Alwyn Nutting - Glascoed Farm, Powys
Alwyn Nutting, Glascoed Farm, Newtown, Powys
Alwyn Nutting farms Glascoed near Newtown with occasional help from his sons when they are available (during school/university holidays/weekends). They run a herd of Suckler Beef and a flock of around 800 Aberfield cross, Highlander cross and Welsh ewes.
- 200 acres owned, 50 acres rented
- 150 Welsh single-bearing ewes spend the summer on common grazing
- 800 ewes – around half will be used for the project
- 40 suckler herd (Blond Bulls) finishing bull beef and heifers
- 65kg Welsh ewe – scanning around 140/150%
- Main flock achieving 18-21kg cold weight R/U lambs finished from grass
Rams are turned out mid-October for 10th March lambing and lambs are merged into a couple of large mobs so that he can operate a rotational grazing stystem.
Ewes are out-wintered from late December on a kale and stubble turnip mix, supplemented with round bale forage and housed a few weeks before lambing.
Glascoed farm has variable grassland leys with some improved red clover leys and some permanent pasture.
All RamCompare trial lambs will be grazed on similar swards so that they are managed in the same way, being careful not to cause any bias for the growth and development of particular progeny groups.
Alwyn explains, “Our interest in using performance recorded stock began when we selected a bull based on figures some years ago and we now want to achieve the best from our commercial flock.”
“The project will enable us to trial high genetic merit rams of different breeds which are selected on specific traits which are believed to best suit our system.”
”We believe the genetic potential of the sires will be inherited by their lambs and look forward to following progress through the commercial lamb performance data we will collect on farm.”