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About our Sheep

Back in the 1970’s, Ballakelly Farm’s Suffolk sheep were awarded best in the UK. Over time, Farmer Al has put his own hoof print on the flock, and mixed in that very same Suffolk calibre with Texel and Bluefaced Leicester breed traits. Ballakelly lamb and mutton are robust, lean and powerful, with rich and well-defined melting fats. This is because sheep graze happily on grass in a rotational system of fields that are themselves conditioned by the local weather and environment. Ballakelly mutton is central to our minimal waste ethos because our lovely ewes become marvellous mutton. Mutton is darker and stronger than lamb, and the process of dry aging, breaking down and refining the structure of the meat in a humidity controlled environment – usually for four weeks – means mutton can be as tender as spring lamb while offering a depth of flavour. Our sheep are crucial to our planned regenerative land practices. Ballakelly Farm is unusual for the Isle of Man in raising sheep, pigs and cows together on one farm. It means we are ideally placed to rotate which animals when and where, so that we can utilise back into the land from what the animals give us.