lamb

The Co-operative lamb

Truly Irresistible Cambrian Lamb mid July to December.

Our Co-operative Truly Irresistible fresh lamb is produced from native breeds in the Cambrian Mountains of Mid Wales. The hefted flocks are kept on Freedom Food accredited farms using the old Hafod, a Hendre system (sheep grazing the hill during the summer months then returning to lower pastures during the winter months). The farms are managed through using skills and knowledge that have been passed down from father to son for many generations.

Cambrian Mountain Lamb was the inspiration of HRH Prince Charles who is seeking to prevent further loss of farmers from the uplands of Britain. The uplands need animals to maintain them and this in turn provides high quality traditionally reared sustainable food.

Truly Irresistible Welsh Hill lamb
January to mid July

The seasonality and limited numbers of Cambrian Mountain lamb, means it is not available all year round, so between January and July we replace it with traditionally reared, grass fed, Welsh Hill Lamb.

Standard Lamb
British – mid July to December
New Zealand – January to mid July

The Co-operative is firmly of the opinion that British farmers figured out years ago the best way to rear lambs, to produce incredibly tasty, moist and succulent meat. That’s why all our standard lamb is traditionally reared in the open on grass and only brought indoors when the weather gets really bad. We have located expert farmers throughout Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to allow us to offer our customers a truly regional product. To ensure we are able to provide our customers with the best quality lamb all year round, we replace the British lamb with New Zealand spring lamb between January and mid July. As you would expect, we require our suppliers in New Zealand to rear their lambs to the same high welfare standards we require from our British farmers.