleached to brown.  Some sheep can also go grey with age, particularly on the hindquarters and hand spinners and weavers seek selected fleeces on this basis.

Polled Dorset
We have 130 ewes and 4 rams. A proportion lambed last January and the remainder will lamb in November to produce 175 lambs.

Polled Dorsets are capable of breeding out of season.  This means we can produce succulent lamb in all season.  They have very good quality wool and are very docile sheep.

Lacaune 
We have 90 ewes, 4 rams and anticipate 126 lambs between the months of April and May.

Lacaune are tall, long-legged with floppy white ears, with a very short fleece.

Lacaune represent an excellent and robust milking breed characterised by good milk performance with high butter fat and milk protein - high daily gains in lambs, producing mild tasting, nicely coloured meat.

The Lacaune is a Southern French breed of milking sheep.  They are famous as the breed which produces the milk for Roquefort Cheese.

They are good grazers and do well on the rich organic Laverstoke leys - we will be embarking on a milking programme and aim to be producing a Laverstoke version of Roquefort Cheese in the near future.

Balwen
We have 80 ewes, 3 rams and anticipate 79 lambs between the months of April and May.

Balwen are Welsh mountain sheep with distinct colouring, which is black fleece with a white blaze on their face, white feet and half a white tail.  They are very hardy and low maintenance.

To view the current lambing figures for this spring click here. 

Comparison Chart