The out-door, April/May lambing commercial flock is the real boiler room of our business. With our changes in grazing strategy and genetics we have been able to lift ewe numbers from around 1,300 Mule and Texel crosses, up to a maximum of 1,900 of our NZ Romney composite ewes. With the introduction of the deer enterprise, numbers have now slipped slightly to around 1,750 ewes, which also incorporate Lleyn, Cheviot and our Texel genetics. We run a strict culling policy, with first time offenders for less critical traits being demoted into a “B mob”, which is mated to our Suffolk rams and treated as a terminal flock. This hopefully ensures that our main “Maternal” flock is constantly improving and will give us and our customers more consistent results and an easier life!

As the next step in the evolution of this flock, the top 50% of ewe hoggs were mated to lamb in 2020. No ewe lambs born in the second cycle are retained. A draft of commercial ewe lambs are sold in early autumn each year.

160 un-registered, performance recorded Suffolk and Texel ewes are used to produce rams for our own use and to sell as shearlings. The ewe flock is run and selected strictly on commercial lines, with an absolute minimum of concentrate feed used. We focus heavily on the maternal traits, such as lambing ease, mothering ability and lamb survival as well as the more common terminal traits. The inclusion of NZ genetics into both these flocks as well as Innovis bloodlines into the Texels, has very much speeded up this process. All the lambs are also ultrasound scanned for muscle and fat depth.

Rams produced from this flock have been 100% forage fed since 2013. Like in our commercial flock we practice a strict “no trim” foot policy in our stud flock. Rams are born in April and sold as shearlings annually from August onwards, from the farm by private treaty. Many are sold un-seen to long standing repeat customers. Please get in touch to discuss your requirements and how Pirntaton rams might fit into your system.