Sheep rustlers have stolen 120 ewes and lambs worth around £7,000 from a north Wales farm, robbing their owners of generations of hard work.

Fifty Welsh ewes and 70 lambs less than a month old were taken during the raid on the farm in Bala.

The owners, Meirion Ap Rhodri and his father, Rhodri Jones, are appealing to anyone with information about the theft overnight on April 27 to contact them.

Meirion said the stock had been run on an organic system and were acclimatised to the local conditions. The sheep graze mountain land for most of the year.

As well as the financial loss, he said the theft had destroyed the years of work the family had put into building the flock.

The ewes have a unique and distinctive notch on their ears, used as a mark for identification when they are grazing on the mountain.

They are also marked with the lettering ‘JJ’ on their backs.

“If I ever found them that is what I would be looking at. Somebody knows something but the police have no leads,’’ says Meirion.

There were no broken fences and, because the weather has been dry, no tyre tracks.

Meirion suggests the sheep may have been taken somewhere then loaded quickly.

“If you see a wagon and a trailer going down the road at 6am, you just think it is another farmer going about his business,’’ he says.

North Wales Police says its enquiries are ongoing and has asked anyone with information to call 101 and quote reference Y059948.