The main advantages of using a Border Leicester Ram are:-

• He imparts high levels of Hybrid Vigour to offspring from all types of dam leading to rapid growth, good carcase conformation, milkiness & hardiness. Border Leicesters are renowned for their ability to produce quality, early maturing prime lambs at a variety of carcase weights. Suffolk X females out of Scottish Halfbred ewes are renowned for their ability to produce early prime lamb.
• Uniformity - the crossbred progeny show a strong uniformity - an important factor in selling both butchers` and breeding stock.
• Easy Lambing - the clean aquiline head, and not overheavy shoulders mean that the Border Leicester Ram can safely be used on the smallest ewes, e.g. the very successful Welsh Halfbred which is produced from one of our smallest hill ewes, the Welsh Mountain ewe.
• High survival rate -of newly born crossbred lambs in harsh climatic conditions is legendary through their thick covering of wool inherited from the Border Leicester. The crossbred females when used for fat lamb production have this inherent hardiness which extends their productive life.
• Quality fleece - Strong and white with bulk and value preferred by the quality carpet manufacturers. Valued as a crossing sire, the influence of Border Leicester wool on the British clip is considerable. Pure-bred, the wool is white and semi lustrous, without kemp or coloured fibres and giving a staple length of up to 20 cms. On crosses and half-breds, these characteristics help to give versatility to the whole clip by producing slightly finer fleeces and reducing the incidence of coloured fibres and kemp, often found in the wool from hill and mountain breeds. Put on the Cheviot, good quality white wool is produced by the Scotch Half-bred; on the Blackface, the
  cross wool is whiter and resilient.
  

Greyface (Above) (Border Leicester x Scottish Blackface)	Scotch Half-bred (Above) (Border Leicester x North Country Cheviot) with Suffolk cross lambs	Welsh Half-bred (Above) (Border Leicester x Welsh Mountain) with Suffolk cross lambs

A Truly Versatile & Quality Dual Purpose Breed

Border Leicester crosses have won numerous live and carcase championships including repeated Breed Carcase championships at the Royal Welsh Winter fair, live Breed Championships at the Birmingham Winter fatstock and most recently at the Aberdeen Spring Fair.

Valued as a crossing sire, the influence of Border Leicester wool on the British clip is considerable. Pure-bred, the wool is white and semi lustrous, without kemp or coloured fibres and giving a staple length of up to 20 cms. On crosses and half-breds, these characteristics help to give versatility to the whole clip by producing slightly finer fleeces and reducing the incidence of coloured fibres and kemp, often found in the wool from hill and mountain breeds. Put on the Cheviot, good quality white wool is produced by the Scotch Half-bred; on the Blackface, the cross wool is whiter and resilient.