Natural Colored Leicester Longwool History in the US
Leicester Longwools in the US and WV
Colonial Williamsburg imported five bred ewes bred to five different rams plus one live ram from the Island of Tasmania off the coast of Australia. The sheep went to Canada until release to Williamsburg.
In 1992 they started the first satellite program and three ewes and one ram came to Hopping Acres. My flock was working with the Meltonvale line from Ivan Hazelwood one of the top sheep judges in Australia. Over the next 10 years I worked hard and was very successful producing many leicester ewes and rams. After 3 years of the satellite program at Williamsburg it was decided they no longer would continue the satellite program and started selling sheep also at Williamsburg. Numbers were increasing , the breed association was established and to the date of this year we are close to having 500 leicester longwool sheep registered in the USA. :-) A great accomplishment.
Myself being a natural color sheep fanatic , I wanted colored leicesters. We already knew that my flock of Longwools would produce color because when breeding my original white ram to my black Romney's I was getting 50% color. Phil Sponenberg ,noted for his natural colored sheep genetics at VA Tech, also a breeder was like I and wanted natural color. The breeders decided we wanted to import again to increase our genetic pool. So Phil traveled to New Zealand to select flocks to , at that time, import sheep from. It was decided that importing live animals would be to great of an expense so we decided to import semen. Individual breeders bought new semen. Four white rams and 2 black rams were selected for collection. The colored semen came from the TOP natural colored leicester longwool breeder in NZ, Mrs. Elspeth Wilkinson. Semen was collected and imported to CA where it was being stored through the ALBC . Loosing most of the semen and a down tank is a whole other story.
May of 1999 I meet Mr. Martin Dally of Supersire LTD based in CA at the MD Sheep and Wool festival. He does laparoscopic AI in sheep. It was set up for the fall of 1999 to ai my sheep with my natural colored semen. Five ewes were done with 100% conception and lambed in 2000 with 4 sets of twins and 1 set of triplets. No black the first year . We had to wait 2 years to get the ewe lambs produced to lamb natural then they would be ready for ai. 2001 ai was preformed again giving another set of triplets and twins. Two of the previous ai daughters had lambed and were ready for their ai fall of 2001. To the delight and many happy tears January 23, 2002 the very first Natural Colored Leicester Longwool ram was born in the United States. Hopping Acres Martin had arrived . He came along with a white sister Elspeth. Two days later the other ewe went and delivered a set of twin black ram lambs. History was made in the great state of WV. Later that lambing through a natural breeding of white but black factored the first black ewe lamb was born. We skipped doing ai for lambing 2003 and used our new black rams. That year we had another 5 black ewe lambs and 1 more ram. Lambing 2004 brought 9 new black ewe lambs and 4 rams. At the present all the colored New Zealand semen has been used and we are awaiting importation of new colored semen from a different genetic pool from Australia through Supersire Ltd.
Has this been exciting? Beyond words!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The breed is wonderful, has it's bad times as with all sheep breeds, but worth every minute of your time. They require great management, remain fat on nothing, wonderful personalities, excellent fleece sought after by spinners and doll makers. Good mothers , usually. Produces great marketable wethers for the freezer lamb market. Very mild in flavor and after eating Leicester it is hard to compare some of the other breeds .
Raising a breed as rare as the Leicesters has been a challenge. One must remember that you can't keep everything, you must cull as with other sheep. When breeding with numbers so low , you can only keep the best, the very best . You can only sell the very best or we as human beings will destroy another breed and lose this breed forever
. It takes a special person, a true diehard sheep lover to work on projects like this. Thank God , we've had some of those in the beginning of this Leicester project. Because of the dedication, we are about to achieve our 500 Leicester Longwools in the USA. No patting on the back but we all deserve a round of applause.Being white or natural color , Leicesters are a great flock of sheep to add to any farm.
For more information you may contact our Breed Association and request a breeders pack.
Leicester Longwool Sheep Breeders Assn:
www.leicesterlongwool.org
I hope the above information will help all those on the list with interest in Leicester Longwools.