Orsedd Fawr farm rises to 1000ft in Cwm Ystrallyn and Clynog Fawr. As well as a flock of 550 commercial ewes and herd of suckler cows, Gwyn Parry manages a flock of 250 Llandovery Welsh ewes on the organic fam. Selling rams for over 10 years, Gwyn prides himself on selling rams in  their working clothes, not pushed or pampered, and maintains a strict culling policy. In 2019 he started performance recording the 250 pure ewes as part of Meat Promotion Wales Hill Ram Scheme.

These medium size 65kg ewes scan at 170-180% and lamb outdoors from mid-March through to April. Gwyn runs an entirely grass based system with ewes and lambs receiving no concentrates and all lambs finished on grass. Therefore, the ability to perform on grass in a hill environment is in this system as well as ewe longevity.

Historically, Gwyn has sourced all his replacement rams from reputable flocks, buying older rams that are proven performers. As the Hill Ram Scheme progresses, the number of Welsh hill rams available for sale with supporting performance data will increase.

Gwyn has started performance recording the flock to improve overall flock performance.

“Using EBVs, I hope to remove the worst performing ewes, maintaining the best ewes – that perform well on grass and last in the flock – for breeding. By performance recording, we will be able to make evidence-based decisions on the ewes that stay, taking out the guess work!”

Bedwyr Jones farms alongside his family in the heart of Snowdonia National Park. Mr Jones has been based at Gwastadanas for over 20 years and is focused on selecting for maternal traits and ease of lambing as well as focusing on good performance from poorer quality grass. Bedwyr strives to ensure that the ewes are both efficient and productive.

The farm is in the Glastir environmental scheme so it is vital to the business that the ewes adapt to their surroundings and enable lambs to thrive. 

1200 ewes are tupped annually by Welsh Mountain tups, 350 of which are performance recorded. 600 ewe lambs are retained annually as replacements. Two tooth ewes are mated with a Romney and the best performing ewes are mated to Welsh rams in the following year.

Bedwyr has used performance recording in the past and feels that it is an extremely useful tool to enable fine tuning of breeding decisions and has joined the scheme to record and gain more accurate knowledge of which animals are performing well in his system.

The farm has a long-standing sale of home-bred rams hosted at Gwastadanas, with around 40 sold each year. The project will seek to support Mr Jones with this sale and promote the performance recording alongside his vast experience.

 ‘The Snowdonia Mountain range is an unforgiving environment and I am excited to see the results from being able to select ewes that consistently perform in this system. Being able to use DNA sampling technology means I do not have increased labour at lambing time but am still able to record my flock in this extensive system’.

Nestled in the Cothi Valley, Aberbranddu is a farm with a keen focus on efficiency and driving profitability. Irwel and his family have initiated various projects on their farm over several years – focusing on elements such as grassland management and animal health. They have managed a closed flock for 40+ years, only investing in replacement rams and breeding hardy, easy to manage maternal ewes. The entire flock lamb outdoors and are managed in large groups in order to make a fair comparison in their performance.

Irwel feels that the flock is now genetically ready to push the boundaries as well. The key focus of the farm’s genetic selection will be for ewes producing lambs from a grass-based system that are saleable as soon as possible. In addition to the cumulative benefits of selecting improved genetics for the Aberbranddu flock, the aim will also be to sell rams with performance figures. 

‘Keeping an eye on market requirements means my flock need to consistently produce lambs above 16kg with R confirmation grade or better as quickly and efficiently as possible. I take great pride in selling my rams at the local breed society sale in Tregaron and producing rams with EBVs will be an opportunity for my customers to have added assurance of my rams’ performance’

Rhidian Glyn is a young farmer based in Machynlleth. He is passionate, business focused and constantly seeks out innovation opportunities for his system. Since taking on the 10-year business tenancy the farm has grown form strength to strength and ewe genetics is viewed as the backbone of the flock and the driver of financial performance.

Rhidian keeps 800 Welsh ewes, 300 0f which are performance recorded and bred pure. To produce replacements. All ewes are lambed outdoors and have not received hard feed for the last 3 years.

Rhidian has also successfully established a market for cross-bred ewes from his flock that provide extra income to the business. Slaughter lambs are finished at a minimum of 16kgs DW and average 18kgs.

Grass production also seen as an important aspect of the farm and rams bred for sale will be reared on a grass-based system.

‘I am hoping to improve ewe efficiency as a result of the scheme. It will mean stronger performers and their progeny can be easily identified, and just as importantly the bottom performers can be pulled from the breeding nucleus’.

 ‘Through the scheme I will identify the top 25% breeding ewes in my flock and in time this will trickle through to the cross-breed ewes I sell by continuously improving my whole flock average performance’

Bardsey Island is located off the coast, at the very tip, of the Llyn Peninsula; it is home to a wide variety of wildlife both land and sea, as well as a flock of Welsh hill ewes. Gareth Roberts and his wife Meriel, with help from the family, are the owners and guardians of the flock on Bardsey and have sought to join the Hill Ram scheme to improve its commercial performance in this unique environment and expand in to ram selling.

The scheme will allow Mr Roberts to assess the physical performance of the ewes, identifying animals with superior maternal and carcass production traits within his flock and maximising them through breeding selection. As a result, he can select the right genetics within his flock and improve performance and efficiency without changing their surroundings.   

‘Working with the National Trust means we fully understand the need to have tools in place to encourage the natural environment around us; the ewes are an efficient and essential part of the island’s life cycle’

Read Gareth’s Case Study

The Tynes manage 200 Improved Welsh ewes in Pwllheli, North West Wales. The ewes have been recorded for 13 years and in that time, the quality of the sheep has improved significantly. The initial focus for selection in the flock was on maternal trait EBVs to raise the standard of the ewes. Now that the type of the ewes is more consistent and they are in the top 10% for performance within the breed. By now, the Tynes consider the overall index when selecting replacements but with strong focus still on maternal performance.

The main drive for breeding in the flock is on producing good female lines and breeding rams that give customers top quality ewe lambs.

The farm system is forage based, utilizing grazed grass and home-grown silage. Ewes do not receive hard feed and lambs are all grass finished, meaning that data is collected in an unbiased way.

Every ewe lamb is retained until selections when they are shearlings, the best are retained as replacements in the flock and the rest are sold to repeat customers.

Male lambs are retained to assess their potential as breeding stock and the remainder sold through market.

The Tynes have joined the hill ram scheme to continue improving the genetic merit of the flock, making use of technology such as DNA parentage to make the recording process more efficient.

Read Tim and Dot’s Case Study

Carys farms in partnership with her family following her return home from university in 2015. They farm in the Brecon Beacons national park with common grazing rights on the black mountain. Alongside 40 suckler cows, Carys runs 550 improved Welsh ewes with 150 breeding replacements. The main flock of 300 ewes is mated to breed replacement for the flock. Ewe lambs are mated to a Charmoise ram for one cycle and the remaining ewes are mated by a terminal sire.

For Carys, breeding for maternal traits and the ability to finish lambs off grass is crucial to the system. She has joined the scheme to improve the flocks’ performance, removing the ewes that are not performing and selectively breeding from the ones that are. To achieve this, Carys has chosen to manually record her ewes within the scheme and is the only leader flock to do so.

‘We have been performance recording for 2 years and it has already been beneficial in finding the highest performing ewes to breed replacements for our future flock.’

‘With the likely removal of subsidies we have a strong emphasis on reducing production costs and maximising outputs. We see the Hill Ram Scheme and performance recording as a tool to help achieve this.’

All 720 ewes at Moelgolomen near Aberystwyth are performance recorded and have been for 20 years. More than half of the farm is made up of unimproved hill pasture, therefore keeping a hardy ewe which can produce lambs from a sustainable, low input system is crucial.

The flock is run commercially and lamb outside, replacement ewes are all home bred with only breeding rams bought in.

Draft ewes and surplus ewe lambs are sold off farm and yearling rams sold annually at the Welsh Mountain sale in Aberystwyth.

The Lloyd-Williams’ focus strongly in maximising performance from grass alone. Lambs not retained for breeding are sold fat and the aim is to reduce the time taken to reach sale weight and improve conformation grades while maintaining ewe size and maintenance requirements. Therefore, selection for lamb growth, muscle depth and carcase conformation ties in with maternal selection in the females for lamb growth and survival.

Over winter, the conditions on the hill mean that good fat cover and Body Condition Score is essential, improving ewe survival over winter and ensuring good milking ability in Spring and subsequently improving lamb survival. They have also found that the lambing percentage has increased as a result although the have not specifically selected for a higher twin rate.

By joining the ProHill group, the Lloyd-Williams’ will identify animals in the flock that are consistently performing well in the traits most relevant to them. They are striving to achieve ongoing improvement in flock efficiency as well as improving the quality of their environmentally and economically sustainable lamb.

Read Simon and Rhodri’s Case Study

At Upper Wenallt in the Brecon Beacons, the focus has always been on a ewe that can live cheaply and perform well on home grown grass and roots. Edd Williams has always focused on the maternal traits of his ewes, firmly believing that a lamb with high performance potential is only beneficial of the maternal ability of the ewe allows the lamb to fulfil that potential.

The 400 ewe flock grazes from 750 – 1200 feet above sea level and are mated by a variety of tups. The pure bred Welsh flock is largely made up of ewes with an EBV in the top 25% for their breed on performance. Ewes with lower scores are mated to Abertex/Aberdale rams with the female progeny kept and mated back to a Beltex/Chamoise Hill Rams.

This strict selection criteria for the pure bred flock has seen well above average ewes being used to breed the first cross ewe and a marked increase in their performance because of this. Proof that increasing performance at one end has an effect of filtering right through the system.

The main objective for performance recording is to identify the passengers within the flock. The best performers quite often stand out but the poor performers can slip under the radar and drain away at the gains made.

The 700 ewes that make up the Blaencennen flock of Improved Welsh Mountain sheep roam the Black Mountain in the West of the Brecon Beacons. The farm includes 285 acres of land as well as common grazing rights on the mountain, all ranging from 850 feet above sea level to 1100 feet.

Although the farm crosses performance terminal and maternal sires over a proportion of their flock for various purposes, 250 ewes are kept pure and performance recorded, forming a nucleus flock from which the farm breeds all replacement ewes.

Garry has been performance recording the flock for 24 years and uses performance recorded sheep as much as he can. Ewe and lamb performance are of key importance to Garry’s breeding. Through performance recording, he aims to strike a balance between meat and maternal traits in his flock, producing replacement ewes that perform well and lambs that finish easily and to specification.

The intention within the flock is to continue to focus on these key performance traits in order to maintain the productivity and efficiency of his own flock as well as to pass these gains on to his returning ewe lamb customers.

Read Garry’s Case Study

The land at Llwyngwern Farm in Gwynedd rises from 600 to 2000 feet above sea level and as a result, selecting and breeding from ewes that perform well is key in this flock of
300 Hardy Welsh ewes.

The flock has been performance recorded since 1995 with maternal anility and muscle depth being two of the main traits Mr Wigley selects for.

Due to the nature of the land, a 115% lambing percentage is aimed for. Single rearing ewes are out-wintered and lamb outside on the lower parts of the mountain and ‘ffridd’ land with no supplementary feed. Twin ewes are lambed indoors due to a recent problem with fox predation.

Ewes are generally kept for 6 years although any problem ewes within the flock are culled. Lower index ewes are also crossed to a Romney tup and an additional 250 ewes on farm are a Romney Welsh cross in order to maintain prolificacy.

At Tylacoch farm near Bridgend, Roger and Ceri Squire performance record a flock of 250 white faced Welsh hill ewes alongside 3 other pedigree, rare breed flocks and a suckler herd of British Blue cattle. 

Although the Squires’ were happy with the maternal ability of their flock, they felt that a proportion of the flock was not performing as they would like and saw room to make some improvements in scanning percentage and, particularly in the meat traits when it came to producing finished lambs from the flock. The ewes at Tylacoch are fairly compact at 45 – 55kgs, although they are currently scanning just shy of 100%, the couple are hopeful that investment in flock health and rams with higher prolificacy EBVs will soon see this figure increase to the level they would like.

By taking the data driven approach to breeding, they are now armed with the figures to make informed decisions and have full traceability throughout the flock as to which lines are performing and which are not.

Rams from the Tylacoch pedigree flocks have been sold through breed society sales in the past and we hope to welcome them to the Prohill sale in Aberytwyth in the near future.

At Glanmor Isaf, Owen is focused on maximising lamb production with minimal input on his organic farm in North Wales. By introducing performance-recorded Welsh Mountain rams and a terminal sire, Owen has improved lamb quality, with 95% now reaching target weight off grass alone. For over a decade, Owen has used a criss-cross breeding strategy with a 250-ewe Welsh Mountain flock, balancing hardiness and size with improved growth and muscle traits.

Owen joined the Welsh Hill Ram Scheme in 2019 and he explains that the scheme’s TSU (Tissue Sampling Unit) technology allows him to easily record more sheep in their natural environment, enabling better matches between rams and ewes based on their indexes. For example, Owen pairs an ewe with a lower growth and muscle depth index to a ram with above-average traits.

His flock grazes on the Carneddau mountains for six months, with minimal supplemental feeding, and lambs outdoors in April. Owen retains 150 ewe lambs annually, selecting for maternal qualities and genetic index, while culling those below the threshold. Older ewes are moved to a 390-ewe commercial flock on lower land for terminal sire breeding. This strict selection and management strategy have led to significant year-on-year improvements in flock performance.

Aled is the fourth generation of the family to farm at Rhiwaedog, a 350 acre farm which rises to 1,000ft above sea level, which operates as a beef and sheep farm.

Aled’s livestock includes 70 Welsh Black suckler cows and 800 sheep, split evenly between 400 Meirionydd-type and 400 Welsh Mountain-type ewes, which are crossed with either Bluefaced Leicester or Aberfield rams. He notes that 300 to 400 of his Meirionydd ewes typically scan at 170%, while his crossbred ewes scan at 180%. Aled’s target weight for lambs from his pure Welsh Mountain ewes is 35-36kg, and for lambs from his crossbred ewes, he aims for 42-45kg.

His pure-Welsh ewes lamb outside in April, while his cross-bred ewes lamb inside in March.

For Aled, key traits in his ewes and lambs include wool quality, strong teeth, and robust bone structure. He places particular emphasis on the tightness of the wool in Welsh Mountain sheep, considering it the foundation of a strong flock. Good teeth, he explains, are essential for longevity in the ewes, ensuring they remain productive for many years. Additionally, Aled stresses the importance of a strong, deep, and wide body in both ewes and rams, as this makes them well-suited to thrive in their environment.

Aled aims to increase the weight of his lambs in order to have more kg of meat, however, he emphasises that the ewes should not become any larger.  

Annually, Aled sells around 25 rams at the Dolgellau market as this is where the customers are for his flock.  

The flock is based on a hill farm near Wrexham, North Wales, where the main holding spans an altitude of 900 to 1,500 feet above sea level. During the summer, the ewes graze on the heather-covered common. As the third-generation farmer, Rhys is committed to breeding a smaller, hardy type of ewe that is well-suited to the challenging terrain. In recent years, he has also introduced more improved genetics to create a recorded flock, leading to the development of a 55kg ewe that he feels perfectly fits his farming system.

In addition to his Welsh flock, Rhys manages a commercial flock and a herd of suckler cows. A key aspect of his operation is breeding his own replacements for both the commercial and Welsh flocks, aiming to minimise the need for external stock purchases and maintain a self-sustaining system.

Since the 1980s, Elfyn has operated a closed flock of Improved Welsh ewes on an upland farm ranging from 750 to 1,200ft above sea level, focusing on breeding the Llandovery White Face sheep in a grass-based system.

Elfyn manages a flock of 480 Improved Welsh ewes and 70 Blueface Leicester ewes. Among the Improved Welsh ewes, he performance-records 200 of them through advanced DNA percentage techniques to ensure the highest standards of genetic improvement. Elfyn is committed to optimising his flokc’s reproductive efficieny and follows a ram-to-ewe ratio of 1:50. The in the 2023 breeding season, his ewes demonstrated a scanning percentage of 160%. However, Elfyn is targeting a scanning rate of 180% in the upcoming seasons.

Elfyn has been performance-recording his Blueface Leicester flock since 1997. In 2019, he expanded his recording efforts to include his Welsh Mountain ewes upon joining the Hill Ram Scheme. 

EBVs play an important role in flock profitability and allows Elfyn to make better breeding decisions for his own flock and for selecting breeding rams for his customers.