The Clun Forest Sheep are ideal for smallholders who want to have an attractive old breed to graze their land,  (the Clun Forest are not yet a rare Breed but numbers are certainly not what they used to be) or to produce their own lamb, either by way of using one of the commercial sires or by breeding pure. 

The added bonus of breeding pure is that you have the opportunity to become involved in showing your sheep at the various agricultural shows, which can be great fun and an ideal way of making new friends.

The current trend towards food production in way of flavour, food miles and the knowledge that the meat is produced with the animals welfare being of utmost importance, is giving these older breeds from smaller flocks a head start. Providing that the end product is correctly finished, not too fat and not too thin. The Society is able to provide help and advice in this area should you so wish.

The Clun fleece is of high quality and has a lovely soft handle. It hand spins very well, and can also be spun in larger quantities by various woollen mills around the country, some will even produce woven throws for you.

An added bonus to your lamb production is that the fine lamb fleece produces really good rugs, the sorts that are used for baby rugs. For more about this see the links page.

The Clun Mule 
Mike Eckley looks at this very traditional breed

The United Kingdom has developed a unique way of producing prime lamb. The process is traditionally called a Three-tier system. This Three-tier system has been perfected over many years in the United Kingdom. It works because the breeds involved have been fine tuned to genetically mesh with each other during each step of the system. 

It all starts at the top with what is sometimes referred to as a "hill or upland sheep". These hill and upland sheep are typically the local or endemic breed to a given area or region that survives well in its environment. One of the most famous of these upland sheep is the Clun Forest and up until the late 1970's was the most popular pure bred commercial ewe in the country. The Clun’s fantastic attributes such as hardiness, resistance to disease, longevity (low depreciation rates), easy lambing, mothering ability, good mouths, sound feet and quality wool make her ideal as a foundation ewe for the modem hybrid. The Clun is also an excellent forager and well suited for grass-based farming producing flavourful, lean lamb. She is easy to manage and very adaptable with flocks found throughout Europe and America.
 
The pure Clun ewes are bred to a Bluefaced Leicester ram to produce a Clun Mule. The 'Mule' is the backbone of the UK's prime lamb production system. These Clun Mules inherit the vigor and hardiness of the Clun ewe with the added benefit of an improved wool clip, increased body size and capacity, higher prolificy (most flocks exceed 200%), early maturity (it is usual to breed the Clun Mule ewe lamb in her first year) and milkiness from her Bluefaced Leicester sire. They are easy to handle and aren't easily stressed, so adapt well to housing if necessary. Their fleece is also excellent, and with the Clun’s durability and the Bluefaced Leicesters staple, it is much sort after by spinners. 

The Clun Mule ewe lambs are either retained for the next step of the system, or sold off the farm in the August Ewe Sales at the Ludlow livestock market. They are purchased to make up part of the large commercial flocks for the UK's "prime" lamb production. The Clun Mule wether lambs have the ability to be taken to a wide range of carcass weights. These lambs have great vigour at birth and eagerness to foot and suckle; as any Clun breeder will tell you one of the great advantages of the Clun is that at lambing time she 'will just get on with it.' This ability, along with a good fleece, means that the lambs are well protected against even the harshest conditions. 

In the final tier of the scheme the Clun Mule ewes are bred to terminal sires, renowned for their heavy carcass genetics; the preferred ones being either a Suffolk, Texel or Charolais. These Clun Mule ewes will easily produce quality lambs for 7 years plus and it is not unusual for the pure Clun ewe to be producing quality lambs at 12 years! This third step in the system produces a carcass lamb that easily reaches market weights off milk and grass. This type of prime lamb is filling a growing niche in the specialty trade to restaurants, internet, the ethnic market, and the ever growing demand by consumers for wholesome, healthy, grass fed lamb. 

Like all other Mules, Clun Mules are prolific, hardy and milk well but they are superior in conformation and looks! 

Consequently Clun Mules are profitable and easily capable of top margins.