Do you want to acquire some rare breed sheep for breeding, conservation
grazing, or amenity purposes?
We at Fowlescombe, Richard and Barbara, are trying to help the re-introduction
and promotion of rare and minority breed sheep. We now have a flock of
over 300 hundred animals, bred up over the years from just a handful.
To be successful the Rare Breeds Survival
Trust needs other people to help
keep the breeds going. Use them or lose them!! There are three easy ways:
1. Breeding
stock of Manx Loaghtan or Hebridean sheep |
2. Rare breed sheep for conservation / amenity use |
3. Rare breed Lamb / Hogget |
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| Buy some rare breed meat |
Rare Breed Sheep livestock for breeding
We provide pedigree (organic) animals to new or existing rare breed flocks. We have won the Champion Sheep in our class from 2006 to 2008 at the Devon County Show. Below you can see some of our early breeding stock
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To the left are two of the Manx rams we have used. Sadly Nelson, the 2-horned ram, came to grief fighting last November but he has given us many fine offspring. In the centre are some weaned lambs who joined the breeding flock the following year. To the right is Brucite, our first Hebridean ram. These are bred and kept on the farm for their natural life, often until they are 14 or more years old. They spend most of their lives in the fields, but during winter if the weather is very bad we give them shelter in a well ventilated renovated stone stable. During winter we supplement their grass diet with hay and some home-produced crimped corn. The sheep do not tend to poach the land the way that cattle do, but they do like shelter from the combination of cold, wet and wind.
Contact by email by clicking here or ring on 01548 821000 for availability and price for buying livestock. As a rough guide see the chart below. Actual prices will depend on the actual animals.
Please note - we live in the South of Devon when you want to consider where you buy sheep from. If you live a long way away, then we suggest you contact a local support group of the RBST or the breed society for a local breeder.
We can deliver up to 80 km away, charges based on distance and number - we have a small trailer to take 8 or 9 sheep, and a larger one that will take around 40. Prices include the cost of pedigree registration and / or transfer to the buyer - buyers would need to be a member of the RBST for the Manx, or the Hebridean Sheep Society for the Hebs.
Please click here to get some guidance if you have not kept sheep before
Rare Breed Sheep for maintaining your paddock / churchyard / wildlife habitat
We are happy to supply a small group or family unit of sheep to graze your paddock or other grass / scrub-land area. For wildlife management, on say a headland or nature reserve, you may need to build up a larger group. The sheep not only eat grass and flowers, but are also good at managing scrub (but don't put them in your orchard without good tree guards). We have provided sheep for grazing National Trust land, paddocks, churchyards and other areas. Some people have established new breeding flocks, others have kept them as pets and a number of people take a few yearlings in the spring and send them off to slaughter for their own consumption in the autumn. Click here for prices
Contact on 01548 821000 for availability and price. Click here for advice, if you are new to sheep
How to buy rare breed lamb or hogget 'for the pot'
To buy either our rare breed Manx or Hebridean
lamb/ hogget or even mutton click here
for details. If someone does not eat them, then the
incentive to keep them goes down - and they do taste
delicious!
What does it taste like? Well the meat is arguably the best
lamb or hogget you can buy. It has a distinctive taste, fully
flavour, less fat - but what fat it has is delicious - and
you would never use mint with it. Try red currant jelly or
crab apple jelly. For a roast try a thin covering of honey
to bring out even more flavour.
For more details, please click on these links for more details of our flock of Manx Loaghtan, Hebridean sheep or about the farm.
