Welcome to the Welsh Halfbred website for information about one of Britain’s most successful crossbred ewes.

Records show Welsh ewes have been crossed with Border Leicester rams since the early 1900s but it was not until the 1950s that the cross was given the name Welsh Halfbreds and the Welsh Halfbred Sheep Breeders’ Association set up to market the ewes and ewe lambs.

The Association has members all over Wales and on the Borders and is divided into three regions each hosting annual sales conducted by the auctioneers who have been with us for more than 50 years and selling sheep all over the UK.

The Association marked its fiftieth anniversary by in 2006 by electing its last surviving founder members as joint presidents for the year. Sadly one of them, Francis Morris, of Kington, Herefordshire, died in September.

He, along with Gordon Wilyman, of Rhyl, and Nick Archdale, of Mold, were all well-known farmers in Wales. With other far-sighted sheep men they identified the need for a consistently good cross-bred ewe suitable for

In 1956 they played a major role in the establishment of the Association which not only introduced new standards at commercial ewe sales by selling warranted and inspected sheep in their age groups, but also threw a life-line to Welsh farmers whose draft Welsh ewes were losing lowland buyers in the post war years. Now the ewes were in demand to put to Border Leicester rams to produce what soon became a rapidly developing market for Welsh Halfbreds.