Our Livestock

We are passionate at Rumleigh in nurturing this beautiful place and with that comes sustainable farming.  Rare breeds are long nearly lost varieties that were bred to be hardy and thrive in their environments.  Sadly many of these breeds have been nearly lost during the industrialisation of our food production for breeds that grow quickly and yield maximum profits.

Castlemilk Moorit Sheep.

Our sheep our Castlemilk Moorit Sheep, a primitive rare breed of sheep, lovely to look at, and producing high quality wool and meat.  The breed was developed in Scotland to create a hardy breed with good feet that cope well with the wet.

They are a cross between Sheltand, Mouflon and  Manx  Loaghtan Sheep and are distinguished by their deer – like appearance, with fine long fine legs and  are very agile.  They make excellent mothers, very protective and prefer to live out all year round regardless of the weather.

On the At Risk of Extinction Register, the Rare Breed Survival Trust and the Castlemilk Moorit Society have worked really hard to save this breed.  The late  Mr Joe Henson MBE (father of Adam Henson, Countryfile ) rescued the last remaining Castlemilk Moorits back in the 1970’s after the death of John Buchanan Jardine, when the majority  of  the flock were culled.  Since then numbers have been steadily increasing.

With a very soft fleece of fine fibre their wool is prized by spinners making it one of the few fleeces that are still worth something on the open market.  Allowed to mature naturally with minimal inputs from us our lambs are technically ‘Hogget’ by the time they are ready for the freezer at a minimum of 18 months of age.  This creates a lean meat with little fat but lots of flavour unlike regular lamb found in supermarket which is often fatty.

We occasionally have sheep for sale.  If you would like to join the waiting list then please email hello@rumleighfarm.com for further information.

English Goats

The real characters on the farm.  Originally a couple of goats were brought to the farm to help with bramble bashing in the orchard but they have been such an asset to the farm their numbers have grown!

The original smallholders goat they are docile, friendly and easy to handle, good milkers, produce good meat and their skins are prized for their beautiful markings.  Almost deer like in their appearance they are fawn coloured with a classic eel stripe down their backs.  They are incredibly rare currently with only 90 registered females left when we started with the breed back in 2021.

We use Nofence collars to allow for ‘free’ grazing of the woodland and scrubby areas on the farm.  These are on steep banks and are difficult to fence but with the GPS virtual fencing the goats love their nomadic lifestyle and are excellent in clearing areas overgrown with brambles.  Allowing light in has allowed other species to florishh and we have noticed a big improvement with the ecology within the woods.

We occasionally have goats for sale.  If you would like to join the waiting list then please email hello@rumleighfarm.com for further information.

West of England Geese

The grumpiest members of the farm!  These geese are a medium sized stocky goose originally bred for managing orchards.  The males are white whilst the females will have a grey saddle marking making it easy to tell who is who!

Like other medium breeds, these are hardy birds which grow quickly and do well as meat producers. They are quite calm and will become confiding with human contact. (Unfortunately our geese have not read this in the Wildfowl Directory!!)  Laying 30-40 eggs a year, West of England Geese rear their own young readily.

We occasionally have geese for sale.  If you would like to join the waiting list then please email hello@rumleighfarm.com for further information.

Chickens

Not strictly rare breeds but our chicken are all rescue hens from the British Hen Welfare Trust.  These girls turn up mostly with no feathers having never been outside before.  Although in a sorry state they soon learn the joy of an outdoor life and quickly grow new feathers!  Despite being deemed unproductive by the egg industry they are soon producing eggs again and live out a very happy retirement here!

We sell our eggs!  Please visit our shop for more information.  

Bees

We have hives hidden in the vegetable patch.  They help with the pollination of our orchard and surrounding plants.  Please steer clear of this area late summer as they become defensive of their honey hoard!  

Hidden in the wall of the Long Barn is a wild colony of black ‘Cornish’ honey bee.  With no human intervention these bees appear to be varroa resistant and are a very healthy colony.  We managed to catch one of these swarms (have a look at our instagram account for a great video!) and hope that these drones will mate with our queens in the quest to have healthy colonies with no need for pesticides to prevent varroa – currently we only use oxalic acid in January and so far so good!

We sell our honey!  Please visit our shop for more information.