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About the Border Leicester Breed:
The Border Leicester is one of the British breeds of livestock the origins
of which there are no doubts. They are the lineal descendants of the Dishley
Leicesters bred and made famous by Robert Bakewell (1726-1795) of Dishley,
Leicestershire. Robert Bakewell followed on the work of arable pioneers Jethro
Tull and Lord "Turnip" Townshend but it is in the field of livestock and especially
sheep that Bakewell particularly excelled. At this time all sheep were run
together, breeding at random resulting in many different breeds all with their
own unique, but random characteristics. Bakewell segregated the sexes, allowed
mating only to occur deliberately and specifically. He developed a system
of breeding termed "in-and-in", breeding animals of close relationship with
each other or line breeding as it is known today. It is thought he started
with the old Lincolnshire breed crossing them with the best of the local Leicestershire
types and then by breeding "in-and-in" coupled with rigorous selection and
culling was able to fix desirable characteristics for improved meat quality
and production through pre-potency. This resultant breed Bakewell called the
"New Leicester" becoming known as the "Dishley Leicester".
By1789 there were two distinct types of “Dishley Leicester” evolving in the
Borders. The Culley brothers were initially crossing these sheep with the
local Teeswater breed but other farmers on the border were crossing in some
Cheviot blood. This led to the two variations nicknamed the “Bluecaps” and
the “Redlegs”. The Border farmers preferred the hardier redlegs and by about
1850 this variation of the “Dishley Leicester” became known as the “BORDER
LEICESTER”
The “Border Leicester” very quickly became popular and by the time “The Society
of Border Leicester Sheep Breeders” was founded and the first flock book printed
in 1898 the breed had spread as far north as Wick, Caithness and across to
Ireland Registered flocks are now found in all parts of England, Ireland,
Scotland and Wales. Sheep have been exported widely in the early years particularly
to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. More recently to France, Spain,
Portugal, Canada, USA, Colombia, British Guiana, India, Japan, Yugoslavia,
Iran, Hungary, Russia, China, Turkey & Switzerland.
The main advantages of using a Border Leicester Ram:
He imparts high levels of Hybrid
Vigour to offspring from all types:
of dam leading to rapid growth, good carcase conformation, milkiness
& hardiness. Border Leicesters are renowned for their ability to produce quality,
early maturing prime lambs at a variety of carcase weights. Suffolk X females
out of Scottish Halfbred ewes are renowned for their ability to produce early
prime lamb.
Uniformity:
the crossbred progeny show a strong uniformity - an important factor
in selling both butchers` and breeding stock.
Easy Lambing:
the clean aquiline head, and not overheavy shoulders mean that the Border
Leicester Ram can safely be used on the smallest ewes, e.g. the very successful
Welsh Halfbred which is produced from one of our smallest hill ewes, the Welsh
Mountain ewe.
High survival rate:
of newly born crossbred lambs in harsh climatic conditions is legendary
through their thick covering of wool inherited from the Border Leicester.
The crossbred females when used for fat lamb production have this inherent
hardiness which extends their productive life.
Quality fleece: Strong and white
with bulk and value preferred by the quality carpet manufacturers. Valued
as a crossing sire, the influence of Border Leicester wool on the British
clip is considerable. Pure-bred, the wool is white and semi lustrous, without
kemp or coloured fibres and giving a staple length of up to 20 cms. On crosses
and half-breds, these characteristics help to give versatility to the whole
clip by producing slightly finer fleeces and reducing the incidence of coloured
fibres and kemp, often found in the wool from hill and mountain breeds. Put
on the Cheviot, good quality white wool is produced by the Scotch Half-bred;
on the Blackface, the cross wool is whiter and resilient.
HISTORY OF THE BREED:
The Icelandic sheep is one of the world's oldest and purest breeds of
sheep. Throughout its 1100 years of history, the Icelandic breed has been
truly triple-purpose, treasured for its meat, fiber and milk.
The Icelandic sheep breed is descended from the sheep brought to Iceland by
the Viking settlers in the 9th and 10th century and is related to the short-tailed
Northern European breeds - the Russian Romanov, the Finnish Landrace, Swedish
Gotland, the Spaelsau in Norway and the Shetland in the United Kingdom.
Very few attempts have been made to "improve" the Icelandic sheep through
the centuries with outside crossings. The few attempts that were made, resulted
in disasters brought on by diseases brought in by the "new blood". As a result
producers drastically culled all animals which were results of crossbreeding.
As a consequence all effect of other breeds was eliminated. It is now illegal
to import any sheep into Iceland. As a result of these factors improvements
to the breed have been done by selective breeding within the breed itself.
Genetically the Icelandic sheep is the same today as it was 1100 years ago.
It is possibly the oldest and purest domesticated breed of sheep in the world
today.
ICELANDIC BREED FACTS AND CHARACTERISTICS:
The Icelandic breed is in the North European short-tailed group of sheep, which exhibits a fluke-shaped, naturally short tail. To ensure the continuing purity of the breed, tail docking an Icelandic will disqualify it from being registered in North America. Icelandics are a mid-sized breed with ewes averaging 130-160 pounds, and rams averaging 180-220 pounds. Conformation is generally short legged and stocky. The face and legs are free of wool. The fleece is dual-coated and comes in white as well as a range of browns, grays and blacks. There are both horned and polled strains. Left unshorn for the winter, the breed is very cold hardy. Ewes are seasonal breeders, most coming into heat in late October. They will continue cycling until spring if not bred. Rams are sexually active year round, and the ram lambs can start breeding at 5-6 months. Lambs mature early and ewe lambs commonly lamb at 11-12 months of age. Icelandic ewes are bred as lambs, and many remain productive until age 10 or longer. Prolificacy is quite good, on average 175-220%. Triplets are not uncommon and many Icelandic ewes are very capable of nursing triplets without assistance. The lambs are small, twins averaging 6-8 pounds and very lively after an average gestation of 142-144 days, several days shorter than the species average. Lambs are vigorous at birth, a trait that has been shown to carry through in crossbreeding programs. The first lamb born will commonly be up and nursing before the twin arrives. Experienced mothers can have a lamb nursing even before it has gotten to its feet. Lambs are generally strong enough to suck out the wax plug, and are seldom lost to pneumonia. Due to their large rumens, and the selective pressures of their history in Iceland, the breed is feed efficient. The animals are cold hardy and have a strong, reactive immune system. The sheep have evolved over 1,100 years under difficult farming conditions in Iceland, with a resultant sturdy and efficient constitution. A defining quality of the Icelandic breed is the ability to survive on pasture and browse. Historically, Iceland is not a grain producing country due to the climate, and the breed has survived through its thousand year history on pasture and hay. The ewes are supplemented with fish meal when pregnant and most ewe lambs here in North America are supplemented with some protein especially when pregnant. On good grass, meat lambs can be slaughtered directly off the pasture at 5-6 months of age. The most eye-catching aspect of the breed is the variation of colors and patterns. Genetically, Icelandics have one of two base colors, either black or moorit (brown). They exhibit 5 pattern combinations: white, gray, badgerface, mouflon and solid. Individual sheep may also display various shades of these colors/patterns, ranging from white, cream, light gray, tan, caramel, milk chocolate, silver, dark chocolate, dark gray, to jet black. A spotting gene adds even more combinations with many recognized and named patterns of white markings. They are mainly white but about 15% - 20% are non-white, with a very interesting range of colours. The natural breeding season runs from late November to early May. Rams appear to be sexually active throughout the year. The average length of gestation is 143 days. Normally about 98% of mature ewes and 60-80% of ewe lambs conceive. In Iceland the sheep are bred almost exclusively for meat, and in fact more than 80% of the income from sheep is from meat, which is fine grained and has an excellent flavour.
