RYELAND SHEEP

Ryelands look like giant teddy bears and are almost as docile.  They have a friendly intelligent easy going nature and will follow their owners anywhere especially if there is bribery on offer.  They aren't fussy eaters if its edible they'll eat it.  They are very efficient and effective lawnmowers. 

Ryelands produce a highly rated quality meat and an excellent soft fleece, valued greatly by handspinners.

Whilst being easy to pen up, adult ryelands are BIG sheep and aren't over fussy as to who's feet the stand on .  They are reasonably heavy but normally pretty easy to handle.

In truth we believe ryelands are not neccessarily a breed of sheep to be taken lightly, they cannot just be thrown in a field and left to their own devices.  They do require a certain ammount of knowledge, experience and careful watching, especailly at lambing time when they may need some assistance.

We run a small flock of ryelands from  bloodlines such as Sheilhope and Wellside, most of our breeding ewes are now home bred with a few generations of daughters and grand daughters to their credit.  Our current stock ram is Hardgate Hal, Inter-breed champion at Skipton Rare Breeds Show & Sale2006.  He is a handsome lad who has produced some fine lambs.

Unfortunately the shows that we had intended to attend with our ryelands were cancelled for a variety of reasons from weather to foot and mouth disease.  We hope to attend a number of shows with our sheep and poultry in 2009.

Hardgate Hal is now for sale he has done his job well, but alas we need to bring in new blood so he is due to be unemployed and is looking for work.

All our stock are registered with the Ryeland Flock Book Society Ltd. our adult stock and a ram lamb have been scrapie tested as ARR-ARR.