Contrary to opinion, my sister and I are thriving well up here on the edge of the Pennines. It all started when our owner, Viv Dawson, decided she'd like to keep sheep! She read up on the subject and learned that along with the wonderful appearance of a Southdown they were also ideal for lady shepherds. Well, we were the lucky two to be chosen at a few months old, and we lead a very happy life in the field opposite her kitchen window. We have plenty of grass to eat and a choice of two shelters in the field. Viv visits us daily and we dash to the gate to greet her. She's under the impression that its her we like to see, but really it is just the sound of the gate that lets us know that there is probably something tasty to eat.
As Northern Southdowns we are thriving. Viv is a complete novice of course, but she does her best - I mean, we are still here and we are now three years old. The first year she considered breeding from us was "foot and mouth", so we escaped that daunting process at the time, but come the next year, 2002, and she was offered the services of "Archie" the ram. He belongs to our previous owner but unrelated to us.
Now, the climate up here is a little damp and cold, so Archie did not arrive until mid December. Our spring does not really begin until May time. Anyway, all went well - we had some fun, or he did at least, and in the middle of May this year I produced a lovely ram lamb but my sister was not so lucky and her lamb did not survive.
My lamb mysteriously disappeared recently, but I have to say I haven't really noticed his absence. This year Archie is otherwise engaged, so it is just going to be the two of us again over the winter.
Viv doesn't really know how to begin finding the right ram for us and is not keen to own one. She does get a little help in handling us, which was, of course, invaluable at lambing time. Every so often we get a visit from Joel. He really knows how to deal with us and there is no nonsense. He looks in our mouths, sticks needles and syringes in us and regularly gives us pedicures. But only once a year does he arrive with the shears as well!
Beyond that, life is very peaceful. We don't enter shows (although I am sure we would do well) and therefore we have very little contact with our own kind.
In December 2004 I think it would be great to meet another ram, so anyone out there interested in spending a bit of time with us in the north, do let us know. Even though its just the two of us, we are rather beautiful and we'd give you a very good time!
Blackberry and Bayleaf
Viv Dawson
George Hughes now runs a flock of only 100 pedigree Southdowns near Carmarthen but once he ran over 1000 commercial ewes and still found time to be involved with a host of organisations and sheep events. A pioneer in the development of the Welsh Half-bred, he chaired the Breed Society for 19 years, and since the mid-70s he has led the team that organises the National Sheep Association's very successful Welsh multi-breed ram sales. In 2003 he added the John Gittins Memorial Award, for his outstanding contribution to the Welsh Sheep industry, to many others including the internationally recognised George Hedley Award.
Mr Hughes became a Royal Welsh volunteer worker after competing successfully when the event was staged in Wrexham in 1962. Now he is Honorary Director of six sections and is in his second three year term as Chair of the Royal Welsh Winter Fair Committee. Somehow he still finds time to show his Southdowns and to direct the Fair's sheep section stewards, including his son Robin. ' It is challenging, especially coping with animal health regulations, but it is so rewarding to see wonderful quality stock being paraded by people who are fiercely competitive, but very friendly', he admits.
The success of the 2003 Royal Welsh Winter Fair, George states, is due to the members of the Committee who organise the Fair ' There is a marvellous team and great team spirit', he states but a lot of the success is also due to their Chairman, H George Hughes.
From the Farmers Weekly (by permission) written by Robert Davis
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The Bucks County Show has been part of our year all our lives. Terry with cattle and pigs and myself with horses and ponies. It was at this show the year before Foot & Mouth, when we had taken a pen of mules to show, that Richard Hedges, a Young Farmers pal of old, suggested that we should go to the Rare Breeds Show at Stoneleigh instead of Blenheim Horse Trials that coming Saturday. This we did and saw a variety of sheep - mostly those that we did not want to keep - but did take a liking to the Rylands.
After some time talking with their breeders we moved on and saw Basil Cooper, who knew us from the Bucks County Show. He had taken a Southdown ram lamb to sell. He did a most convincing job for the Southdowns. Before we left we also saw Sir Richard Cooper, who I had known in the years when he lived and hunted in our part of the world, and he obviously was another Southdown man.
When we got home we spoke to Sylvia Evans - a Shropshire and Norfolk Horn lady - and were amazed that, on mentioning Southdowns, she said ' I have one '. Her late husband Peter had bought a ewe lamb at a previous Rare Breed sale but they still had only one and her Shropshire X shearling. Sylvia said she would love us to have them both.
Full circle is that Richard Hedges rang earlier - he runs a farm for disabled people near Buckingham and has a variety of rare breed stock. He asked if we would be interested in the one remaining Southdown ewe - a Camber Castle and, of course, she has now come here to join us. We now have a total of 19 Southdowns, of which ten should lamb in January 2004. Do you think that it was somehow planned that we should keep Southdowns?
Although we have been showing and judging other livestock, showing sheep is new to us and we are delighted at the success that we have had in 2003, particularly that our greatest successes have been with home bred stock. It has been great fun to see the same competitors at each show, although the classes have been varied - pure breed stock, short wool, Southdown, Rare Breeds and commercial, and so the opposition has been varied from show to show.
But it has been pleasant to ring the changes from show to show too. It is just as thrilling to win a rosette in your fifties as it was with a pony at five. But I am afraid that some shows - even County ones - are very mean when it comes to rosettes and prize cards. If some shows can give away 4th, 5th and even 6th rosettes surely other shows can too - it won't break the bank, especially as the prize money is usually not very big, nor the entry fees all that small.
We have come home from all but one show with ribbons and have brought first prize home from Thame for a ram class and from Newbury first and reserve champion with a home bred ram lamb and were very pleased to win first for the group of three against 23 other entries. The 'one' show - situated in Gloucestershire - we have returned from, two years running, empty handed but it will not be three years running as we already know that on its date in 2004 we are off to a wedding.
We have made new friends and look forward to meeting them again. Some of them speak to us on the 'phone quite often to catch up on our news.
Thank you to all who have helped us in the past and we look forward to seeing you all again.
Lesley and Terry Mead, Tel. 01525 270135
This is a big chance to have your flock assessed by an expert judge. Not to be missed if you are a serious breeder and especially if you are not very experienced yet; and of course most of us will be learning about sheep for ever! Don't they say that sheep have ninety-nine ways of dying and are always trying to find the one hundredth?
The judge is not there to criticise but to assess your flock and will certainly help if you have problems. To have him or her there with you and your sheep, on your land, is a great opportunity to discuss things and to gain advice of any sort. Frank Grantham was one of my first visiting judges and he was full of helpful hints, as also were many others. Not so long ago one of the judges spotted orf in a flock and that might have taken much longer to diagnose before it became painfully obvious.
Usually we are looking at other people's sheep at a show where they have been titivated and will therefore be looking rather smart compared to our own (!) but it is hard to remember the difference when we see others - and we do not always notice faults in those we are familiar with, even if we are trying to be objective - so to have advice on how to rectify a cowhock, an undeveloped leg of mutton, narrow conformation, etc., perhaps by using a different ram from a particular flock can be of tremendous benefit, especially if offered by someone familiar with other flocks and who has done it all before.
The actual results of the Flock Competition are useful but the hidden benefits of taking part are tremendous.
Sue Thomson, Tel. 01273 845158