Teeswater sheep
The Teeswater sheep is one of ten old British long-wool sheep breeds. It was breedingly developed in the Teesdale district , one of the Yorkshire Dales . The breed is known for its long wool as well as its great fertility.
The Rare Breeds Survival Trust now lists the Teeswater as a potentially critically endangered breed.
features
Teeswater sheep are large framed, hornless sheep with pronounced legs. Bucks can weigh up to 120 kilograms, while females can weigh up to 90 kilograms.
The most striking feature is the long, light-colored wool that falls in strands twisted like a corkscrew and falls in individual strands over the unwilling face. It must not have any dark wool fibers and must be of consistent quality all over the body. The pile length of the wool is 20 to 30 centimeters with a fiber fineness of 32 to 36 micrometers (human hair measures an average of 30 micrometers in comparison). The fleece weighs between four and eight kilograms. The wool is particularly popular for traditional hand spinning.
Teeswater sheep are extremely fertile. Ewes usually give birth to twins.
Breeding history
It is very likely that the breed goes back to sheep imports from Italy during the Roman period. For this thesis there is only an indication that all regions of Great Britain, in which traditionally long wool sheep were bred, were also centers of Roman sheep wool production. The British Isles had a long tradition of sheep farming even before the Roman occupation, but this was limited to subsistence sheep farming. In contrast, in the Roman Empire there was already since the 2nd century BC. A targeted sheep breeding, in which hornless and white-faced sheep were bred, especially in Apulia. In Great Britain, various regional breeds developed from these imports, such as the Lincoln sheep in addition to the tea sweater . The teesweater sheep was also white-faced until the 1950s. Since then, however, brown spots of color have also been tolerated on the face.
The Scottish agronomist David Low wrote of the Teeswater sheep in 1839 as one of the most notable British domestic sheep. With their coarse heads and long limbs, they were considered a not very handsome breed of sheep. Philip Walling believes that Teeswater sheep were among the largest and heaviest in Britain during the 18th century. The weight of a particularly heavy specimen slaughtered in Stockton-on-Tees at Christmas 1779 was 40 stones , around 250 kilograms and thus about as heavy as a Shetland pony . They were demanding in their posture. Unlike most sheep breeds, they required excellent grazing conditions and had to be fed with hay and grain in the winter. The sheep were not fully grown until they were three or four years old. The bucks, however, were used to mate with more frugal highland sheep because this cross produced sheep with good meat and wool quality. Due to this characteristic, the Teeswater sheep was bred by a few farmers in the first half of the 20th century and thus saved from extinction as a breed. The breeding association was founded in 1949.
Teeswater and Wensleydale
The British Wensleydale sheep breed is a cross between the Dishley Leicester sheep, developed by Robert Bakewell , with Teeswater sheep. The progenitor of all Wensleydales is the ram "Bluecap", one of the descendants from this cross, which was born in the spring of 1839. Its owner refused to sell the buck, which weighed 203 kilograms and was very good at covering. However, other farmers could have their sheep covered by this buck.
literature
- Philip Walling: Counting Sheep - A Celebration of the Pastoral Heritage of Britain . Profile Books, London 2014, ISBN 978-1-84765-803-6 .
Web links
- Rare Breeds Survival Trust across the Teeswater
- British Teeswater Sheep Breeding Association website
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Rare Breeds Survival Trust about the Teeswater ( Memento of the original from February 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed February 22, 2016
- ↑ a b c d e f Teeswater Sheep Breeding Association website , accessed February 22, 2016
- ↑ Philip Walling: Counting Sheep . P. 24.
- ↑ Philip Walling: Counting Sheep . P. 25.
- ↑ Philip Walling: Counting Sheep . P. 115
- ↑ Philip Walling: Counting Sheep . P. 116.
- ↑ Philip Walling: Counting Sheep . P. 117.
