Home  Hebridean Breed  Badgerface Breed  Manx & Shropshires Showing  Gallery & Stock for Sale  Latest News  Links & Contact   Hebridean Breed The Farm The main farm holding is Talcen Foel on the slopes of Mynydd Anelog at Uwchmynydd. Here they graze on a mixture of habitats ranging from semi - improved pasture to rough coastal heathland, whilst enjoying the views of the Wicklow Mountains to the west, Cardigan Bay to the east and Ynys Enlli straight ahead. All these views have their price and Talcen Foel is a very exposed site with only the earth banks as shelter. Since April 2011 we have taken on two additional holdings namely Parc y Borth National Nature Reserve, Borth y Gest, where we are working closely with Gwynedd Council on a conservation grazing project to bring the reserve back to favourable condition. The other holding Gwernddwyryd is around 30 acres and situated a mile from our new home in Penmorfa. Again this is primarily rough grazing shared with several horses. We also have our other main block of improved land near Pencaenewydd where we can get a crop of silage and also finish some of the lambs. Since renting in these two new holdings we have now rented out the land at Talcen Foel saving on time and costly fuel! With four flocks of pedigree sheep and a commercial flock, keeping them separate is a bit of a job especially at tupping time! The Shropshires are early lambers around December - January then the rest of the flocks lamb around the end of February – March. The majority of the lambs are sold as boxed lamb with some sold in our local market and a few pedigree sales. We also sell a large proportion of our stock privately from home. Trwyn Uwchmynydd - Talcen Foel - Ynys Enlli Gimmer Shearling Brightside Inchrory Hebridean Sheep The Hebridean breed is derived from the North European short tailed breeds, thought to have been brought to the highlands and islands of Scotland by Viking settlers. No detailed description of these sheep exists but they would most certainly have been small hardy sheep, in all probabilities horned, and would have had short tails. Other British breeds derived from these early sheep are the Manx Loghtan and the Shetland. The Hebridean soon became an integral part of the Scottish croft renowned for its tasty meat, and ease of management, but during the early nineteenth century it became a victim of agricultural modernisation, replaced by the modern improved breeds such as the Blackface and Cheviot. This, in tandem with the Highland clearances, threatened the existence of a breed that had served Scotland for almost a thousand years.   Salvation came when fashion dictated that the aristocracy grace their parklands with ornamental breeds, and these distinctive sheep, also known as St Kilda sheep soon became popular. Had these flocks not existed in such an unimproved way, it is doubtful whether the breed would have survived to be taken under the wing of The Rare Breed Survival Trust in 1973. Today, the ‘heb’ has again found its niche, and is now used as an environmental tool for conservational grazing on a variety of ecosystems, whilst once again being prized for its tasty mutton. Breed description The Hebridean sheep is a small fine boned sheep with two or more horns, and a dense black weatherproof fleece. They are not renowned for carrying excess body weight, a typical ewe will weigh little more than 40kg, and a condition score of greater than 3 is rare. The hebs face should be dished and clean of wool except for as small patch on the forehead, have small ears, and in two horned animals, the horns should sweep backwards and outwards. In multi-horned sheep, the upper horns should not be too far forward as to impede grazing, and the lower pair should not curl too much into the face. The tail should be short, not extending below the hock, and be fully fleeced. The fleece itself should be weatherproof and black, although the sun can bleach tips giving it a brown appearance. Older sheep can grey with age, but no other colouration is desirable. Why Hebs? In April 2008, following the rather sudden and unexpected death of “my” only remaining badgerface show ewe, I made the decision to give up any remaining control of the Badgers, and look for a breed that I could show and develop on my own. During our trip to the RWAS Smallholder show at Builth Wells the decision was made that it would be a primitive breed, but not Shetlands as they were dominant, and the array of different markings and colouring was too confusing. Having struggled to perfect the many markings of the Torwen, a one colour, easy to prepare breed was required. For a few years Robin had been shearing a small flock of Hebrideans kept by Paul and Christine Turkentine at Carmel near Caernarfon. I did some investigation on the web, and found that the breed showing ‘standard’ indicated that they needed little or no preparation, no brushing or carding simply pull the worst of the vegetation from the fleece, and possibly a lick of hoof oil to the horns, and so the decision was made. Two shearlings were purchased, and another years shearing was exchanged for an ewe lamb. During June, I saw an advert for shearling rams for sale at Llangwnadl, and Becks Barnaby was purchased from Peter Rowe as the future father of the newly created Anelog Flock. In October, we travelled to York for the rare and minority breed show and sale, returning with 3 ewes, and an ewe lamb. 4 sheep for less than a Torwen shearling at the society sale! Email us: robin@hebsnbadgers.co.uk - meinir@hebsnbadgers.co.uk