Great things can never be achieved overnight. The years of dedication and hard work have finally paid off for Ian and Helen Robertson, who have built up a flock of top quality sheep producing some of the best meat around on their Chawton farm.

Chawton Park Farm is located on the edge of the Hampshire Downs in the village where Jane Austen lived, and in fact the farm formed part of a much larger estate which was owned by her brother.

The farm itself has a long and interesting history, having once been a medieval deer park, and later, because the old road to Winchester passed across its land, it became the haunt of highwaymen, robbers and thieves ready to pounce on unwary travellers.

It is also said that Jane Austen liked to sit in one of the farm’s fields when writing some of her novels.

The Robertsons have been at the farm since 1982 and have been working hard to restore it to its former glory, returning it to pastoral parkland from its previous use as an arable farm growing cereal crops.

They are also repairing some of the old farm buildings, many of which are several hundred years old.

Ian, who comes from a farming family, has been in the sheep business since graduating from Shropshire’s  agricultural university Harper Adams back in the late 80s, but initially his interest lay in ewes’ milk.

“It got to the stage where we had to either expand or disband,” he said.

“So we decided to go into meat production. We started to build up a commercial flock and we now have 1,500 ewes  producing 2,000 lambs every year.”

The breed used by the Robertsons is the Welsh Defaid Lleyn, which the couple chose because of its quiet nature and the fact it is relatively easy to care for.

A large number of home-bred ewes are kept for breeding but rams are still bought in at present.

“We have to do all the work ourselves so we needed animals which were good to handle and not too skittish,” continued Ian.

“Now all our animals are electronically tagged at birth so we know the exact breeding lines, health and lambing records of each animal, down to which fields they have been kept in. This means that all our meat is completely traceable.”

Although the farm is not designated as organic, it is run under Defra’s environmental stewardship scheme which requires strict controls to be followed to protect wildlife and the environment.

As a result the farm uses limited quantities of fertiliser and no herbicides or pesticides — and that’s good for the meat as well.

Not surprisingly, Ian favours traditional methods of farming, with high animal welfare standards.

The sheep live out with the lambs, being born in May in the open and fed thereafter purely on their mother’s milk and the excellent grass on the farm.

Nothing is forced and so the meat is sweet and tastes just as lamb should.

Because profit margins are tight, Ian can only employ staff for specific jobs, such as silage making, or at lambing season in May.

The rest of the time he cares for the sheep himself with the aid of Jess, his trusty sheepdog.

Ian said: “Jess is a three-year-old border collie. I got her as a pup and trained her up myself. She is working really well now and it’s very rewarding.

"I enjoy working with Jess because it makes life a lot easier and she’s someone to talk to when you’re out on your own with just sheep for company.

“Collies are very intelligent, but it can be frustrating when they think they’re cleverer than you and try to do things their way. But when you work tog-ther as a team, it’s amazing what you can do.

“I’ll point out an individual lamb to Jess and then she will peel it off and hold it, which is something that would be very difficult for me to do either on foot or on a quad bike.

"The great thing about dogs is that they never complain and they don’t care about the weather — they just love working.”

Unfortunately not all dogs are so good with sheep and in the last five years the Robertsons have lost 50 animals, all killed by dogs, as well as others which have been injured.

“I try to educate the public about the countryside and wildlife, but I also want to impress upon them how important it is to keep their dogs under control around sheep,” said Ian.

Now that their flock is well established, the Robertsons have built up an enviable reputation for the quality of their meat and they supply a number of pubs and restaurants which want to serve fine local produce.

They are now also moving into retailing the meat themselves, and have set up a home delivery system called Lamb in a Van.

“At first one of the problems we found was that restaurants wanted just the best cuts like leg and fillet, but we’re getting the message over to them that the other cuts are delicious as well, so we can use the whole animal,” said Ian.

“We now find chops and cutlets are selling well and pubs also take our mince for shepherd’s pie and similar dishes.

“Our mince is usually made of leftover shoulder meat as this is the least popular cut for restaurants.

“Liver is also starting to be popular, although not so much kidneys and heart. We are looking at doing sausages in the near future to solve this problem.”

The Lamb in the Van scheme runs in a similar way to the vegetable box system used by some arable farms and farm shops.

A customer can look at the website and order the relevant box, after which Helen will phone them to discuss their requirements to ensure they get what they want when they want.

All the meat is super-fresh when it’s delivered — never more than two days old — and it is vacuum-packed (and clearly labelled) for storage in the fridge or freezer.

Orders can be safely left if the customer is out as the boxes are fully insulated and can keep the meat cool for 24 hours, but of course, if they prefer, customers can also go to the farm to collect their order.

“We say the meat is good to keep in the fridge for ten days, although tests indicate it would last much longer than that,” said Ian.

“Customers can buy a mini pack of a quarter of a lamb, a medium pack of half a lamb, or a large one of a whole lamb.

“Each one has been fully butchered into the various cuts at nearby Laverstoke Park or Overton where we send the lambs for slaughter, so you are not going to get a whole lamb just as it is.

“The boxes contain things like mini-roasts, cutlets, chops, steaks and mince. Next year we’re hoping to do some specialised packs too, such as ones for barbecues.

“The Lamb in a Van is going very well and it’s a side of the business we want to expand, while at the same time keeping the quality as it is, along with the personal touch that our customers appreciate.” 

For prices and details of Lamb in a Van, visit www. lamb-in-a-van.co.uk.