From the President
It is a great honour to have been chosen the Society’s one hundredth President. The First President was Earl Bathurst in 1907, and how things have changed since then. The first Flock Book I have is for 1900. There was the Prince of Wales as the Society’s Patron and there were five Dukes and Duchesses, a dozen or so lesser Lords and Baronets and eight MPs amongst the membership.
There were 133 flocks, comprising a total of 37,000 ewes, the largest flock being that belonging to C. & E. Robinson of Saddlescombe, Brighton, which put 1350 ewes to the ram in 1899. There were at that time 62 flocks with more than 250 ewes. Today we have many more flocks – 295 – but only six put more than 50 ewes to the ram according to the latest Flock Book (that is, if none of those members who failed to make a complete return should fall into this category). There are about 2500 ewes and only three flocks of over 100 ewes, whereas in 1899 there were only 14 out of the 113 flocks with less than 100.
There are many reasons why there has been such a change, and I do not propose to go into all of them here. But the main difference between then and now is that a hundred years ago there was little stratification, and most lamb and mutton came from single breed flocks, largely according to locality, while nowadays commercial flocks are nearly all based on cross-bred ewes, using terminal sires. Then, as now, the breed producing the best and tastiest meat was the Southdown and hence there were some very large flocks. Today the biggest source of income for pedigree flocks of Down breeds is the sale of rams as terminal sires, and this means much smaller flocks.
The present position of the Southdown is that it has only a very small following as a terminal sire, and an increasing number of flocks are kept by enthusiastic members who are not dependent on them for their livelihood. They only want a few sheep, possibly to graze horse paddocks, and also perhaps because they appreciate the quality of Southdown lamb which they like to eat themselves and supply to their friends and neighbours. Many of them prefer a small ewe which is easier to handle. The Society welcomes these members, without whose contribution the Southdown might well have become an endangered breed: it is already classified as a Rare Breed.
In these circumstances the Society should surely be aiming for the Southdown to regain its position as one of the country’s premier breeds, and it will only do this by re-establishing itself as a leading terminal sire. The quality of Southdown meat is not in dispute; family butchers are more than happy to sell Southdown lamb. The market for the end product is there, but commercial flock owners must be persuaded to use Southdown rams. With too many flock owners the reputation of the Southdown is far too light a lamb optimum weight for slaughter, or too fat a lamb at heavier weights.
Only the other day I was rung up by someone who had been looking at the Southdown web site. He has 1500 ewes and is also a retailer who sells at farmers’ markets and direct to outlets in London, and quality is a very important consideration. He has been using Hampshire Down rams, and wanted to know whether we had rams which would give him lambs of comparable weight. These are the people we must persuade to use Southdowns.
A helpful development following increasing concern with the environment is the encouragement of the idea that food should be sold and consumed close to where it has been produced, and the setting up, with support from public bodies, of Southdowns marketing which guarantees good prices to producers in the area of the South Downs for lambs by Southdown and Hampshire Down sires. It is essential that producers entering the scheme should be able to buy the type of Southdown ram they want.
Altogether the outlook for the breed is promising, and I would urge more breeders to concentrate on strong marketable rams, for which there is an expanding demand. The use of New Zealand and possibly French lines of breeding could have a place here.
The Society would not be in such a healthy position to take advantage of the increased interest in Southdowns without the dedication of Clive Pritchard, our retiring Secretary after nearly forty years. In 1968 I first had contact with the Society when my wife and I were involved in the British participation at the Tokyo International Agricultural Show at which Southdowns were exhibited as well as some of our Border Leicesters. At that time there were only 43 registered flocks, as against the present 295. We sincerely thank Clive Pritchard for his long service to the Society. His successor, Mrs Gail Sprake, will, I am sure, carry on the good work, and I would urge all members to give her their support, both in easing the job of compiling the Flock Book, and the promotion of Southdowns in their part of the country.
May we all have a prosperous year. Philip Whitcombe