Southdown (sheep) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Southdown is a small, dual purpose British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

sheep but is raised primarily for meat. The Southdown breed was originally bred by John Ellman

John Ellman

John Ellman was an English farmer and stock breeder who developed the Southdown breed of sheep.Ellman was born in Hartfield, Sussex, but moved with his family to Place Farm in Glynde in 1761...

of Glynde

Glynde

Glynde is a village in the Lewes District of East Sussex, United Kingdom. It is located two miles east of Lewes.-Estate:The estate at Glynde has belonged to four interlinked families: the Waleys , Morleys, Trevors, and Brands...

, near Lewes

Lewes

Lewes is the county town of East Sussex, England and historically of all of Sussex. It is a civil parish and is the centre of the Lewes local government district. The settlement has a history as a bridging point and as a market town, and today as a communications hub and tourist-oriented town...

, East Sussex

East Sussex

East Sussex is a county in South East England. It is bordered by the counties of Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, and to the south by the English Channel.-History:...

about 200 years ago. His work was continued by Jonas Webb

Jonas Webb

Jonas Webb was an English farmer and stock breeder who was responsible for developing the Southdown breed of sheep into its modern form....

of Babraham

Babraham

Babraham is a village and civil parish in the South Cambridgeshire district of Cambridgeshire, England, about six miles south-east of Cambridge on the A1307 road....

in Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...

who developed the larger animal that we see today. It was exported to New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

and was used in the breeding of the Canterbury Lamb.

This sheep was involved with crossbreeding to develop other breeds

with existing stock, the Hampshire,
via the Hampshire, the Oxford Down
with the Norfolk Horn, the Suffolk.

The Southdown in Britain is recognised by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust

Rare Breeds Survival Trust

The Rare Breeds Survival Trust is a conservation charity, whose purpose is to secure the continued existence and viability of the United Kingdom’s native farm animal genetic resources...

as a native breed, although today it is popular amongst the smaller scale breeders of sheep.

Characteristics

It has been split into two sub-breeds. The Southdown raised by commercial growers today, is larger than the "traditional" Southdown of years past. North American Southdowns are also taller than their British counterparts. The original blood line of the English Southdowns are the "Baby Doll" Southdowns in the US. They have been selected specifically for their smaller size of the original blood lines and a focus on wool and hobby breeding rather than commercial meat production. In California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

and New Zealand

New Zealand

, they are placed in vineyard

Vineyard

A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice...

s to graze weeds because they are too short to reach the grape

Grape

A grape is a non-climacteric fruit, specifically a berry, that grows on the perennial and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten raw or they can be used for making jam, juice, jelly, vinegar, wine, grape seed extracts, raisins, molasses and grape seed oil. Grapes are also...

s on the vines. Baby Doll breeders claim that their sheep are closer to the old, traditional, British Southdown than are the commercial Southdown sheep being grown today.

Mature weights for rams range 190 lb (86 kg) to 230 lb (104 kg), ewes weigh from 130 lb (59 kg) to 180 lb (81 kg). From mature ewes, fleece weights are between 5 lb (2.25 kg) and 8 lb (3.6 kg) with a yield of 40% to 55%. The fleeces are considered medium wool type with a fiber diameter of 23.5 to 29.0 microns and a numerical count of 54 to 60. The staple length ranges from 1.5 inches (4 cm) to 2.5 inches (6 cm).

History

It has been estimated that there were some 110,000 sheep in Sussex as early as 1341. At the time their wool was second only to the Hereford sheep in fineness and quality.

In 1780 John Ellman realized the potential of these animals and set out to standardize the Southdown breed. In the 19th century and first half of the 20th century they were found in large numbers, especially in the South Downs

South Downs

The South Downs is a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen Valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, East Sussex, in the east. It is bounded on its northern side by a steep escarpment, from whose...

near Lewes

Lewes

.

In 1813 Arthur Young

Arthur Young

Arthur Young was an English writer on agriculture, economics and social statistics.- Birth and early life :...

estimated that there were 200,000 ewes kept on the eastern South Downs and commented that "the amazing number they keep is one of the most singular circumstances in the sheep husbandry of England".

The principal reason for the large concentrations of Southdown sheep on downland farms over these centuries was their role in the maintenance of soil fertility. The large flocks grazed the open downs by day and at dusk they came down to the lower arable land for folding. The downland soils are chalky

Chalk

Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....

and not naturally fertile so that the close-folding by the sheep on small areas manured and trod the soil. This meant that wheat could be grown successfully the following year. With the gradual introduction of new crops such as field turnips, swedes, kohl rabi and other forage crops the folding system took off, increasing in parallel with expanding human population. The system reached its zenith in the years from about 1845 to 1880.

The 20th century brought the establishment of pedigree recording. By 1911 there were 359 registered Southdown flocks containing some 114,495 breeding ewes throughout Britain.

Much remained the same until the First World War when the Southdown flocks declined with some rapidity, as shepherds and farm workers went off to war. By 1922 the 359 pedigree flocks had shrunk to 245. From then until 1939 the registered Southdown flocks hovered around the 200 mark. Folding flocks were no longer economic and smaller flocks averaged only 135 ewes apiece.

The use of artificial fertilizers had gained ground and the combine-drill, which sowed grain seeds and fertilizer together, rendered close-folding by sheep unnecessary. Gradually surrendering to basic arable farming changes, the Southdown became largely a grassland breed. During the inter-war years the United Kingdom was known for farm animal breeding and pedigree Southdowns were still being exported to most parts of the world, especially New Zealand. In 1937 the number of exported Southdowns reached 459 head.

During the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

, a severe and prolonged fall in the prices of wool and cereals due to rising volumes of imports from the British Empire

British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...

was accompanied by the Wet Years - a six year period of cold wet weather with little sun.

In the Second World War the Southdowns were commandeered for military training, only fringe farms being left producing milk for the towns. Sheep farming declined further after the war, although it is now being encouraged again through the designation of the downland as an Environmentally Sensitive Area

Environmentally Sensitive Area

An Environmentally Sensitive Area is a type of designation for an agricultural area which needs special protection because of its landscape, wildlife or historical value. The scheme was introduced in 1987...

, and the restoration of arable land to sheepwalk

Sheepwalk

A sheepwalk is an area of grassland where sheep can roam freely.The productivity of sheepwalk is measured by the number of sheep per area. This is dependent, among other things, on the underlying rock....

. The Southdown has been placed on a watch list by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.

In the United States

The original Southdown breed probably reached the United States in 1803. Their popularity grew because the Southdowns were very easy to take care of and were resilient to many problems that other sheep are known for. They later declined in nearly the same pattern that had occurred in England. One other factor that affected the original blood lines was the Southdown could not satisfy the consumer demand for larger meat cuts. This was a significant factor in the development and mass production of the larger, leggier Southdown of today. This divergence from the original breed standards was the beginning of what later became two distinct lines in the US.

The American Southdowns were developed by breeding the original blood lines to larger breeds of Southdowns from other countries to create a sheep that could compete with the other larger meat breeds in the US. However, many of the original attributes the original Southdowns were known for were bred out.

In 1986 a breeder, Robert Mock, began a search for the sheep with blood lines that conformed to the original Southdowns. After a four-year search, two small flocks totaling 26 sheep were located; however, this group would not be able to provide a sustainable gene pool. Mr. Mock continued his extensive search and by 1990 he was able to find a total of 350 of the Southdown sheep that had the original bloodlines, and many of them still carried their original Southdown registration papers recognized by the UK.

In the United States, breeders of the original Southdown blood lines now call them "Olde English Southdowns" or "Babydoll Sheep". Only adult Babydoll sheep that two years and older were accepted in the flock so that they could be judged against the original conformation standards as verified by a veterinarian. Each sheep's registration application was passed before a board of three members of the Babydoll Sheep Breed Association. After this initial review and acceptance period, the "Foundation Flock" registry was closed in 1991. Subsequently, the process of registering lambs from this newly established foundation flock began.

External links

Babydoll Southdown Sheep

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