The Wiltshire Horn is a
breed of
domestic sheep
Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated ...
originally from
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
in southern
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
raised for
meat.
[
] The breed is unusual among native British breeds, for it has the unusual feature of
moulting its short wool and hair coat naturally in spring, obviating the need for
shearing
Sheep shearing is the process by which the woollen fleece of a sheep is cut off. The person who removes the sheep's wool is called a '' shearer''. Typically each adult sheep is shorn once each year (a sheep may be said to have been "shorn" or ...
.
They are good mothers and have high fertility.
History
The Wiltshire Horn was until the eighteenth century one of the predominant sheep breeds of southern England.
[
] For hundreds of years, it served a clear function on the thin chalk soils of the Wiltshire Downs, requiring little shelter from the elements and providing dung and urine to fertilise the wheat-growing land. At the same time, it provided an easily managed source of quality meat, but the rising price of wool and a general move away from horned sheep had the breed suffer a dramatic decline throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
It was nearly extinct at the start of the 1900s. In 1923, in an attempt to save the breed, the Wiltshire Horn Breed Society was formed. In the early 1980s, 45 registered flocks were in the UK,
[
] but the 2009 edition of the flock book of the Wiltshire Horn Sheep Society recognises almost 300 flocks.
The Wiltshire Horn is one of the foundation breeds for
Katahdin,
Wiltipoll
The Wiltipoll is a breed of polled domestic sheep that was developed in Australia from Wiltshire Horn sheep with the infusion of Border Leicester, Perendale, Poll Dorset, and Poll Merino genetics, that are raised for meat.
History
The polle ...
, and
Easycare
The Easycare or Easy Care is a modern British breed of easy-care sheep. It was developed in Wales in the second half of the twentieth century by cross-breeding between Welsh Mountain and Wiltshire Horn stock, with the aim of combining the me ...
breeds and the Hampshire breed along with
Southdown sheep
The Southdown is a British breed of domestic sheep, the smallest of the British breeds. It is a shortwool breed, and the basis of the whole Down group of breeds. It was originally bred by John Ellman of Glynde, near Lewes in East Sussex, in a ...
and the Berkshire Nott.
Until the 20th century, the breed was chiefly traded at local events such as the
Westbury Hill Fair
The Westbury Hill Fair, or Westbury Hill Sheep Fair, was an annual fair which took place on the first Tuesday in September on high ground at Westbury, Wiltshire, England, near the north-western corner of Salisbury Plain. The main business was the ...
.
Characteristics
Males and females both have horns. Ram horns grow one full spiral each year until maturity. Both sexes are white with occasion black spots on the undercoat. This is a hair breed, growing a thick, coarse coat in the winter and shedding in the summer. Rams weigh about and ewes .
Farming
No longer a rare breed, the Wiltshire Horn is proving its worth to three particular groups of producers:
* The smaller-scale producer seeking added value with quality, naturally reared, full-flavoured meat.
* The large commercial operator can tap into Wiltshire Horn genetics and create wool-shedding hybrids, so freeing themselves from the expense and hassle of annual shearing;
* The
smallholder
A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technology ...
and hobbyist values the breed for its meat, its easy-to-handle conformation, and its low-input, no-shear attributes.
References
External links
UK Wiltshire Horn Sheep SocietyAustralian Wiltshire Horn Breeders AssociationBelgian breeder with extra information about this breed (only available in dutch)
{{British livestock, R.1
Sheep breeds
Sheep breeds originating in England