Your pigs-in-blankets, Christmas roast or cheese plate this year could help the conservation of Wales’ rare breeds of livestock, says Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST).

National conservation charity RBST is urging shoppers to support the survival of the UK’s rarest native farm animal breeds over the festive period by buying meat, cheese and other produce from a local native breed farmer or smallholder.

Some of the UK’s rarest livestock and poultry breeds originated in Wales, including Vaynol cattle, Welsh Pigs, Hill Radnor sheep, Balwen sheep, Badger Face Torwen and Torddu sheep, Llanwenog sheep, Welsh Harlequin ducks and Brecon Buff geese.

Court Bleddyn Farm sausages
Court Bleddyn Farm sausages (Rare Breeds Survival Trust )

RBST Chief Executive Christopher Price said: “Choosing native breed produce helps create the markets for farmers to be able to keep these breeds, which is crucial for rare breeds to survive for future generations. Being slower-grown, native breed meat is high quality and delicious, with different breeds having distinct tastes and textures.

“Native breed farms are generally smaller scale, using traditional farming methods which are good for the environment, and based around high welfare standards and local systems with low food miles. So choosing meats and cheese this Christmas produced by Wales’ native breeds farmers is a chance to enjoy delicious food in the knowledge that you are making a positive difference.”

Barbara Warren, who keeps rare breeds including Tamworth pigs at Court Bleddyn Farm in the Brecon Beacons said: “Native breeds of livestock have been at the heart of our food chains and a distinctive feature of Welsh landscapes for centuries. They are part of our heritage but also ideal for the sustainable farming of today and tomorrow.

“There is important work taking place in Wales to keep these iconic breeds from extinction through breeding programmes and banking genetic materials, but we also need to ‘eat them to keep them’. The festive season is a great chance to give our delicious native breed meats and cheeses a try.”

Look out for native breed produce at farm shops, farmers markets, butchers and cheesemongers throughout Wales. Many of Wales’ native breed farmers also sell their produce online.