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Stour Valley Sheep was started in 1999 mainly because of Gill's interest in textiles but also because we wanted to breed animals that were then in decline. We felt, and still do, that it is important to maintain the genetic heritage of a by-gone age. We are members of the Rare Breed Survival Trust and only keep rare or primitive breeds. Whilst we do not pretend to be organic, our sheep are well fed on local pasture and are not full of chemicals. The breeds that we keep tend to be relatively slow growing so our animals are guaranteed a much longer life than commercial stock. |
We have three breeds of sheep at this moment in time, Wensleydales, Dartmoors and Shetlands. Each have their own individual characteristics.
The Wensleydale is a tall, elegant sheep with a clean blue face and a long, lustrous fleece with tight crimp. Although big boned its meat is lean and full of flavour. It is probably the heaviest of our native breeds, the average mature weight of ewes is 113kg and rams 136kg. That's a big sheep!
The wool of the Wensleydale is exceptional and is very popular with hand-spinners. Fleeces are of 20 - 30 cms staple length and 33 - 35 micron thickness, with yearling fleeces weighing from 6 to 9 kgs
The Wensleydale is said to have the highest scrapie resistance of any of our indigenous breeds, and this, together with its average prolificacy of 250% for mature ewes and its quality fleece make it a good crossing sire.
The Greyface Dartmoor is a docile, medium sized sheep with a whitish grey face, mottled nose, short ears and a smile, giving it a somewhat teddy bear appearance. Its fleece is very heavy (a clip of 7-9kg can be expected with a higher yield of up to 15kg from mature rams) with a long curly lustre wool of wide staple. Its main use being for carpets. Because it is so well insulated the Greyface Dartmoor is able to survive severe winters and exposed conditions, although on soft ground its feet should be inspected at regular intervals.
The breed has average lambing prolificacy of about 140%. It is recommended that before lambing some of the fleece be clipped from around the udders to ensure easy access for the newly born lambs.
Being easy to handle the Greyface Dartmoor makes a good sheep for novices, an average mature ewe weighs 64kg, and rams 102kg.
The Shetland is the escapologist of the sheep world. It is small and very agile. It is known as a 'primitive' breed because it has remained relatively unchanged for hundreds of years. The ewe is usually hornless (polled), and the ram has nicely rounded horns. The meat is lean and very flavoursome indeed; some connoisseurs claim that hill bred mutton from Shetlands is unsurpassed. Rams usually weigh 40 to 55kg and ewes about 35 to 45kg. The fleece is very soft and can come in a variety of recognised colours and patterns. The average clip is 1.1kg. It makes excellent garments and is a favourite with hand spinners.
Shetlands are very robust and require little in the way of additional feed - they are excellent foragers and do well on land where other breeds would struggle.
The average prolificacy of Shetland ewes on poor grazing is about 130%. On improved pasture, the ewe is capable of greatly improved performance. The Shetland is very easy to lamb, with new-borns showing great vitality from the off. It is not unusual to see lambs attempting their first skip after a couple of hours!
We nearly always have a selection of livestock and fleeces for sale. We can supply single animals or a starter flock. Please email for details. Below are some thumbnails of a few of our sheep. Click on them to enlarge and use your web browser to go back. They give us much pleasure, we hope that you enjoy them too.
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