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Jacob Sheep Jacobs are extremely attractive sheep, and are intelligent and inquisitive. They are very straightforward to look after, lamb easily and, on the whole, make excellent mothers. Virtually all ours will eat out of your hand, and always come to call which makes catching and penning a doddle! We run a small flock of well marked, mainly pedigree, breeding ewes of both the two horn and four horn variety. The best ewe lambs are kept for flock replacements - all the other lambs are reared for meat. We always try to lamb around Easter, in the hope that the sunshine will prevail and give the lambs the best start possible. We always lamb outside as this is by far the best place, and if the weather is inclement we put waterproof plastic coats on the lambs to protect them from the wet. The ewes are given their annual vaccination 4-6 weeks prior to lambing so that lambs have some immunity at birth. One or two lambs are usual, but Jacobs often have triplets or quads - we had two sets of triplets in 2008. Jacobs make excellent meat sheep - although they take longer to mature than commercial sheep, the meat is very lean and tasty. We rear our lambs to approx. 12 months old when they are then slaughtered and the meat sold in either half or whole lamb packs - our customers come back for more, year after year! The skins are sent to a tannery in Devon for processing into beautiful sheepskin rugs.
Herdwick Sheep Herdwick sheep are the native breed of the central and western Lake District and live on the highest of England’s mountains. They are extremely hardy and are managed in the traditional way on the Lake District fells that have been their home for generations. They are lovely, quiet sheep who resemble big, woolly teddy bears! Their wool was traditionally used for making carpets, as it is very coarse. Lambs are born with black-wool, but ewes go blue-grey with age. Unlike the Jacobs, a single lamb is usually the rule with Herdwicks, as in their natural environment of the fells there would not be enough nutrition in the grass for a ewe to support more than one lamb. The word “Herdwyck”, meaning sheep pasture, is recorded in documents going back to the
12th century. Herdwick sheep are the most hardy of all Britain’s breeds of hill sheep, grazing
the central and western dales of the Lake District with fells running to over three thousand
feet. The lambs graze with their mothers on the “heaf” belonging to that farm instilling a life
long knowledge of where on the fell they should be grazing. This is crucial as the central
Lake District fells are inaccessible and a sheep which strays from Borrowdale to Eskdale will
involve a 100 mile round trip by road for the farmer to collect it. Herdwick meat is renowned for its distinctive taste and eating quality – a natural result of the lambs maturing slowly on the heather and grasses of the Lake District fells. The meat is succulent, tender and tasty with a more gamey flavour than conventional lamb. They, like the Jacobs, take longer to mature than the commercial breeds, but the quality of the meat more than makes up for it.
For more information: Email: info@hendrafarm.co.uk |
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