The Littleton flock was founded in 2015 by James Golob from stock purchased from the renowned Westland flock of Bim Knight. Initially, the flock was just to keep the small Common at West Littleton tidy. James was soon fascinated by the breed and acquired some more land. The Littleton flock is currently running 60+ ewes on an extensive grass finished system on 80 acres of permanent pasture at Tetbury, nestled deep in The Cotswolds at approximately 375 feet above sea level. The soil on the bulk of the land is fast draining alkaline Cotswold brash but there is a large area of water meadows which are alkaline clay-loam as are the banks above. This mix of ground provides summer grazing that doesn’t go dry and on the brash, grazing throughout the winter which is dry enough to avoid foot problems. The brash areas are cut for hay in July and provide additional fodder for the late winter months before the grass comes back.

James lambs his flock in March to make best use of the grass flush that comes in May when the lambs are beginning to wean. Only in the fortnight before lambing is any hard feed fed to ensure optimum ewe and lamb health and performance. When he was at West Littleton, with very little pasture and poor winter grazing he relied more on hard feed and the average birth weights were 1.5kg more than now. This meant a high proportion needed intervention in lambing. Just grass fed, the lambs are still a healthy average of 3.2kg and intervention is very much the exception not the norm in lambing. Not only does the breed significantly reduce hard feed costs in this way but also brings the labour and other input costs down too.

Selling lamb in lamb boxes offers a high quality product and allows a premium to be achieved that James’ customers are only too happy to pay. When selling terminal sires, the customer base for James’ rams see the payments as an investment rather than a cost as they have learnt of the savings that they will gain through using the Hampshire Down breed.

James’ flock is MV accredited, scrapie monitored, signet recorded and managed alongside a herd of White Park Cattle and a few horses. He added the cattle, another hardy native breed that overwinters outside, when Stephen Short of the Highcliffe Flock at Halifax told him of the success he had in eradicating worms by running Hampshires with a herd of Black Angus.

A dozen cattle arrived 18 months ago and the most recent faecal egg counts returned from his local vets were zero. On top of this, the meadows which are in mid-tier schemes and stock all benefit from his management systems through careful and considerate management to maintain stock and sward health. The cattle enjoy the rougher grass on the banks that the Hampshires don’t like and some areas are left as standing hay for them for the Winter. Any wormers are used selectively and appropriately to maintain soil health as well as to keep any wormer resistance to a minimum.

Selective culling of stock not achieving the high standards set by James is sent locally to (Broomhall’s) one of the abattoirs that Jeremy Clarkson used on his TV show, Clarkson’s farm. Here the butcher, Phil, comments how well the carcasses cut and how even the batches received are not to mention the carcasses all grading well meaning the meat boxes are in strong demand due to the high end product contained in them.

Meat box sales reliably bring in a healthy revenue for James as the succulent, well marbled meat the Hampshire Down breed produces is in good demand. Many customers have a growing interest in lowering the carbon footprints of their diets and will often pay a premium for locally produced that has not travelled far to be processed and end up on their table. All part of sustainable farming and the farm to fork experience.

There is even incipient interest among a few local spinners in the excellent wool that Hampshires produce with several asking for quality fleeces.

Stock selected for breeding purposes are sold in good numbers to both pedigree and commercial breeders.

James has built up a strong bank of regular customers who return for his rams in particular, as on their large commercial flocks the shepherds have learnt of the benefits of the breed being quick to suckle, robust lambs sired by rams that do not melt like other breeds and the fastest finishing to market as supported by ram compare nine years in a row. Word of mouth being the best and most reliable advertisement for James and his Littleton flock of Hampshire Downs with many repeat customers. James’ customers come from a wide variety of systems, on many different soil types supporting the fact the Hampshire Down breed is versatile and ensures its management secures low input, high output credentials by maximising profit from growth through excellent feed conversion ratios on regenerative systems.

When required, James purchases rams from the Maes-glas flock in Pembrokeshire who themselves have won many championships in the show ring, sell numerous pedigree and commercial stock nationally and internationally, not to mention their success in Argentina where a ram with their breeding achieved the equivalent of £60,000 +

James continues to be an advocate of the breed and is supporting the society in the growing popularity of the Hampshire Down breed for an almost limitless list of reasons.

Can you afford not to allow the above investment to work for you and your system?