Description

Beef and Mutton from the Carmarthenshire hills

Our aim is to bring you the best beef and mutton you will ever taste.  The secret is (1) older animals, (2) grass-feeding and (3) super-ageing after slaughter.  Wernlwyd (Eng: Grey Alders) is not certified organic but we employ organic principles.  Our pasture has not been reseeded for years, most of it for generations.  Over that time it has become naturalised with wild grasses and flowers.  That brings higher welfare and improves quality.

Our Mutton

Here at Wernlwyd, we are in no hurry to finish our stock and get it to slaughter.  Most of the lamb you see on supermarket shelves will be lucky if it was six months old.  That may maximise profits for the farmer, but we know an extra couple of winters brings maturity, size and improved taste.  Once killed and cooled, we’ll hang our mutton for six weeks – 42 days – so the enzymes can develop its tenderness and flavour.

Our Environment

Contrary to what you might hear, the environmental impact of raising sheep and cattle is low. Our animals hang out in fields during the summer and eat silage, harvested grass, in winter.  They are NEVER ‘finished’ on grain in ‘feed-lots’.

After all, sheep and cattle are grazing animals.  Their digestive system with its four stomachs is far more complex than ours.  Ruminants are inefficient at digesting grain but perfectly-designed to extract every last ounce of nutrition out of grass and meadow flowers.  26% of the earth’s surface is pasture. Ruminants are prey animals whose purpose is to convert what we cannot eat slowly but surely into what we can – high-quality, high-protein muscle meat.

We are also keeping food miles down.  These days produce can be flown half-way around the world to satisfy modern food fads. When you choose our super-aged beef or mutton, you are buying local, from farm to fork, and keeping those food miles to the bare minimum.

Our Pricing

Our meat costs no more than what supermarkets charge for their highest quality.  But the similarity ends there.  Our older stock means more flavour and our extreme hanging brings taste the ‘big boys’, with their need for throughput, can only dream of . By buying direct from the farm, you know what you are eating has been well cared for.  And we know our customers appreciate the very best.