Organic Lamb - Rearing
- What is Organic Lamb?
- Breeds
- A Working Farm
- Welsh Mountain Lamb
- Hebridean Lamb reared on a Shropshire Nature Reserve
- Our Lamb Range
"It was customary to combine and collect the sheep off the open hills for washing, on the same day at one centre. The men were in the water for two or three hours, and it was thought necessary to provide them with some warm gruel with a liberal supply of gin added. The gruel was made with oatmeal boiled in home-brewed beer, with currants, spices, sugar, etc., and was served hot. This was very tasty and sustaining and the men ate it while in the washpool.
The following story is quite true. After having partaken of a liberal supply of the mixture, a strong fellow was seized with violent pain. He declared that he was dying, so one of the company recommended him to pray. Bill commenced by praying for 'Her most gracious Majesty the Queen'. 'Pray for thyself Bill, never mind the Queen', said the other. Bill replied 'Dost thee know better than the Parson? - he always prays for the Queen.' Poor Bill was better, and the sheep washing continued."
from Llanfihangel Rhydithon (Dolau) 70 Years Ago, by W. Watkins, J.P., Proceedings of the Radnorshire Society - 1932
What is Organic Lamb?
In the case of lamb, people sometimes say "..but surely, all lambs are naturally reared anyway, so what's so special about organic ?". Whilst lamb production is less intensive than say pig or poultry production, there are nevertheless some aspects of conventional lamb production which are not allowed on organic farms.
For example, in order to control external parasites, sheep must he dipped in an insecticide. It is now being realised that the most common conventional dips contain potentially dangerous chemicals (organo-phosphorus compounds), which have never been allowed to be used under organic regulations. If organic farmers have parasite problems in their sheep, they must use other chemicals which are safer, but unfortunately more expensive, than the organo-phosphates.
Internal parasitic worms are another headache for any sheep farmer. The conventional doctrine for control is to routinely dose the animals with drugs. The organic approach is to say that prevention is better than cure, and that proper rotation of pastures should enable the farmer to avoid re-infection of his sheep flock.
The consequence of the organic method of farming is often a drastic reduction of the number of sheep per acre, which together with more expensive external parasite control, means that to remain profitable, the organic farmer must receive a premium price for his lamb.
"At lambing time, the shepherd had to be with his flock all the time. This meant that he could not attend church on Sunday. So that this would be known on Judgement Day, he would be buried in his smock with a piece of wool between his fingers."
from Country Wisdom, by Gail Duff
Breeds
As with most Graig Farm animals, traditional British breeds of sheep offer a number of advantages. Firstly, as such breeds are developed for local environmental conditions, particularly in the case of the Welsh hills, the animals are well suited to the often harsh conditions. Due to the structure of the meat, the flavour is often better in native breeds than in those imported from the continent. However, particularly for modern requirements, old British breeds may lack sufficient quantities of lean meat (conformation), which imported breeds can improve.
Graig Farm's policy is therefore to have at least 50% British breeds in our lambs, but with the allowance of crossing with a Continental breed to improve the conformation of the animal, if the farmer considers it advantageous. In this way we hope to combine the best of both worlds, and produce animals which result in the very best eating quality for our customers.
Punch Magazine - 1901
Welsh Organic Mountain Lamb
Our speciality is Organic Mountain lamb. These are from the smaller mountain breeds of lamb, such as the Welsh Speckled, which were born on upland farms in Wales, and have spent their time eating grass. The delicate flavour of the Welsh Mountain breeds have always been acknowledged as being amongst the best tasting lamb in the UK !
Click here to read more about our mountain lamb
A Working Farm
All our organic meats come from our Producer Group of organic farmers across Wales and the Borders, whose livestock we market. To see how sheep farming works in practice, click here to visit our page on Cannon Farm, an upland sheep farm in mid-Wales, and home of Nigel Elgar, a Director of our Producer group.
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