Blue Faced Leicester Developed Alongside Ram Sale
11th September 2018
Blue Faced Leicester
The NSA Wales and Border Ram Sale has helped to establish several different breeds of sheep in Wales and beyond. It has played a role in strengthening numbers and quality throughout Britain and to bring the breeds further south. The Blue Faced Leicester is one such breed.
Committee member, Elfyn Owen, bought his first Blue Faced Leicesters forty years ago. And he began selling them at the multi breed sale at the Royal Welsh Showground soon after that.
He now runs a nationally renowned flock of 60 pedigree breeding ewes with the Cernyw prefix and was part of the team that launched the Sire Reference Scheme. It eventually led to the Progressive Breeders Group within the Society and performance recording the pedigree ewes is a well established part of his breeding programme.
The quality of his sheep is such that he has even sold pedigree Blue Faced Leicester ewes to a member of the Dubai Royal Family. He also has 700 commercial Welsh Mountain ewes.
He recalls: “I’ve been bringing Blue Faced Leicesters to Builth Wells since 1980. There weren’t many about then. I bought my first Blue Faced Leicester in l978. There weren’t many on sale in Wales then but by the beginning of the 1980s they were coming down the M6 to the sale in lorry loads.
“We started coming to Builth to sell in the early days and now it’s the biggest sale in Europe. It was an attraction because you could get so many different breeds. It was fantastic for the buyers as they could buy what they wanted, go from one ring to another.
“It’s so handy to be able to finish all your tup buying in one day. It’s actually quicker for us to go to Carlisle from Llanrwst, but we’ve sold at Builth for a long time now. We’ve also been showing at the Royal Welsh since 1980 and so the two events are interlinked.
“The show is our shop window and we take our sheep on holiday with us as the Royal Welsh is our annual holiday! Then we sell at the NSA Wales & Border Ram Sale.
“We’ve had several championships at the Royal Welsh over the years – this year we had the Female Blue Faced Leicester champion and the Reserve Overall Blue Faced Leicester champion. We also always support the local shows. They are so important.”
Elfyn says the sale helped to establish the Blue Faced Leicester breed and says it’s one of the best sales of traditional Blue Faced Leicester rams in Britain. It led in turn to the establishment of the Welsh Mule, which he regards as the most popular ewe in Wales for producing fat lambs.
He adds:”The Blue Faced Leicester is the sire of the Welsh Mule. We use them on the white faced Welsh Mountain ewe to produce the Welsh Mule. You can’t beat the mule and we sold our first mules back in 1979. We just wanted a more prolific, milkier ewe to produce butchers’ lambs.
“The Blue Faced Leicester is as good as ever and competes favourably against any other maternal breed, with first class mouths and excellent conformation.”
