Wiltshire Horn

The Wiltshire Horn is a breed of domestic sheep originally from Wiltshire in southern England raised for meat.^[1] 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.^[2] They are good mothers and have high fertility.

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History

The Wiltshire Horn was until the eighteenth century one of the predominant sheep breeds of southern England.^[3] 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,^[4] 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, and Easycare breeds and the Hampshire breed along with Southdown sheep and the Berkshire Nott.^[4]

Until the 20th century, the breed was chiefly traded at local events such as the Westbury Hill Fair.

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 250 lb (110 kg) and ewes 150 lb (68 kg).^[4]

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 and hobbyist values the breed for its meat, its easy-to-handle conformation, and its low-input, no-shear attributes.

References

^ "Wiltshire Horn". Sheep Breeds V-Z. Sheep101.info. Retrieved 7 May 2009.
^ "Wiltshire Horn Sheep Breed". RaisingSheep.net. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
^ "Wiltshire Horn Sheep". The Livestock Conservancy. Retrieved 1 June 2010.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Wiltshire Horn". Breeds of Livestock. Oklahoma State University, Dept. of Animal Science. Retrieved 7 May 2009.

External links

Livestock breeds of the British Isles

Cattle

Beef cattle	Aberdeen Angus Beef Shorthorn Belted Galloway Blue Grey Devon Dexter English Longhorn Galloway Hereford Highland Lincoln Red Luing Shorthorn South Devon Sussex Welsh Black
Dairy cattle	Ayrshire Dairy Shorthorn Guernsey Jersey Kerry
Dual purpose	Albion British White Droimeann Irish Moiled Glamorgan Old Gloucester Pembroke Red Poll Shetland Whitebred Shorthorn
Primitive	Chillingham Wild Cattle Tory Island Vaynol White Park
Extinct	Alderney Blue Albion

Sheep

Extant	Badger Face Welsh Mountain Balwen Welsh Mountain Beulah Speckled Face Black Welsh Mountain Bluefaced Leicester Border Cheviot Border Leicester Brecknock Hill Cheviot British Milksheep Cambridge Cheviot Clun Forest Cotswold Dalesbred Derbyshire Gritstone Devon Closewool Devon and Cornwall Longwool Dorset Down Dorset Horn Easycare Exmoor Horn Galway Greyface Dartmoor Hampshire Down Herdwick Hill Radnor Kerry Hill Leicester Longwool Lincoln Llanwenog Lleyn Lonk Masham Norfolk Horn North Country Cheviot Oxford Down Portland Romney Rough Fell Ryeland Scottish Blackface Shetland Shropshire Southdown Suffolk Swaledale Teeswater Welsh Mountain Wensleydale Whiteface Dartmoor Whitefaced Woodland Wiltshire Horn
Primitive	Boreray Castlemilk Moorit Hebridean Jacob Manx Loaghtan North Ronaldsay Soay
Extinct	Devon Longwool Scottish Dunface South Devon

Pigs

Extant	Berkshire British Landrace British Lop British Saddleback Essex Gloucestershire Old Spots Large Black Large White Middle White Oxford Sandy and Black Tamworth Welsh Wessex Saddleback
Extinct	Cumberland Dorset Gold Tip Grice Irish Greyhound Pig Large White Ulster Lincolnshire Curly Coat Small Black Small White Yorkshire Blue and White

Goats

Poultry

Chickens	Croad Langshan Derbyshire Redcap Dorking Ixworth Indian Game Legbar Modern Game Modern Langshan Nankin Bantam Norfolk Grey Old English Game Old English Pheasant Fowl Orpington Rosecomb Scots Dumpy Scots Grey Sebright Sussex
Ducks	Abacot Ranger Aylesbury Orpington Khaki Campbell Magpie Shetland Silver Appleyard Welsh Harlequin
Geese	Brecon Buff Shetland

This page was last edited on 21 October 2023, at 00:17

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