16/10/2026
Congratulations Will (Ewe & Me Farming), from everyone at Glenthorne 👏🏻 🥳 🍾 🐑
Congratulations to Sheep Farmer of the Year 2026, William Roobottom!
Staffordshire farmer William Roobottom has transformed a small sheep enterprise into a progressive, low-input business focused on producing more from grass while keeping costs under control.
Farming 200 hectares at Cowley Hill Farm, William runs 535 breeding ewes and hoggs, predominantly Lleyn, alongside EasyCare genetics. Rotational grazing and careful pasture management underpin the system, with neither ewes nor lambs receiving concentrates. Lambs now achieve daily liveweight gains of 300-330g from grass alone, compared with around 180g when William began recording performance.
A major change has been moving from indoor to outdoor lambing, reducing labour, bedding and feed costs while allowing the flock to expand. Over the past two years, this shift and the move to a lower-input system have increased the margin by £40 per lamb.
With MV accreditation, data-led parasite control and a focus on easy-care genetics, William is building a resilient enterprise, recently strengthened by a new council farm tenancy and his growing social media presence.
Morrisons Farmers Guardian
