The Story of our Flock
The Butterbox Farm flock began with the arrival of farm manager Peter in 2008. Having been bought up sheep farming, Peter came with an unsurpassable knowledge and passion for all things woolly!
When Peter started on the farm there were just 12 Portland ewes. He quickly bought onto the farm fifty New Zealand Romney ewes at two years old, and sixty New Zealand Romney ewe-lambs along with two unrelated rams.
Our first lambing on Butterbox farm was out in the field with an old tin shelter making up six individual pens. Due to harsh weather conditions and predatory foxes we suffered terrible lamb losses. The following year we moved our lambing operation indoors into an old chicken shed on the farm.
We set about keeping meticulous records to measure the performance and productivity of all of our breeding ewes. The aim was to keep a closed flock keeping our own replacement female lambs from carefully selected ewes that met the criteria we required!
Over the years we changed our breeding to include Texel rams, famous for being a fantastic “meat” breed. We now produce a 50/50 crossbred that has a lower prolificacy, but a higher meat to bone ratio.
We have always fattened our lambs naturally on the ewes milk and a grass diet only.
Our commercial flock now stands at 300 ewes, producing approximately 500 lambs a year.
We have also grown our small flock of pure bred Portlands, mostly to help ensure the breed doesn't die out, and because quite simply we love how they look on the farm!
Over the years we changed our breeding to include Texel rams, famous for being a fantastic “meat” breed. We now produce a 50/50 crossbred that has a lower prolificacy, but a higher meat to bone ratio.
We have always fattened our lambs naturally on the ewes milk and a grass diet only.
Our commercial flock now stands at 300 ewes, producing approximately 500 lambs a year.
We have also grown our small flock of pure bred Portlands, mostly to help ensure the breed doesn't die out, and because quite simply we love how they look on the farm!
Our all grass fed lamb is available weekly from our farm in Scaynes Hill, West Sussex
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Please join our mailing list for more information